Introducing Austin Paul Klusman!

Austin Paul Klusman was born on August 11, 2009 at 11:58am and was 7 lbs 2 oz and 20.5 inches long.

I started going into labor on Monday night the 10th. I was really glad that this was all happening 2 weeks early because I was praying Austin would arrive early (I was SO hot and uncomfortable) but the only thing was that Aaron was in Tucson for the night! We had debated whether or not he should go but we decided that it would be fine because I had not shown any signs of going into labor. Little did we know that Austin was ready to come!

Monday, the 10th, I worked a busy day and then went to dinner with some girlfriends. I felt fine all day. On Monday afternoon I had a Doctor's appointment and I was dilated 1 cm. I was excited for the progress but I still thought that Austin wouldn't come for another couple weeks. I also had noticed that he had dropped because I felt constant pressure on my bladder but I still thought that he would not come for another couple weeks since this was my first baby. At 9:30pm I felt a little bit of cramping and thought that it would just go away so I went to bed as normal. At 11:30pm I woke up still feeling this cramping. At midnight when this did not go away I started to time the contractions. Remember that Aaron is not home so I was thinking, "No way this is happening tonight!" I timed the contractions for an hour and they were consistently about 8 minutes apart and they were not stopping. At this point I decided that I should call Aaron. When he heard his phone ring he knew right away that something was happening. After discussing for awhile what to do, we decided that he should start to head home. However, Aaron and the guys he was in Tucson with just drove one car. Aaron's boss, Bert, was so kind and ended up driving Aaron back to Phoenix and then turning around and driving back to Tucson. Aaron got home at about 4:30am and crawled into bed to try and get a little sleep. We were just waiting for the contractions to get closer together and stronger so we could head to the hospital. But at about 5am my water broke! Aaron got home just in time. I called the Doctor and we started heading to the hospital.

As a side note, we were barely ready for this baby to come. We had just finished putting together the nursery the weekend before and I packed my hospital bag during the night when my contractions were not letting me sleep.

Anyways, we arrived at the hospital at about 6am and got admitted. By this point the contractions were much stronger and longer and I was about 3-4 cm dilated. By about 7:30 or 8am we got transferred to the labor and delivery room. I was definitely ready to get an epidural by this point in time. The nurse was being really slow about getting that going though. No one thought my labor would progress so quickly so no one was really rushing to get anything done. Needless to say, I had to experience some really intense contractions. Enough to know that women who have natural child birth are my hero's! By about 9:45am I finally got the epidural (which didn't hurt at all compared to the contractions) and then life was easy. It brought so much relief and we were able to kick back and relax. Aaron took a nap and I was able to rest as well. At about 11am I started to feel some pressure so the nurse checked me and I was at 10cm already! The doctor came in at about 11:20am and I started pushing and Austin Paul Klusman was born at 11:58am!

Here are some photos of the day: