A Year in Review

Even though it isn't quite 2012, I figured I'd take the time to look back upon the past 12 months. Plus, I haven't update the blog in a while (ok, a few months) - but I've been a busy momma! So at any rate, here is the Kamas family in review:

January 2011
At this point, we were a couple of months into the pregnancy, and I was puking my guts out on a fairly regular basis. Gatorade, ginger ale, and crackers was what I was mainly living on, except at night, when I could usually stomach "regular" food. We rang in the new year with the Cejka's - me and Jessica asleep on her bed, and Thomas and Dusty drinking vodka and damaging walls. January 3 was Thomas and my seventh anniversary - and for once, we were both feeling well. OK, Thomas was feeling well, I was feeling, well, see above. Quite a start for 2011...

February 2011
Ah, February. Each February 14th comes with a politically incorrect card, flowers, and chocolate-covered strawberries, and 2/14/11 was no exception. I love predictability, and greatly look forward to seeing just how offensive of a card Thomas can find. Of course, February wasn't without additional craziness - I opened up SEEC in a flight suit (Thanks to Lauren for shooting most of the pictures above the waist - flight suits aren't really flattering on a non-pregnant person so I was screwed) to kick-off our reduced gravity opportunity. It was also the week of the "ice storm that wasn't". There may have been ice on the bridges in downtown Houston, but definitely not where I was, but no complaints. I'll take a free "snow day". February also saw the departure of a beloved member of the Kamas household, Got Milk. That was rough - she was my fuzzball that always slept in bed with us. Add that on top of pregnancy hormones...it was a rough few days for me and Thomas.

March 2011
March was a pretty big month. We found out we were having a boy and my pregnancy-related heart condition (unprovoked tachycardia) reared its ugly head. I became grounded in more ways than one. No flying, no working out, no elevating the heart level, no stressing, no nothing. Well, crap. This was also the month of the green bedroom. If you haven't heard about the green paint debacle, either go back and read the March postings or just ask Thomas. He LOVES to tell that story. I'll admit it, it was totally my fault.

April 2011
By the time April rolled around, I was really hitting my pregnancy stride. The bump was out and in full effect. It was starting to get hot and miserable outside, which meant I was hotter and more miserable. Then, some jackass without insurance decided to rear-end my car when all Trinesha and I wanted to do was to go get Chipotle. It was her second accident in a week, and earned us both a trip to the ER (easy, easy, we both drove ourselves...in separate cars). She was in and out rather quickly. I hung out for HOURS. Debs kept me company until Thomas go there - I'm not sure who I scared most out of those two with the initial phone call. Trophy goes to Debs for best secondary reaction when she called me back after the initial call.

May 2011
May = Insanity. There really is no other way to explain it. Two baby showers (one of which was attended by the whole of Eastern Bell County), grad school graduation (4 hours, only one bathroom break!), and the realization that soon, very, very soon, a little person would be making his way into our house, and our lives. I guess you could refer to May as the month, to borrow a phrase, "shit got real". Of course, it didn't help that this was about the time all the pregnancy books (of which I read hundreds) start to talk about the labor process. After the weekends filled with craziness (good craziness, but still, all craziness is exhausting), the last thing I needed was to look at a graphic that detailed 10cm dilation every time I opened to the apropos chapter. I knew all along what the end result of the pregnancy would be, but sometimes it takes a bit before the reality truly dawns on you.

June 2011
In June, we finished Liam's nursery (woohoo, whales!!)and managed to take a "Childbirth for Dummies" class. The only good thing to come out of that class was the massage Thomas had to give me while we were "visualizing our way through contractions". Any of you that know me on any level can imagine how well that went over with me. I don't really buy into that visualization/New Age mumbo-jumbo stuff, and looking back, after having been there and done that, there is no FREAKING way you can "visualize" yourself out of that much pain. Not possible. Hospitals should just have the anesthesiologists meet the women at the elevator.

July 2011
By this time, I had been banished to working at home by the OB. I was happy to be able to keep working, but eventually, working from home gets lonely. Plus, MECO doesn't really understand why he can't sleep on your laptop. I mean, it's a warm place and it's not like the human actually is needing to use it. Yup, part of my day was dedicated to MECO eradication from the bed exercises. In addition to laptop napping, he would also steal pens and shred paper. Don't think the office would buy the cat ate my report excuse.

We had one false alarm towards the end of July, and several disappointing doctor visits to learn that progress wasn't happening. Miserably, Thomas and I stumbled on through the next week, him wrapping up random stuff at the house and me complaining and working on getting VIPs taken care of for our flight week at work all from my bed that had now become my office.I guess Liam was just waiting for his official due date (July 31) to kick things off because dark and early on the morning of the 31st, he got the party started. And then continued to party for 36.5 MORE HOURS...

August 2011
It's probably not too hard to guess what the highlight of this month was. August 1, 2011 at 4:36pm, weighing 8lbs, 1oz, little Liam made his appearance into the world. I won't get into to many details (there's a super long previous post about it), but let's just say that the whole process SUPER SUCKED. The end result was totally worth it, but I would imagine that having each of your fingernails ripped out would probably be comparable to the pain I was in after the drugs wore off and before they would give me an epidural.

September 2011
This month flew by. I got to spend almost the entire month at home with Spud (Liam's nickname) and finally managed to work up enough strength to get up and do something. Who knew c-sections had such a long recovery period? Oh yeah, the doctor who said I couldn't really do anything for 8 weeks. No worries, doc. I really couldn't.

October 2011
By this time, we were hitting our stride as a new family. Liam was getting more predictable and was settling into a routine. Awesome, because now I was back at work, and waking up every two to three hours wasn't really working. Liam also had his first Halloween and was dressed up as a giraffe. He really wasn't digging it, but managed to stay in costume long enough to have some super cute pictures taken.

November
First Thanksgiving! And, two MAJOR road trips. One to Louisiana to see a cousin get married - I think Liam saw more of the wedding than I did. I was sick and he wanted to party! And another home to Temple to see Thomas' family for the holiday. He did well, and I became the backseat diaper changing champion (when the car was stopped, people!). This month, Liam decided to go on a temper tantrum tear for about two weeks, only to discover the nonsense all had a purpose - two new teeth! It was rough for a bit, and then we discovered the magic of Infant Tylenol...thank goodness.

December
Liam turned four months old on December 1, and got the go-ahead from the pediatrician to start solids. So far, he's had cereal, peas, and sweet potatoes (but, similarly to the Cejka clan, I think the sweet potatoes may disappear from the rotation based on the um, shall we say, noisy and smelly side effects?). It started out not so well, but he's getting better. Now only about half ends up on him and the other half in him. The original ratio was more like 90% on, 10% in. He's a roly poly guy these days. Diaper changing has become an Olympic sport where Liam goes for style points with his moves and you get a medal if you manage to get the diaper to cover the important parts. He's such a mover - always rolling. He's trying to crawl, he just can't get everything moving at the same time. He gets around in his own special way, scrawling. Half-scoot, half-crawl. It works for him. He's just excited he can sleep how he wants to, face down, butt up. He's changed so much - he's more than doubled in size, and now wears 6-9 month clothes (mainly 9 months). He's a pretty big guy, but still loves to snuggle, and play, and smile. "Where's Liam?" is his all-time favorite game.

2011 was quite a crazy, but amazing, year for our family, and we are looking forward to what 2012 might bring! Here's wishing everyone a Happy New Year :)