Lots of new things!

Hi Everyone!!




Well, here I am at home in San Diego and I'm seeing all kinds of new things and new people. I've met new friends every day so far and am looking forward to meeting my Uncle Matt and Auntie Cristine tomorrow.

I've been going for walks almost every day. Well, I just go to sleep in my stroller and get pushed around actually. One of our walks included stopping at a place called an ice cream shop. Mama said that when I get bigger I'm going to love ice cream just like she does. She says that when she was my age she had already tasted ice cream and really liked it even then. :)

My arms and legs are pretty amazing. The last couple of days I've had fun lying on the floor and practicing moving these things around.



I also have a couple of toys that I'm not too interested in yet but I entertain mom and dad by swatting at this one (they are so easily amused!):



Sometimes I sit in this amazing massage chair. It has crazy patterns on it that I find very interesting. I'm wondering if it is an ancient language -- I am actually an expert in languages even though mom and dad don't recognize it yet. Sometimes they call me "squeaky". They just don't understand.



But I'm getting lots of hugs and kisses and I love all my new friends!
Thanks for checking in on me!

love, Kyla

naked babies are the cutest!

We are lucky enough to have a friend and fellow adoptive parent who is also a professional photographer.
Here is a link to a page with the results of her beautiful work:
http://tcphotography.typepad.com/photos/kyla/

Of course it's easy to get great pictures of such a beautiful baby!!
:)

things change...

Here is a conversation I didn't imagine for myself:

Dan: Ah, she had a good poo this time.
Me: Let me see.


(although, note the context: she has been a bit constipated lately so we dread the firmer than usual "events" that usually cause pain and frustration for the little one)

You'll be glad to see there is no accompanying picture. :)

home again, home again, jiggidy jig

Greetings from San Diego!

Well, we are happy to be home after quite a journey. The trip yesterday went quite smoothly without any serious complications. We stopped by to visit C yesterday morning so that she could see Kyla one more time and so we could give her our leftover food (got a very nice email from her today thanking us for that closure). Then we strapped Kyla in for her longest car ride ever (1.5 hours!) during which she slept the whole time. Our friends Brad and Kathy were kind enough to loan us a Pack'nPlay and then Brad even offered to meet us by the airport to pick it up! Unbelievably cool. We found out later that Kyla slipped him a C-note for the effort.

Here's Brad taking video of Kyla while we dined at the fine Chicago establishment "Applebees" (sorry Kirk, don't worry -- she slept the whole time and didn't notice that we chose to dine in a soul-crushing corporate conglomerate; not to mention that they don't serve Enfamil there ... and, by the way, that is not her coke on the table):
The flight itself was actually quite smooth. The 3 and 4 year olds in the seat behind us we in training for the international soccer leagues and were practicing the field kick on the back of our seats, but luckily Kyla slept through it. Who doesn't reprimand their kids for doing that after the person in front looks back in disgust 84 times? Their mom even apologized after glance #52 by me, but still no reprimands were heard. We were secretly wishing Kyla would have some small issue so that her best scream made its way into their undisciplined ears, but alas she was an 'unfortunately' unproblematic for the duration of the flight...even the landing was nothing for this one.

Here she is casting spells on the surrounding passengers:



Now we are getting into the rhythm of sleep deprivation and tag-team diaper changes. We are like the pit crew at the Indy 500. Rach has acquired sponsorship from Marlboro and has a nice logo on her PJs. However, even the most tested pit crew can be phased by a 3-car pileup. Substitute the noun of your choice for "car". :)

Grandma from LA met us at the airport and her first comment was "she's so cute!".... well, of course. It was nice to have her here overnight to help with the late night baby meltdown! Kyla is generally very content except for a period of time in the middle of the night!

Here's Kyla with grandma:


Lastly, Kyla had her first doctors check-up today and she has gained 2 ounces in only 9 days. That's 1.6% of of her birth weight. Chow down, baby! She is quite healthy and we were able to get very little advice from her doctor...and that's fine with us. Here she is on the examination table, simply pondering the mysteries of what actually does happen once you arrive at the event horizon. No answers yet, but she did arrive at one clean rear.

KG signing off...

Cleared to fly!

We just got word that our ICPC (interstate compact for the placement of children) which had to be approved by both CA and IN before we could leave the state was approved. That means we'll change our flight to Wednesday and get the heck out of Bend!

Kyla wants to go shopping for her swimsuit and shades so she is ready for San Diego!

Kyla B

The hospital pictures of Kyla are posted on the web now:
http://www.growingfamily.com/webnursery/hospitals/template/hospitalpage.asp

I like the picture of her feet! The rest are alright but ours are better...
:)

For example:

what a weekend! and where did all the sleep go??

We are overdue to post because lots of little things are happening here! As you read below, we brought Kyla "home" from the hospital on Friday morning. (It was interesting to see how many adopted people we ran into at the hospital -- the nurse who gave Kyla her first bath was adopted and so was the woman who took the hospital pictures.)

Grandpa arrived on Friday evening and was happy to meet his first grandchild!


Dan and I had our first sleep deprived night... just the beginning of what many of you were warning us about!
Then Saturday Kyla had a few more visitors:

Hi Tina!


Hi Ethan!


C and her two boys came by too, which was fun! It was probably a little too sad for her to see Kyla (understandably so) but we were happy to be able to meet the boys. She has a nine year old and a 4 year old. They are very nice and quite rambunctious. (I'm not posting pictures of them so as to protect their privacy...)

After yet another night seriously lacking in that precious sleeping thing, we geared ourselves up for our first attempt at giving Kyla a sponge bath. It might not have had to be a sponge bath since her umbilical cord stump feel off this morning! We were very surprised since our book (the very helpful "what to expect" book that we are ever so grateful to Aaryn and Sam for passing along and encouraging us to bring with!! We have already referred to it many times.) says 1-4 weeks before this should happen. We take no credit for this quick healing event since we have no idea what we are doing here! There had been a little bit of bleeding which we were kind of worried about but since it hasn't looked infected it should be okay. I suspect that it feel off quickly because we have a squirmy baby!
Here she is, not so happy after the bath thing, showing off her healing belly button:





She was happier about the sling carrier that grandpa bought for her:





That's all for now!

By the way, Kyla is still trying to decide where her Big Ten loyalties lie, or if it is Big Ten at all! So far her only college garment is from Georgetown U! :)

nyah nyah daddy!

Kyla bids farewell to Memorial Hosptial

And we're off!

All three of us came "home" today. We arrived at the hospital a little early and soon the nurse, photographer, and social worker arrived. We signed some paperwork and tried to get Kyla to pose for pics for the hospital website, which kind of worked. Kyla was semi-cooperative with the photographer, perhaps she is ready for professional modeling already...a pre-formed diva in the womb!

It's really amazing to sign those forms, walk out of the hospital, strap Kyla into the carseat (which she seemed good with ), and drive away. We got home and all the parenting just kicked in. It was actually nice to have two full days as "visitors" in the hospital because we were able to take care of Kyla under expert supervision; we could check if everything we were doing was ok. As a result, we don't feel quite so overwhelmed just bringing her home straight away. Plus, she seems to be quite a happy baby for the moment, fussing only when something is genuinely amiss.

Or during photo shoots...but I think that's just her way of toying with the help.

We've been back about an hour and Rach is playing with her right now.

I am certain there will be more pics later today!

more pictures!!!

Hi!
First of all, let me say that we *love* all the comments and emails you've been sending! It is so fun to share this amazing experience with everyone in pretty much real time.

I'm not sure if all of the pictures are showing up -- sometimes when I open the page some of them are missing. Any advise from the blog experts?

I'll post a few more pictures that we've made smaller so hopefully they will upload properly.

We are having a great second day with Kyla. She is even cuter today! :) The nurses put cute ribbons in her hair, maybe to remind themselves that she is a little girl!

We get to take her "home" tomorrow morning. Our social worker has to come back and be the one to officially take her out of the hospital. Guess we should relish our last full night of sleep tonight! Doesn't seem important at the moment (even though we know it will!). We went to sleep thinking about Kyla and woke up thinking about her...

First day with Kyla

We spent all day with our wonderful, beautiful, content little girl.
Here are more photos!

All the legal stuff!

It's official!! The papers have been signed and we are really and truly the parents of this beautiful little girl.
C even came by on her way out of the hospital to say goodbye and see Kyla again. It's often really hard for birthmothers to see the baby again so we are thrilled that she was interested and it seems like we'll stay in touch with her even after we go home, which is wonderful.

We are totally amazed that this adoption has gone so smoothly. There is very little that could go wrong at this point. Now we just have to raise a happy little girl! :)

Stats!

Ah yes, omitted from the last post!

Kyla weighed 7 lbs 14 oz and was 20 1/2 inches long
She passed all of her newborn assessments with flying colors and has all of her fingers and toes! In fact, she has really long fingers and toes which she spends a lot of time stretching and flexing. I'm *sure* you'll see more photos of that very soon.

Kyla Gabrielle is in the house

Well, after a long day of waiting for C to get on with it, she finally did at exactly 11:45 pm and 21.5 seconds on 6/12/07. I know because I took a picture of the clock while we were waiting in the room next door to the delivery room...then moments later...baby crying.

We got constant updates from several nurses and from the doctor and about 20 minutes or so afterwards we were invited by C to come in and meet everyone. As we entered the room, C was holding Kyla in her arms and greeted us with "Hi, mom and dad."

Now, that's cool.

We took some photos with all of us and Rach and I fed her her first meal - a smoothie milkshake. Yum yum. C looked like she had finished vacuuming maybe, but not like she had just delivered a baby. She looked really good and plans to go home early tomorrow. It was kind of a short/strange goodbye as we were kind of ushered out to follow the nurse as she took Kyla for her full bath and checkup. We kind of followed her out the door and wanted to give C a hug, but she was kind of be-tubed and bedded down, and wired up and it felt a little weird so we didn't. It hadn't fully dawned on us until we were exiting the room that this was goodbye (for now only we hope). We actually had a little gift for her, but weren't able to give it to her, there are legal boundaries for gifts to birthmothers and legally nothing has happened yet, so I guess we'll just mail it to her.

C actually put together a wonderful photo album of herself, her pregnancy with Kyla, and her other children. It really is a great thing that Kyla will be able to look at later in life so she knows everything about her birthmother. She was actually quite motherly at that point, giving us the album and saying "This is for your daughter, to give when she can understand it." It was all very zen and appropriate, much like wisdom given by an old chinese man atop a mountain we had just climbed.

We spent about 30 minutes hanging out in the delivery room and taking turns holding Kyla and watching the nurses check her out before we went to watch her bathing and checkup. She passed the hearing test "faster than usual". That's right, this kid has perfect pitch.

We then hung out in a private room with her about 30 more minutes, just the family :) and got better acquainted. Actually, Kyla slept thru the acquainting part quite soundly, but we were awake! We had to give her back for the night, though, she lives in the hospital for 48 hours before she comes home, but we will spend all day tomorrow with her.

still waiting...

yes, we are still waiting!!
It has been a long day already...

waiting....

Labor is underway...
and we are waiting!!
We felt only slightly guilty as we sat and ate panini sandwiches for lunch.
:)

Hope to have more news later tonight.

Houston, we have drop-off!

Doctors appointment this morning ... she is ready and will be induced tomorrow morning at 5am! Such good news because we were realizing that we were going to go stir crazy hanging out in the midwest with not much of a schedule, just waiting.
New plan is to have dinner with friends tonight and then drive back up to South Bend. We'll go to the hospital in the mornind and see how she is doing. Hard to tell how long the labor will last. C thinks it won't take that long, but perhaps that is just her being hopeful!
Looks like the birthday will be 12th or 13th!!

more soon...

First day in Indiana!

We arrived in the midwest today! Flight was early, car rental line was short... a nice start to travel.
Met C. for dinner tonight and we sat and talked for 4 hours! It was really nice to talk face to face for the first time in a month and a half. And she is even prettier in person than in her pictures! Not to mention that she said the birthfather (who is out of the picture and probably back in Mexico) looks kind of like Antonio Banderas! This little girl is going to be gorgeous... it will be obvious she was not produced by us -- haha!

C. said that she has had stronger contractions today... it's getting closer to time! Our plan is to stay overnight here tonight (we're at a hotel in South Bend) and then drive to Illinois to stay with friends there until we get the call saying that it's time to be back. I think we'll take our time tomorrow and not rush out of here... just in case!

A bit of background

We signed up with our adoption group in early April and were thrilled to have been chosen by a birthmother a mere 13 days later! Probably a good thing that she was not due for another 2 months (others we know have had only a few days notice) so we had time to digest the news and buy a few baby things. Our birthmother is a lovely woman from Indiana who we've spoken with at least weekly since our match. We've shared lots of things about ourselves and our beliefs and somehow she still likes us!!

Open adoption is a relatively new concept that only really started in the 70's and has clearly been a very healthy thing for all of the parents and certainly the child. We think it's great that we've had this opportunity to get to know our birthmother (I'll abbreviate her name to "C"). Even if we don't end up staying close in touch with her, our child will know quite a bit about this person who some refer to as a "tummy mommy". C. has also put together a memory book and letter for the child that has pictures of herself and her other two children who will be half brothers to this child. That'll be a really nice thing for all of us to have.

So here we are, leaving for Indiana in 8 hours! The plan is to meet C. tomorrow night for dinner (our first in-person meeting) and then stay overnight. We might see her again on Sunday if she is up for it and then we'll head for Illinois to visit with friends until it's "time", at which point we race back to Indiana and wait for the little creature to make her appearance.

We're excited and nervous and pretty much bouncing off the walls!! It's a crazy process! This morning we had a long conference call with our social worker in Indiana and C. and went over the whole process of what will happen in the hospital. We won't be in the delivery room, which is, of course, totally her choice, but we'll be in the hospital and will be able to see the baby very shortly after her birth.

Did I mention that the baby is a girl?? We have a few names picked out but have to meet her first to see which fits best. Her first name, given by C, is going to be Savannah May. It's a pretty name but we have some other choices for her too. We'll be able to keep a copy of the first birth certificate so that she'll always know her first name. That way, when she is a rebellious teenager like her birthmother, she can change her name back just to spite us!!

Well, hopefully we have everything we need packed in our bags. I hear they have stores in Indiana ... so if something was left out we might be able to find a replacement!

Stay tuned for more from the midwest! By this time tomorrow night we'll be whistling the Notre Dame fight song!!

Welcome!

Welcome to our first posting on our first blog site!
We were inspired to blog to share with you our journey to start a family through adoption. In less than one week we will physically start our journey by traveling to Indiana to meet our lovely birthmother and to await the birth of the little lady who will become our daughter.
The baby's due date is June 17th, but we all know that she wasn't listening when this date was announced! She'll arrive on her own time and we'll be there to greet her.

Thank you for reading and coming along with us as we meet and get to know the Wee Hoosier!