16 & Pregnant Finale Recap: Bittersweet Birth

Last night was the season finale of 16 & Pregnant.  We are introduced to Kristina Robinson who lives in Dewberry, Texas with her mother, grandmother, brother, and sister.  She is very close to her Aunt Dotty, and spends lots of time at her house with her husband Daniel (that would be Uncle Daniel, correct?) and their three kids (so her cousins…funny how they don’t phrase it like that).  It was at Dotty and Daniel’s that she met her boyfriend Todd…who is the younger brother of Daniel…aka her uncle.

The pair started dating a year ago, and things moved very quickly.  Around prom time of junior year, Todd proposed, and Kristina accepted.  That summer the pair was at the beach vacationing with Kristina’s family.  While swimming in the ocean, the couple got caught in a riptide.  Kristina was rescued by a lifeguard, but Todd drowned.  This is tragic!  Apparently, Kristina was about three months pregnant with his baby when he passed away.  She has since moved in full time with Dotty and Daniel as she feels they can better to relate to what she’s experiencing with the loss of Todd.

Daniel urges Kristina to include her mother in the pregnancy because she’s feeling left out, but Kristina has a hard time being around her mother who is constantly distraught over the accident.  Kristina is the only one in the family who doesn’t need a constant stream of subtitles.  Her mother really wants her to move home, but she wants to stay with her aunt and uncle.

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Kristina is supposed to start her senior year in a few weeks, but she’s contemplating dropping out in light of everything that has happened this summer.  It makes Kristina feel good to remember Todd, but she hates when people want to talk about how she’s handling Todd’s death.  Todd’s mother comes over and tearfully explains that she’s worried that if Kristina keeps her emotions pent up she’s going to have complications with her pregnancy.  Kristina can’t bring herself to talk about the day he died because it makes her question why she survived.

Dotty and Kristina are planning her baby shower, but first Kristina must go with her mother to the community college to look into getting her GED.  They are given a tour by some very peppy student volunteers who want to know what extracurricular activities Kristina may want to do.  The pep subsides when one of the students asks about Kristina’s boyfriend.  Her mother breaks down explaining what happened to Todd.

Daniel keeps Kristina company as she addresses shower invitations, and the two reminisce about Todd.  Her mom continues to call, but Kristina just can’t handle how emotional she is.  Daniel encourages her to let her mother participate in the shower.  When Kristina finally answers her mom’s phone call, her mother is in tears because she feels like she’s been left out of the shower planning.  When Kristina reminds her mother that she’s making the cake, her mother cries that she doesn’t want something to go wrong with the shower like something went very wrong on vacation.  WHAT?

I truly understand that everyone grieves differently, but I don’t think Kristina needs to be comforting her mother at every turn when she just lost her fiancée and the father of her unborn child.  It makes me wonder if Kristina was cast for this season before or after Todd’s death. If she was chosen before and decided to continue with filming in light of the tragedy, perhaps that wasn’t the best decision for her mother.

At thirty weeks, Kristina goes into early labor.  He explains that the baby is growth restricted and there isn’t enough fluid in her womb.  Delivering this early is very scary considering how tiny the baby will be.  The doctors are trying to cease her labor.  Medication is able is end her contractions, but Kristina must stay in the hospital until her due date, which is two months away.  The baby weighs less than three pounds.

After a week in the hospital, Kristina finally breaks down over Todd’s death.  I feel so guilty watching such a personal and heartbreaking moment caught on camera.  A few days later, Kristina’s friends come to cheer her up…and one of them seems to have own child.  They fix her hair and do her make-up, and they’ve brought a dress for her to wear.  They wheel her down the hall to a surprise baby shower that seems to improve her mood.

With six weeks to go, the doctor determines that the baby is big enough, so Kristina is taken off the medicine which controls labor.  She is being prepped for a c-section.  Kristina’s mother breaks down when Kristina announces she’ll be in the operating room alone, and Dotty convinces her to allow her mother to stay with her during the surgery.  Her mother introduces baby Lukas Todd to Daniel and Dotty before he goes to the NICU.  The family has bittersweet conversations about how Todd would feel if he was still with them.

Kristina spends over a month in the hospital before she is released, but Lukas must remain in intensive care until he develops more.  Kristina is heartbroken, and I can’t help but wonder how they are going to pay these hospital bills.  Does MTV pay them?  I can’t even fathom how much it cost for her to be there for so long.  Leave it to MTV to leave the most tragic for last.

Back at home, Kristina’s cousins relish at the sight of her scar.  Her mother stops by, and Kristina can’t seem to do anything but mourn Todd…and it seems that it’s long overdue.  She is devastated that her fiancée is gone and she had to return home from the hospital without their son.  Kristina visits Lukas every day, and she is finally able to bring him home after three weeks.  He is so tiny and precious.

Dotty instructs Kristina as to how to bathe Lukas (thankfully), and she’s exhausted but adjusting to his first night home.  She turns down offers from friends and family to help because she wants to be by herself.  After a month of motherhood, Kristina admits to Dotty that it’s very hard to see so much of Todd in Lukas.  Dotty takes her to see at therapist.  Kristina is worried that she’s suppressed her feelings for so long, once she lets them out they may not stop.  She tells her therapist her feelings of appearing weak.

Kristina realizes that she needs to remember and talk about Todd.  The first step is meeting with Todd’s mom, who is wearing a t-shirt with him on it.  Todd’s mom loves talking about her favorite memories of her son with Kristina, and Kristina seems to be opening up a bit.  She realizes she has a great support system with all her of family, and she’s ready to go back to school, as that is what Todd wanted for her.

Next week on the Life After Labor special with Dr. Drew, the girls of season four don’t seem to have gotten much smarter.  No birth control?  What??

TELL US–THOUGHTS ON LAST NIGHT’S EPISODE?  HOW DO YOU THINK KRISTINA WILL COPE WITHOUT TODD IN THE FUTURE?

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