I can’t believe it’s almost Christmas. It feels like this year went by pretty fast. Maybe for others, it has been the longest year of their life. We’ve had a lot going on this year despite Covid being very present.

January and February I spent most of my time sleeping. I was 3 and 4 months pregnant and wasn’t feeling well at all. I discovered I had extremely low thyroid levels at the beginning of my pregnancy and was immediately started on medication and deemed a high-risk pregnancy and sent to a specialist. I had doctor appointments every week to every 2 weeks with ultrasounds to make sure baby was healthy and that my levels were improving.

By March I was feeling better. Covid started to hit the city at that point and by the end of the month, RJ was working from home.

April, May, and June were uneventful. We spent our time at home preparing for our little boy. RJ worked and I took walk after walk around the park and the neighborhood, trying to stay active with my ever-growing belly. I walked to my Doctor’s appointments alone because RJ wasn’t allowed to come with me. Quite disappointing but there was nothing I could do.

July 13, I walked to the hospital where they induced me for low fluid levels. On July 14 at 2:41am our son, Benjamin Herbert Garcia was born via emergency c-section. RJ wasn’t allowed in the OR which was so sad and devastating. Two days later we were heading home as a family of three.

One week later we received a letter in the mail from our landlord letting us know that he was putting the apartment up for sale and we had a little over 30 days to find a new place. That was definitely something we were not prepared for, especially with a newborn and Covid being very prominent in NYC.

After a couple weeks looking at different options, we decided being around family was the most important when it came down to looking for a place to live. So, the middle of August, I packed up the apartment, RJ hired movers, rented a car, and we moved to Knoxville, Tennessee. RJ’s parents, youngest sister, grandparents and some uncles and aunts live in the area.

We stayed with RJ’s parents for a couple weeks while we looked for a house and they got to soak up all the Herbie hugs and snuggles. We found a little house in South Knox and moved in the beginning of September. It is so nice to have my own washing machine and dryer and a car!

In October, we flew to California so my family could meet Herbie. We all had a great time and I don’t think the boy was put down for more than a few minutes. Grammy and Auntie Cole were always fighting over who got to hold him!

Auntie Sammi also got married while we were there and during the vows, guess who decided to poop their nice clothes, very loudly I might add? Hint: it was not Papa Jon.

In November, we flew back to California for Grandpa Wilbert’s funeral. The entire Giesbrecht family was together (except Amy 😢) and everyone got the meet the 3 new babies in the family.

Mom and Cole flew out for a few days right before Christmas and we had such a great time with them. They fought over who got to rock H to sleep and who should feed him.

We are spending Christmas with RJ’s family. Ken and Whitney are out for a week so we will be spending most of our time at Dad and Mom’s. It snowed this afternoon so we just might have a white Christmas!

Now, off to bed so we can wake up to snow and some presents in the morning!

~em

more pictures of Herbie: