Papoose- the official nickname

When Elizabeth first came home, we used to wrap her up nice and tight. She loved it. If ever she was crying we would bundle her up and she would stop. I though that papoose was the word that Native American's use to describe the tight wrapping of the baby. I started calling her papoose because she liked to be all wrapped up. One night Zach asked me why I called her papoose. I told him why and we started wondering how it was spelled. Zach got out the dictionary. Low and behold, to both of our surprise, papoose is a Native American baby! We thought it was sort of cute because Carla is our baby, and papoose can be our Native baby. Besides, I am Native American- Mayan, from the Pipil tribe. A couple times I called her papoosinga, I don't know why, just something to add on the end I guess. The funny thing is that now Carla only calls papoose, papoosinga. Sooo cute how she says it too! Adorable. So Elizabeth's nickname is Papoose or Papoosinga or sometimes just Inga.

Coming home

Dr. Young came to see her before we went home and I got a picture of them together. The man who got her out, and kept me safe during the pregnancy. Thank you Dr. Young for all you did.
Before we were able to leave, they checked her bilirubin levels, which of course were not where they needed to be. So they put her under the lights. Poor baby. She didn't mind it though. She was in heaven because it was nice and warm underneath the light. I took her in every other day to have her levels checked for the levels to stabilize. Luckily I only had to do this for a week. Poor baby getting poked on her little foot.
Anyways, then we were able to get ready to go home. I got her dressed and we were off. When we got home, my parents were waiting for us. It was so sweet of them. I love them so much, they are always there when we need them. Oh yeah, and they took me flowers, Gerber Daises, my favorite, in the hospital. We put her in her bassinet to sleep. That didn't last long though. She wanted to be snuggled and cuddled. She was an amazing sleeper though! She slept for 5 hours straight, then woke up to eat. Good girl!

The sisters meet.

The next day Carla came over to meet Papoose. She didn't meet her when she was born because she was already sleeping. She came over and even wore her "Big Sister" shirt. It was adorable. As soon as she saw Elizabeth she was in love with her. She wanted to hold her, which she did so nicely with daddy's help. She loved on her and even gave her kisses. So sweet! And we also took our first family photo.

Papoose's first bath...

Zach was able to give the baby her first bath. We bathed her the next day. It was nice to see him so involved in the care of our new baby.

The long birth story...

It was September 9th, about 10am. I was going in for a routine Non-Stress Test at the doctor's office. The NST went well, then he examined me and found that instead of my body progressing and getting ready for the baby to come, it was going backwards. My cervix closed, my uterus went from ripe, to unripe. It was not a good thing. The doctor came in and said that it was time for a heart to heart.
Oh yeah, the night before, I had Zach give me a blessing. It said that I needed to pay close attention to what the doctor said, and that he is a very inspired doctor. That I needed to follow his counsel, and that Elizabeth would arrive healthy and strong.
Back to the heart to heart. He said that the longer I waited, the more at risk I was putting myself and the baby. That many things could go wrong, and that my body wasn't acting like it was going to go into labor any time soon. He said that I really needed to evaluate how important a VBAC was to me, and that I should consider having the c-section. I asked him when the c-section would take place. To my complete shock, he said, "tonight, or tomorrow morning." I called Zach, we said a prayer and I felt peace. I knew that we should do the c-section. I started crying, partially because of disappointment that I wouldn't be able to ever know what labor was like, fear of labor and the recovery, and anxious that I only had a couple of hours to get ready for the baby. I went back with the doctor and told him that night would work for the c-section. He told me to be happy, that in the matter of hours I would be holding our little bundle of joy in my arms, and that some women like having c-sections (even though I know that he isn't a huge fan of them unless they are truly needed). The nurses also tried to comfort me, and get me excited. They gave me a tentative time of 6 pm and I left.
Everyone was alerted, my mom and I went to buy last minute things. We went to Motherhood Maternity to buy some nursing bras, when I got a call from the hospital. They said that they had no rooms left and if I could come in the morning at 5:30. I said that would be fine. So my mom and I got some food. I then alerted everyone again. We went home, and as I got the bag ready, I began to get more and more excited. The plan was that my mom would come to the house at 5am and watch on Carla since the actual c-section wasn't until 7am, and then she would bring her to the hospital.
That night I started spotting. I called the hospital, they said that it was probably due to the doctor's exam that morning. I brushed it off. Zach went to sleep about 11 or midnight, and I stayed awake for a while and finally fell asleep at 2:00 am on the couch. About an hour later, I woke up in sheer pain. After about 5 minutes, I was able to get to the bathroom and started gushing blood. I yelled for Zach but he didn't hear me, instead, Carla woke up. Our bedroom door was open and Carla's was closed, go figure. I finally was able to get up, and go to the bedroom and yell at Zach that I was gushing blood. That got him up quick! I was in sheer pain. I was having contractions that were lasting about 90 sec, and then they would stop for 30 sec, and another one would start up again. It was so intense. Zach reminded me to go to my happy place and to breath through my contractions. I did, and the difference was amazing. It was so much better. I was able to walk and talk. Zach called Lacey, who came over to watch on Carla until my mom came at 5am. We got to the hospital at 3:30, and they admitted me immediately. They checked me and I was dilated to a 3! I dilated 3 cm in half an hour. Two hours later I had dilated another 2 cm. At 6am they gave me the epidural and the contractions slowed down. The doctor came in at 7 and decided break my water in hopes that it would start the contractions again. When the doctor did that, they noticed that the water was filled with miconium. They started a flush and put in a monitor inside me to measure the contractions. Yup, there they were. Getting stronger and stronger, and closer and closer together. I was still dilating 2 cm every 2 hours. Talk about intense. The doctor came in at 3pm and asked me why I was still pregnant, I asked him the same question. It was quite funny. The contractions continued and with every contraction I was to push to try to get the baby to drop because she was still really high. But it was to no avail. Finally at 8 pm the doctor sent everyone out of the room and had me push. She was hardly dropping with every push. My incision was starting to hurt and after about 10-15 min, the doctor had me stop pushing and we had another heart to heart. He said the baby just wasn't coming and that it would take at least 3 good hours of constant pushing for her to come.
' 'n ;/n '/- From Carla...
That was a bad idea because my incision was already starting to hurt and I could rupture. So, Zach and I decided it was time to let go of my dream VBAC. I cried and cried and cried. But at the same time, I felt peace. They finished preping me for surgery and Zach got ready also. They wheeled me back to the O.R. I started shaking uncontrollably and got really cold. They said it was because the block in my back was blocking the pain from the contractions in the lower back which moved all of the pain to the top part of my body. It was horrible. I was crying because I was scared that I was going to hyperventilate or have a seizure. Luckily Zach was there holding my hand telling me that everything was going to be fine. The cutting took about a half an hour, and at 8:40 pm my little papoose (Elizabeth's nickname) came out. The amazing thing was that the anesthesiologist picked up my head so that I could see her coming out. It was beautiful. She looked like a strange goopy alien, but it didn't matter to me. I loved her with all my heart just the same. We weren't able to hold her right away because she had to go to the respiratory therapist because of the meconium. We were however right next to her and were able to see her the whole time. After taking her APGAR and suctioning her out Zach got to hold her. While they finished sewing me up, which took FOREVER- at least it felt like it, Zach took the baby to meet her grandparents who where outside the O.R. waiting. When I was finally done, they wheeled me back to my room and there was Zach with my alien. He gave her to me and said that he hadn't let anyone hold her because I needed to hold her first. He gave her to me, and I just held her and held her. I was shaking still, they said it would last a couple of hours, which it did, but then I was fine. We spent the night just loving on her, and recuperating.