’16 & Pregnant’ — Meet Summer & D.J.
When we meet Summer on the May 12 episode of 16 & Pregnant, she is 32 weeks pregnant with a baby boy she plans on naming Peyton.
Summer lives in Collins, Georgia — if you could not tell from her super thick accent — and, surprisingly, she met her boyfriend D.J. online. He’s a bit of a country boy, with an accent just as thick as Summer’s, and he already has his GED and is studying to become a wielder.
Sadly, we learn about Summer’s difficult relationship with her mother early on. According to Summer, her mom struggles with addiction, so she is constantly in-and-out of her life. Because of this, Summer is very close with her three half-sisters, and she tends to try and look after them since she is the oldest. Interestingly enough, Summer mentions that her mom had all four of her children while she was a teenager. Summer says she planned on doing things differently than her mom, but now that she’s pregnant she is going to have to embrace it. Hopefully, going forward she makes better decisions than her mom did.
Now that Summer is just two months away from giving birth, she decides to move in with D.J. and his parents so that they can welcome their baby boy into a stable home.
Before Summer moves in, she and D.J. decide to paint the baby’s room blue — but they do a pretty terrible job. Summer informs us that D.J.’s dad works out of town all the way up in Virginia, and only comes home occasionally. It seems as though D.J.’s parents are very supportive of Summer and her baby, which is nice to see. Summer definitely needs a reliable support system, especially since her mother is flaky.
D.J.’s mom Frances makes Summer promise that once the baby is born and things settle down, she will go back to school and continue her education. Frances is more than willing to help raise D.J. and Summer’s baby so that they can complete their education. Hopefully, Summer keeps her promise.
Summer’s Mom Reclaims Sobriety
Summer meets with her mom, and they have a discussion about how she has been sober for three weeks. Summer’s mom has a problem with pills, but she knew that her daughter was upset with her for not staying clean. She tells Summer that she is trying to stay strong and stay clean so that she can be the mom that her daughter needs while she is having her baby. Summer looks skeptical, even as her mom makes new promises to her through tears.
I have to admit, I’m pretty skeptical about these promises, too.
Later in the episode, Summer spends quality time with her three half-sisters. During that time, she takes a moment to talk to them about how difficult being pregnant has been, and how it’s affected her life. Summer is really trying to instill in her sisters that they need to be careful not to make the same mistakes that she did, and she also encourages them to go on birth control if they are going to be sexually active.
It turns out that Summer got pregnant because she was not on birth control, and when her and D.J. ran out of condoms they were just too lazy to replace them. Now, she’s seven months pregnant with a baby. It would have taken a lot less energy if they had just gone out and bought a new box of condoms!
Things get emotional when Summer opens up about how she wants to be the “best kind of mama” she can be to her son, Peyton. While talking to her three sisters, she reminisces about the times their mom was always around and supportive. Then, when her pill-popping addiction kicked in, suddenly she was gone. Summer even admits that at one point she did not speak to their mother for over a year. The girls all get teary-eyed as they talk about how important having a mom is, and it further proves that Summer really knows what not to do as far as being a mom goes.
D.J. Ruins Summer’s Baby Shower
The next time Summer sees her mom, they have plans for a dinner date. It’s not until they are on their way there that Summer realizes her mom is high. During their whole drive to the restaurant, her mom is reaching over and trying to kiss Summer while she’s driving, and she is clearly slurring her words and having trouble finishing her sentences. Summer is so embarrassed by her mom being high, she starts to whisper while talking to her even though they are on camera.
Eventually Summer pulls over to call D.J. and tell him what’s going on, and he is immediately pissed that her mom did this to her. Summer decides to bring her mom home and skip dinner, and I don’t blame her. Summer was in tears as she explained the situation to D.J., and it was heartbreaking to watch.
The next morning, Summer’s mom text messages her to apologize and once again promises to never take another pill. Summer immediately tells D.J. that she doesn’t believe her mom, and she is concerned about letting her mom be around their baby. D.J. tells Summer he definitely does not want her mother around their son if she’s going to keep acting like this, and Summer agrees.
In happier news, D.J.’s family throws a baby shower for Summer so that she can stock up on things she desperately needs for her baby. Everything is blue-and-white themed, and Summer gets a ton of cute things for their baby boy — as well as lots of things she and D.J. will need for his arrival.
The fun comes to a quick end when D.J. announces that he is going to buy a pit bull from some random woman. His family immediately tells him it’s a bad idea, and he flips out and leaves the baby shower. Although Summer won’t tell him directly, she admits that she does not want D.J. spending money on a dog when they need so many things for their baby.
D.J. Brings Home The Pit Bull
Later, after the baby shower incident, Summer is putting together some of the baby furniture she received when D.J. brings home the pit bull puppy. Even though the puppy is absolutely adorable, the only person that is happy about it is D.J. After getting yet another lecture from his family, he still decides to keep the puppy. Summer is worried that if D.J. continues to upset his family while they are living there, they might get kicked out. Since it’s the only stable place they can live and raise their baby right now, I definitely understand why she is so concerned.
Before you know it, it’s go time! Summer calls D.J. into the bathroom to announce that her water broke, and he and his mom pack her up into the car and bring her to the hospital. Summer is in pain, but D.J. can’t stop talking about how excited he is, which is actually really cute to watch.
Once at the hospital, Summer realizes how badly she wishes her mom were there with her. Before it’s too late, Summer calls her mom and tells her that she is already dilated four centimeters and that she is scared — but also excited.
Soon after the phone call, Summer’s mom and aunt arrive at the hospital to be by her side through her birth. Unfortunately, the entire time they are sitting there talking to Summer they are telling her how painful and scary giving birth is going to be, and you can see that Summer is getting very anxious listening to them. Shouldn’t they be soothing her, not making her more nervous?
After twelve hours of being in labor, Summer loses it completely. She breaks down and admits that she is in too much pain and she is terrified to give birth. When she finally reaches ten centimeters, the doctors get her to start pushing the baby out. Finally the baby comes out, and everyone in the room starts crying tears of joy, including Summer and her mom.
Peyton Daniel is born October 28, 2013 and 7lbs and 8oz.
Peyton Faces Immediate Health Risks
Unfortunately, just a few hours later, little Peyton gets transported to a hospital in Savannah because the doctors notice that he is breathing too fast. The doctors release Summer from the hospital just one day after the baby is born so that she can rush to the hospital in Savannah to be with her newborn son. The nurse explains to Summer that their baby was breathing too fast, and that he may need surgery.
Soon enough, D.J. is packing up his truck and they are off to the hospital in Savannah to meet up with their little boy.
In intensive care they found that Peyton had a bacterial infection, and he was forced to stay at the hospital and receive antibiotics for a week. Thankfully, D.J. and Summer were able to borrow money from D.J.’s dad to stay in Savannah with Peyton while he was getting treated. Once the week was over, they were finally able to take their healthy and happy baby home for the first time.
Their first night home with Peyton does not go well at all. Peyton doesn’t seem to want to sleep, which means Summer and D.J. are up all night trying to soothe him. The young couple are sure getting their fill of baby drama, but they handle it like real troopers. They even take turns caring for Peyton, but he doesn’t fall asleep until after daylight.
Because of Peyton’s terrible sleeping habits, Summer is having trouble keeping up with her schoolwork. Summer decides that she will have to drop out of school and get her GED once things calm down with Peyton. That’s not the promise she made to D.J.’s mom, but at least she still has plans to continue her education when the time is right.
Summer Breaks A Promise
When Peyton is two weeks old, D.J.’s dad comes home to meet his grandson. While they are enjoying a family dinner together, Summer tells them that she is planning on getting her GED instead of her high school diploma. Both Frances and her husband are upset with Summer for not keeping her word, which was to be expected. Thankfully, the don’t kick her or the baby out, and hopefully she will at least follow through with her GED.
After dinner, Summer gets a phone call from one of her sisters that her mom has been arrested for writing bad checks and faces up to two years in prison. Summer seems upset, but ultimately decides not to go to her mom’s court hearing. A few days later, Summer goes out to lunch with her two cousins and tells them that she thinks her mom is crazy.
Fortunately for her mom, she does not get put in jail immediately after the hearing. Instead, she gets released until trial, so Summer decides to take Peyton to see her so she can spend time with her before she goes to jail. Summer hopes that Peyton won’t be too affected by her mom going to jail because he will be too young to remember that it happened. Summer’s mom admits that she is scared, and that being away from her grandson is going to drive her crazy.
At the end of the episode, Summer admits that she doesn’t understand how a parent could just give up on their child. Now that she has Peyton, she loves him too much to ever put anything else above him. Summer also admits that she wants to continue her education and make something of herself so that she and D.J. can give their son a better life than she had growing up.
Tell us, HollywoodLifers — What did you think about Summer and D.J.’s story? Do you think Summer will give Peyton a better life than she had? Let us know your thoughts below.
— Lauren Cox
Follow @Iaurencox
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