2011 - a year in review

It has been a very busy year+ and I have been neglecting my blog but I think it's time to start again!! So, here is a recap (this might get long) ;)

February 2011 - Tom leaves on his 12 month deployment to Afghanistan and I am pregnant with our first baby.

March 2011 - Getting used to Tom being gone and just trudging through the day to day waiting for baby Lukas to arrive. We are so lucky to have such awesome friends in our military communities! I had 2 super fun baby showers in Germany :)

April 2011 - Maternity Leave begins from my job at the bank. I am so very lucky to be employed by a company that follows German Labor Law - I get 6 weeks of paid leave before the baby is born, 8 weeks of paid leave after the baby is born plus a bonus baby gift, and then I can remain employed with the company and receive my twice annual bonuses for 3 years on parental leave!! (I am writing this blog post in August of 2012 and I am still employed by Community Bank) :)

 I packed my bags (and Macy's bags) and left for Calfornia in April, that was a rough flight being 34 weeks pregnant and lugging Macy all over the airport in her carrier, gah! I should have put her on a diet! We all three arrived safely and made our home away from home at mom and dad's house in Sacramento where we waited for Lukas to make his grand debut! :) Pics below are from the maternity photo shoot with Erin Noel Photography in Sacramento - she is wonderful, I highly recommend her :)

May 2011 - Spent the month of May preparing for baby, visiting friends, keeping in touch with Tom, finished up my last Master's class before baby's arrival, pretty much just living the good life! We are truly are lucky to have such great friends and family, I had 2 more baby showers at home in California!

My mom had surgery to remove her thyroid - it was a difficult decision but I was so glad that everything turned out well and I was there to help with recovery! We traded off weeks in the hospital because when I delivered Lukas it was her turn to take care of me! :)

My good friend Tracy delivered her adorable baby girl Gwyneth and I got to meet her!!!

June 2011 - My due date arrives June 1st!!!!! And goes whizzing by . . . We still go on our daily walks with the dogs on the levy and patiently wait for Lukas to be ready! I talk to Tom daily and give him updates. Every once in a while I don't get to talk to him for a day or so, so I'm not surprised when I don't talk to him on June 5th. But then I saw that he was in Kuwait and knew that meant he was on his way home!!!! June 6th around 6am my water breaks!! I take my time, make the bed, brush my teeth and hair, grab some breakfast and my mom and I head on over to Sutter Memorial Hospital. :) I go up to Labor and Delivery alone while my mom parks the car. They check me in and take me to triage to be checked (I don't think they believed me, being a first time mom and all). The nurse checked us and admitted me! This was it!! I left Tom messages but knew that he might not see them right away. This about sums up Tom's journey from Afghanistan to CA that day:

 

Tom made it to TX and did not know that I was in labor yet! He finally saw our messages and was able to call Michelle. Shelly went to the airport to pick him up around 9pm. At that point I had been laboring all day and was pretty tired. When Tom came practically running through the door in his dusty uniform I was soooo excited to see him!!! He was going to get to see his son be born!! Shortly after Tom arrived it was finally time to push . . . and push and push and push, and 3 hours later at 01:51am on June 7th baby Lukas John Holmes came into the world! He weighed 7lbs 7oz and was 19.5 inches long, a precious little bundle of awesome!! We are so blessed, not only was Tom able to make it home just in the nick of time, but I was able to have the natural (un-medicated) birth experience that I wanted, Lukas and I were both healthy, and we were all very very happy (albeit exhausted) at that moment :)





At this time I am going to opt to take a short break and split the posts so that it doesn't get too long ;) Be back soon (I promise!)