All things Funk: Happy 1st Birthday Gianna James

I realized that I have never shared Gia's birth story so what better day than today?!?! Lets go back a year and a few days. Gia was born on a Monday but we will skip that for now. The weekend before she was born we watched Abe for the weekend. We didn't see how this would be an issue because we watched him on June 4th & 5th and I was due June 17th!

Sunday came and we took Abe to church to be reunited with Ryan and Alyssa. That night as usual we had a Funk get together at Mom & Dad's. Now if you know me you know that I am all for these because normally I get fed dinner & don't have to worry about cooking. BUT this time I had no interest in going I told Dusty I just wanted to stay home because I was tired. I took a nap after church that went until probably 6:30 got up had a Ruby Tuesday's quesadilla (only a few bites) and then went back to bed. I remember just being so exhausted that all I wanted to do was sleep.

I had also been having contractions all day but this was normal for me, I start having them around 30 weeks & so I didn't think anything of it. That evening they were a little stronger but I still didn't think anything, Oliver was 9 days late so me going into labor 2 weeks early was out of the thought process.

That night I went to bed & woke up around 1:30 a.m. to a HORRIBLE contraction that lasted 5-10 min. it was so strange, it was just like a normal contraction except it didn't stop. After that I remember not being able to feel Gia moving for about an hour! At this point I was freaking out, my babies move when I am pregnant & they move A LOT! I finally felt her move & kept pushing & prodding at my belly until she did a lot. Eventually I went back to sleep.

I woke up in the morning & was still having some contractions, I had a doctors apt. already set up that day & up until that morning was just going to take Oliver with me. Well for some reason I decided that I wanted to go by myself so I called A. Diane and she said she could watch him for an hour or two while I went to my apt. and came and got him. Little did we know she would be keeping him for much longer!

I went in & Dr. Teaverbaugh said oh...I think you are going to have this baby today! I looked at her & I said No..and she repeated herself at which point I started bawling because I was NOT prepared for this. Because I was having a C-Section I decided to have her earlier than the due date & I had been debating waiting to have her till her due date, that is how much I was NOT ready for her! But I also wasn't ready in other ways either, I had a bag packed but nothing was in it that I wanted b/c I was still wearing it.

Anyways, she sent me to the other office to get a sono & non-stress test. They said my contractions weren't hard enough to be anything, according to the machines. Then the nurse practitioner felt one & said "is this how they all have been" and I said "yes" and at that point they sent me over to the hospital to rule out dehydration. After a few hours on that nothing changed. I was not dehydrated :0)

During one time lapse at the hospital my contractions had slowed down & the nurse came in and said just so you know we are going to monitor you for the next hour & the doc. will make the call then. See this was taking so long because legally they HAD to make sure I was in active labor because it was before 39 weeks. After the nurse left Gia got the clue & at this point I had contractions every minute to 3 minutes for the next 3 1/2 hrs until she was born. I got no medicine... :0(

The surgical team came in & prepped me & I got my Epidural, by the way I was at Proctor. At 8:46 she was born she weighed 6 lbs 0oz. and was 18in. (I think this was a misreading as she lengthened about 3 inches in 2 wks...)

Anyways she was born & rushed over to the table, I did not get to see her. I could barley see from where I was but I could tell things weren't okay. They kept saying she is fine, she is fine. I knew she wasn't because they weren't taking the oxygen thing off of her. Finally someone told me she had gotten fluid in her lungs but it would come out....It didn't.

That night I did not get to hold her & I didn't really get to see her either, only through pictures. It was DEVASTATING! The next day I got to go in there & visit her. She had IV's running everywhere, a feeding tube in her mouth & an oxygen thing over her head. It was sad...She eventually ripped the feeding tube out of her mouth & so she had to be fed through an IV, even more sad :0( She had to stay at the hospital an extra day for observation, we had threats of having to go to OSF's children's hospital but Gia pulled through! I remember they were debating taking her IV out and so Gia cleared up the confusion and just ripped it out..she was feisty even then!

Laboring

How I first saw her

Isaac took this picture. This was the second time I got to hold her, this was Wed. late at night. I wasn't supposed to hold her but the nurse felt bad for me so she let me. Thank you nurse & thank you Isaac for taking a picture that still makes me tear up in thankfulness!

I finally got to feed her!!! She was only allowed to have just a teeny tiny bit of food and so I remember the first time I fed her I watched it very carefully like she could have a 1/4 or 1/8 of that bottle. Well the next time I fed her I must have been distracted because she sucked down the WHOLE bottle and wanted more, ooopsss....to this day she still eats a TON! :0)