Kivrin Anne

Kivrin is actually awake many times throughout the day….and night… but some of her most photogenic moments (and also most of the times we have a free hand to grab the camera) are while she is sleeping.

Momentous though it may seem, the five minute drive home from the hospital was the easiest part of getting discharged and settling in at home with a new baby.  The first few days home were a new-baby blur, because unfortunately Lissa’s spinal headache returned on Monday with a vengeance. After a brief return visit to the hospital, by Tuesday evening we were back on track and feeling fine…or, well….just a normal amount of new parent exhaustion.

Grandpa Steve checking out his first granddaughter on Saturday afternoon.

Papa Staley drove from Collinsville, IL on Saturday morning after his 5 am wake up call.

Grandma Sandy came to Topeka on Tuesday afternoon to help out (and spoil the baby!)

On Sunday, Sara and Jon brought their son Thomas to meet the newest member of our family. In this photo, Thomas is 178 days old and Kivrin is only 1 day old.

Kivrin weighed 8 lbs, 5 oz at birth (photo cropped for modesty!)

Dan holding Kivrin just after delivery.

Lissa snuggling Kivrin in the recovery room.

One last posed picture of the baby in the belly, taken August 18, 2008.

Kivrin was “due” on August 14th, so we were pretty confident we would have an August baby since two weeks on either side of that date would be considered normal.

Earlier belly pictures from June 11 (31 weeks), June 29 (33 weeks), July 21 (36 weeks) and August 3 (38 weeks).

Dan bought me this maternity t-shirt from thinkgeek — it was my favorite shirt throughout pregnancy, both because it was extremely comfortable and obviously awesome!!

A few pictures of the baby’s room — it was my idea to choose the decor before the 20-week ultrasound, so that we could make a truly gender-neutral decision. (Little did I know that we wouldn’t be finding out the baby’s sex until later anyway!)

This is a room created with love by our family and friends. The walls were painted by Dan and his dad Steve and our friend Carrie. The bookshelf was made especially for the baby by Papa Staley (who swore he would never make Lissa nother bookshelf for fear our house will collapse from the weight of our books!) , and it is already filled with many books from our favorite children’s librarian, Grandma Mary! Our two and a half year old nephew Colin had just about outgrown his changing table/dresser and mirror that Papa Staley made for him. The crib from Ikea was so highly rated here that is was almost impossible to find one in stock, so we were excited to eventually get one. Nana sewed the yellow curtains and the blue and purple basket liners (along with several matching pillows and crib sheets.)

Our family and friends contributed squares to the baby quilt at our baby showers in Topeka and Collinsville, then Nana sewed it all together. The quilt is reversible because we had so many squares to include! We think it looks great, and each square is precious because of the people and relationships it represents.

On July 10, Marta, Susan and Kathy gave us the best kind of shower at work — great friends, fantastic food, amazing baby presents, and no cheesy games!

LeighAnne and Papa Staley invited friends and family to celebrate our upcoming baby in the MHBC fellowship hall on July 5. We had all been up late the night before at the fireworks — see LeighAnne’s pictures here.

Future great-grandmothers Grandma Staley and Nana Herring both arrived early — and they each made a cute fish square for the baby’s quilt!  

Colin helped us open the present from him and his mama, and Dan and I worked together to open the other gifts for the baby.

My favorite moment of the shower was a few minutes after our friend Kate arrived. For days in advance, our nephew Colin had been talking about this party for “his new baby cousin” and getting excited about it. He knew that his new baby cousin was in Aunt Lissa’s belly, and he had even felt the baby kick and talked to the baby (through my belly button, like it was a microphone). After Kate came in, she set down an infant carrier with her 2 month old daughter Avery in it and went back to her car for a moment. Colin walked by, saw the baby sitting in the carrier, and turned to me incredulously. “Is THAT my new baby cousin?” he asked, surprised that a baby had appeared at the party. It was basically the cutest thing ever. Colin was still happy to play with Avery though, after we told him that this was Kate’s new baby and that his new baby cousin was still safely in Aunt Lissa’s belly for now.

Like any other activity at church, especially one involving Staleys, there was plenty of yummy food and socializing at the tables.

Aunt Leigh Anne was too busy helping other people at the shower, so she made her quilt squares later that night. Even though the quilt has an underwater/aquarium theme to match the baby’s room decor, Leigh Anne knew we liked monkeys and robots, so she made squares that combined our favorite things!

Our friend Carrie and Dan’s mom Sandy threw us a baby shower at the Planet Sub in Topeka on Saturday, June 21. In addition to Dan’s family, we invited our Topeka friends, including Lissa’s favorite book group folks!

We ate sandwiches, and Sandy’s tasty carrot cake, then everyone used fabric markers to draw or trace underwater designs onto fabric squares for a baby quilt.

Dan’s brother and sister-in-law, Jon and Sara, made this creative (and huge!) diaper cake and decorated it with baby necessities and toys. What a treat!

Dan’s dad picked out some special baby accessories in Dan’s favorite color – ORANGE!  

When Leigh Anne asked Colin what kind of cousin he wanted, he didn’t totally understand the question, so she prompted him with baby boy and baby girl as options. Once he got it, he volunteered “baby bear” as a good choice, followed by “big kid like me”. While I was just hoping that it wasn’t twins, now I’ve also added “baby bear” and “big kid” to the list of babies I would just as soon not be incubating in my belly. From the normal realm of possibilities (boy or girl) I am perfectly fine with either.

I very much wanted to find out more about my baby at the ultrasound. I mean, how cool that technology exists that lets you see inside your own skin to learn more about what’s happening with the person growing there. It wasn’t meant to be though– the baby’s umbilical cord was between the legs the entire time, and except for a healthy umbilical cord, nothing else was revealed to us. I was sad for a few days, honestly, and spent some time cursing technology that had built up my expectations and then let me down. I quickly came to realize that it was not the end of the world – especially when I imagined my baby gloating that the baby was already a better feminist that I am, reminding me that I really and truly do not want to get caught up in gender roles and stereotypes, especially for this one person in the world that is my responsibility.

I spent the rest of my pregnancy answering the popular question “So, do you know what you’re having” with the unpopular answer “It’s a baby” or even worse “some sort of human, I hope.”

Here are some of the ultrasound pictures. The technician said “All babies look like aliens at 20 weeks.”