Gianna Pictures

Gianna and Daddy

Gianna on the billirubin blanket - we called her our little glow worm

This is a picture of my sisters feet compared to mine. I am experiencing a bit of post delivery swelling.

"Sausage Feet"

Gianna and I doing Kangaroo Care in the NICU. It is the best part of my day. We get to snuggle skin to skin for a couple of hours.

Gianna is set to come home on Tuesday - we are so excited. I will write details of the delivery and why she has been in the NICU when I have more time. Thanks for all your sweet comments.

GIANNA JOY FELICCIA

Gianna was born on Tuesday 9-16-08 at 9:24 am weighing in at 7lbs 60z 20inches. I will write more details later but it has been a long road. She is in the NICU until tuesday and then we finally get to take her home. I cannot wait and am already so in love with her. Details will follow but she is going to be fine. Here is a picture to hold you all over.

Sticky Legs~Pulled Over ~ & 38 weeks

Random Writings:
1. I am at a place in my pregnancy where I can only really sleep on my side. I am a die hard back sleeper and sometimes I wake up on my back but find that when trying to go to sleep it makes it super hard to breath. The problem with sleeping on my side is that my legs are always touching each other and sticking together. It is not only irritating but kind of hurts. So I have been applying large amounts of baby powder to my legs at night before I go to sleep which pretty much solves the problem.

2. I don't think Mr. F would want me to blog about this but whatever! I will delete it later- So yesterday I was running a bit late for my dentist appointment and I did a California rolling stop in our neighborhood. You know those stop signs that are super lame and you are always the only person there. Well, to my surprise two motor cops were there waiting for someone like me to come by. I saw them and just went ahead and pulled over. The officer came to my window and asked for my license. I said, "umm my husband told me to tell you that he is a deputy" he replied with "Who is your husband?" It told him his name and he said, ”Oh and then called Mr. F by a nice nickname" and then gave me my license back.

So I just got out of my 1st ticket ~ believe it or not I have not been pulled over in 12 years! Thank God for Mr. F's profession because I think running a stop sign is like a $250 fine.

Current 38 week status: I went to bed with really bad indigestion and woke up with some nasty braxton hicks contractions. They are still here but have subsided a bit. I am hoping to stop working after this week and start my disability insurance. I am in really good spirits though and feel so excited to meet our little girl.

Update

So it's been a while since I last blogged. No big news here still pregnant but I am officially 37 weeks today. 21 days to go (or so I hope it's only 21 more days)! I have been busy trying to get things ready for the arrival of my baby girl. Over the weekend I had a lot of intense braxton hicks that were really painful. Plus my back has started hurting. For those of you who do not know about 15 months ago while training for a 1/2 iron man my back go so bad that I could barely walk. After trying what seemed like everything and dishing out a lot of money God brought me to Dr. Shores. He is the chiropractor that gave me my life back. He technique is not traditional in any way and I really believe that God has given him the gift of healing. After seeing him for a couple of months my back pain was completely gone. I have lived with chronic back pain for over 10 years and thought most other people did also. I have seen him weekly during my pregnancy and until last week things have been great. I really feel like it is a miracle that I have made it this far into the pregnancy pain free and can totally handle the pain for this last month.

One thing I have really been stuggling with lately is how little I see my husband (Mr.F). He has been working a lot and when you work graveyard it really messes things up. So for example he started work yesterday which means I saw him this morning for about 10 minutes and will not see him again until tomorrow morning. Each day he works graveyard we see each other for only 5-10 minutes and during those few minutes I am rushing to get ready for work. So when he works Wed-Sat I don't get to sit and talk with him until Sunday around 2:00. All this to say dealing with all these braxton hicks, back pains and emotions has not been fun and doing it on my own with our Mr. F has been bumming. I will adjust but because Mr. F's job is new getting used to him working 12.5 hour graveyard shifts will take some time.

The good news of this weekend is that my amazing parents came over on Monday and spent 5+ hours helping me get everything ready and organized for the arrival of our little bambina. I feel so much more peaceful now that things are all in order.

One funny story to finish off my ramblings...my sister just called and said Zachary (20 months) just put up the toilet seat like dad does and tried to sit on it. He fell in and was yelling MOMMA, MOMMA! He is showing the signs of getting ready to potty train!!!

FEAR

My mom and I were talking last week and something really funny came up. She was saying how when she was little she had a huge fear of the communist. Today that has transferred over to her not liking any type of scary movies or TV shows. Well, I then proceeded to tell her that I grew up with a fear of the democrats. My parents were Republicans (although it's not like there were involved in politics) and so I thought the democrats were the same thing as the communist. I can remember thinking that I was so glad we had President Regan in office because if we ever had a Democrat as a president we would all be in concentration camps and so on. Oh how little I knew then...

Fun Times at the River

This week we went with our good friends Jeff and Mickey to the Colorado River. We stayed in an air conditioned trailer and spent two entire days floating, eating, wake boarding (well of course I did not wake board), laughing and being lazy. It was so great! My husband and I have really needed some downtime and this trip was truly a gift from God.

We put on life jackets and floated down the river while Jeff and Mickey followed us in the boat. Yes, that is me in the hat.

Nice googles!

The fisherman looking for an innocent fish to spear. Jeff and my husband (I hate not being able to write his name) used Mickey's (jeff's wife) purple goggles and found some fish swimming around. They returned to their young boyhood years and decided to make a spear and a bow and arrow in an attemp to catch a fish. Finally at the end of the day Jeff speared this little blue gill. He was just about to pull it off and take a bite of it but it jumped out of his hand. Yes, he really would have taken a bite of it!

Heading home after a nice day on the river. So where are pictures of Mickey and I??? Ya, we kind of forgot to take pics because we were having so much fun laughing at the guys. Oh well, we did take some great video though. And now back to work but at least it's a short week!!!

Baby Shower #2

I had my second baby shower over the weekend. It was hosted by my mom, my sister Sara and my California sister Dianne. It was so much fun. I don't love playing shower games so my mom did a great job of picking out games that were interactive and fun but where everyone could feel comfortable. Here were played choose the candy bar that best describes a certain phrase.

Candy Board

This is a picture of all the girls who got 100% of the answers correct. I think my sister may have given everyone too much time but it was fun to have so many winners.

Each of the winners got to pick a candy bar as a prize.

These are my pregnant friends who could make it to the shower. Chelsea, Annie, Me, Hannah, and Sara.

Sara and Julie baby bellies

Mickey, Kristin, Me and Becky

Me and My Mother-in-law Nina

Beth, Me and Sara

Kory, Me, Kim and Kayla (I grew up babysitting these girls)

My sisters Sally, Me, Sara and Dianne

All the fun stuffed animals

Me and Katrina

Hannah gave me a bunch of great baby and parenting books

Sara, Mom and I

Before we played games everyone sat outside and enjoyed a tasty brunch

These were the take home gifts for everyone and the pink m&m's all went to help breast cancer research.

Thank you to my family for putting on such a special shower for me. Thank you also to everyone who came to participate and shower me with love and fabulous gifts. I honestly had such a good time and I felt very loved. I am incredibly greatful for the friends God has given me.