Our Hospital Stay

While we were in the hospital, we had lots of visitors come see us. It was nice to have support from our friends and family. Heather was actually the first person to get to the hospital. She got there right in the middle of when I was pushing. I heard her outside the room asking for me and the nurse came in and said, "Your sister is here, can she come in?" My response was, "NO." lol. I don't think Heather knew I was in the middle of delivering the baby..lol. So she waited a couple hours before coming in. Later, Antioni came. They were so happy and excited to see Cante. Later that night, Crystal and Hina came. Crystal was holding her and said that her baby was kicking inside of her. Lol. We were saying that they were probablly friends in the premortal life. On Friday, Abe and Amber came to visit with their two kids. They brought us a huge box of diapers which have come in handy. Later that day, Marei, Leatha, Jaya, and Raja came to see us. The kids were so happy to see the baby! Then later that night, Spencer came with Crystal and Hina. They brought pizza for us.

The nurses were so nice and helpful. Its crazy what things they are willing to do for their patients. I really enjoyed the meals while at the hospital. Marlin usually fed them to me because they always seemed to come while I was feeding Cante. Marlin especially enjoyed the endless treats in the father's room.



Cante sleeps like her mom! Mouth wide open.

 The first night at the hospital, I decided to have Cante stay with us in our room. I didn't want her to leave my sight! However, I later realized that it wasn't the best idea for her to stay with us. I could NOT sleep! Every little movement she made woke me up. I seriously had to check on her like every 5 minutes to make sure she was still safe and breathing! lol. After that went on for a few hours, I decided to send her to the nursery. After that, I was able to get some sleep.


We got to take Cante home on Saturday morning. She was actually nameless until like 30 minutes before we left the hospital! Marlin and I were trying to decide between two names and were really indecisive about it. I was leaning more towards Cante and he was leaning more towards the other name..but we liked both names. We were just going back and forth. Then about 30 minutes before it was time for us to leave the hospital, our nurse came in and talking to the baby said, "Hi you nameless little sweet heart!" Marlin wasn't in the room to hear her, but right when she said that, I just laughed and thought...maybe thats a sign..lol. So I told Marlin about it and then made the executive decision to name her Cante Skuya Kingi. The name is Lakota; Cante means heart and Skuya means sweet so the translation is Sweet Heart. And thats exactly what she is, a little sweet heart :)

When we got home from the hospital, Heather had cleaned our whole apartment! It was so nice to come home to a spotless apartment! She also put a sign on our window that said "Its a girl," and tied balloons on our porch. With the baby, and all of our hospital bags, papers, etc it was hard to keep it as clean as she left it, but we appreciated what she had done for us! Shortly after we got home, Becky brought us some lunch from Costa Vida. Later that night, Heather and Antioni came over to visit and Brother Lloyd brought us some pizza to eat :)

Marlin and I were happy to finally be at home with our little family :)

Baby Shower #3

I have the best ward! The Young Women are so sweet! A few weeks after I had Cante, they decided to have a baby shower for me as our mutual activity. Thank you to Tagan and Jacinda for planning all of the fun games! For our first game, the girls wrote Cante's full name on the board. The object of the game was to see who could make the most words using the letters in her name.

The second game was the baby picture game. The girls brought in baby pictures and we had to guess who they were. This was like the hardest game ever! All the babies had dark hair, dark skin, and dark eyes. I did not do well on that game...lol.

 Then we played a game where we passed baby food around, and we had to guess what the flavor was. I did okay on this game with the help of my mom. I only smelled the baby food, she actually tasted it. Then we played the game where you smash up candy bars and put them in diapers. We had to smell the diapers and try to guess what candy bar was in there.

 

Next, the girls had a pacifer spitting contest. We all went into the foyer and the girls competed to see who could spit the pacifer the farthest. The last game we played was baby jeopardy. Our team won:) After all the games, I opened presents and we ate treats. We had such a good time:) Thank you Franklin 2nd ward Young Women! You guys are the best! Thanks Cante, Mom, Heather, and Maioha for coming too.

 

Labor and Delivery

I started having contractions on Wednesday night around 6 pm. I wasn't sure if they were contractions or not so I called my sister-in-law, Leatha, and asked her if what I was feeling were contractions. I asked...do they kind of feel like gas pains?? lol. She said that they do and were probablly contractions. Marlin came home around 8 and we started timing my contractions but they were really inconsistent. On average they were about 8 minutes apart. So we decided to wait until they were 5 minutes apart. Around 11:45 pm my contractions were getting stronger and stronger. They were still really inconsistent though. One time they were like 2 minutes apart and the next they were 5 and the next they were 8. Marlin and I were debating whether or not we should go into the hospital. Marlin told me we should wait..so we got ready for bed..read our scriptures..said our prayers..Marlin was all tucked in bed and almost asleep...then I couldn't take it any more. I told Marlin we needed to go in. He got kinda mad at me..and said, "They're just going to turn you back,"but at that point..I didn't care if he was mad or not. We checked in to the hospital around 12 am. I was so nervous! I started shivering as soon as I got into the hospital. (thats what I do when I'm nervous). A nurse took us into our room and hooked me up to a monitor where they could see my contractions and the baby's heartbeat. They found out that my blood pressure was high and so they had to draw blood to do a few labs. The only problem was, my body was swollen and so it was hard for the nurse to find a vein to draw blood from. She probablly tried 7 or 8 different places to draw blood! Finally, she called another nurse to come and do it and the other nurse was able to draw my blood on her first try! After about 2 hours of waiting in the room, the nurse checked me and said that I was dialated to 2 cm. At that point, the nurse asked me if I was planning to get an epidural..my response was YES! She said that we would have to wait a little longer to see if I had dialated more in order to get the epidural. So we waited for about 45 minutes and I had dialated about 1/2 a cm so I got the O.K. to get the epidural. The nurse and Marlin helped me walk down the long hall to our room to get the epidural. At that point, I had been poked so many times by needles, that I wasn't afraid for the first epidural needle. I was just ready for the pain to leave. I got the epidural around 3 am and could not feel a single pain~! Marlin and I slept in the room while we waited for me to dialate. The nurse came in and checked me again and said that I wasn't dialating. Around 6 am, the nurse came in a gave me potosin to help me dialate. I tried to sleep from 3 am to 6 but I was so anxious, excited, and nervous. Around 8 am the nurse came in and said I had dialiated more ( can't remember what to). The doctor came in and broke my water. When he broke my water, the baby's heart beat started becoming really irregular. The nurses got really scared and were preparing for a c-section. They gave me an air mask, put water back inside of me and had me lay on my side. They also put a monitor on the baby's head to better track her heart rate. I had to take really deep breaths and stay as calm as I could. After a few minutes, the baby's heart beat went back to normal. What a relief! Finally around 8 45 ish, it was time to push. I pushed for about an hour before the baby actually came. We found out later, that her head was turned to the side, and because of that, she got stuck. The doctor had to use a vacuum to help get her out. Once she was out, she was perfectly fine and healthy. Marlin got to cut the umbilical cord and then the doctor laid her down to clean her up. I was so happy when I saw her! Marlin and I just looked at each other and smiled. We did it!!! Labor wasn't as bad as I thought...but I was so glad when it was over...and so excited to hold my baby girl! She was 8 lbs and 20 inches long. She was born at 9:42 a.m. on June 16, 2011.

                             

My Parents

 I just want to say how grateful I am for my parents. They came to visit for three weeks after I had the baby and were so helpful while they were here. My mom helped watch Cante, bought groceries, cooked, did the dishes, cleaned the bathroom, made my bed, did the laundry, changed diapers, vacuumed, dusted....and so much more. My dad helped watch the baby when I needed to shower, get ready, eat meals, etc. It was also really nice having them around while going shopping, to church, and to visit family. I cannot even express in words what it meant to me for them to be here to help Marlin and me. It was sad to see them go...and they were sad to leave Cante. ( I don't blame them). I am so grateful for my wonderful parents and all of the sacrifices they have made for me throughout my life. They have been such a positive influence on me. I wish there was a way for me to repay them for all the things they have done for me and my new family :) I hope that Marlin and I will be as good of parents as they are to me. I love you Mom and Dad!!