While many people rang in the New Year at a party or a pub,
lifelong Hollister resident Daisy Folsom spent hers in a hospital
bed. And she couldn’t have been happier about it.
Hollister – While many people rang in the New Year at a party or a pub, lifelong Hollister resident Daisy Folsom spent hers in a hospital bed. And she couldn’t have been happier about it.
At 4:18am on Jan.1, 2005, Folsom, 34, delivered the county’s first baby of the new year at Hazel Hawkins Hospital. Levi Andy Eugene Kievlan made his New Year’s entrance weighing a healthy 8 pounds, 8 ounces, with 10 perfect fingers and 10 perfect toes, Folsom said.
The baby was Folsom’s fourth child, but her first boy, she said. Folsom, who is a waitress and bartender and DeMaggio’s Cafe in Hollister, said her three girls, ages 19, 8 and 15 months, were elated to have a baby brother, she said. Her boyfriend of five years, Andy Kievlan – who is the father of her 15 month old – was thrilled to finally have another male in the house, she said.
“(Andy) had excepted the fact that it would always be girls – even the dog’s a girl,” Folsom said. “When we found out we were having a boy, he was thrilled.”
Folsom’s due date was Dec. 26, but when Christmas came and went with no baby, she expected to have to have her labor induced sometime after the first of the year, she said.
But New Year’s Eve afternoon brought an unexpected surprise, and by midnight she was in a hospital bed at Hazel Hawkins, more than 3 centimeters dilated with only one thing on her mind: “Get this child out,” she said.
About four hours later she was holding a healthy baby boy in her arms, and by Sunday afternoon they were already home, she said. While she said the labor was rough, she was thankful it was short and everything went smoothly.
“This is the one thing besides waiting tables that I can do really well,” she said.
Kievlan, who is a cook at DeMaggio’s Cafe, said the fact that the baby is the family’s first boy and the county’s first baby of 2005 is a good omen for the Kievlan clan.
“It’s a sign for a good future for him and for us,” he said. “He’s my only boy, and he’s awesome.”
Folsom said she chose the name ‘Levi’ as a way to pay tribute to her mother, whose middle name was Lee, and who passed away 12 years ago. Levi’s meaning, ‘joined in harmony,’ also fit perfectly with what her family means to her, she said.
Folsom is seven years older than Kievlan and her two oldest girls are from a previous marriage, she said. But when she met Kievlan five years ago “something clicked,” she said.
“It’s been a really good union,” she said. “The meaning of Levi’s name is how I feel about our family.”
Erin Musgrave covers public safety and health for the Free Lance. Reach her at 637-5566, ext. 336 or [email protected]
