Christening

Today was Austin's christening. We went to the early service in the chapel and Bernie Lieving and Jim Harnish performed the baptism. Austin did great! He didn't cry at all and he looked so cute! He wore the christening gown that Aunt Betty made for me. Will and I both wore it for our christenings so it was nice to be able to pass it down to Austin. Uncle Jim, Aunt Lyndall, Sarah, Jay and Sarah (Jay's wife) were all able to drive down for the day. Aunt Mary and Uncle Jack also came. After church we went back to my parent's house for lunch. It was nice to have a chance to visit with everyone.

Christmas Afternoon

Our flight arrived in Tampa around 4pm and Will picked us up. After changing clothes we went for a walk and then came home and had some leftovers for dinner. Michael and I were starving since we had only had a protein bar for lunch in the airport. We all gathered in the family room to have our second Christmas of the day!

Christmas Morning

We spent Christmas morning in Birmingham. We woke up really early to make sure we had everything packed for our trip to Tampa. After a quick breakfast of egg casserole and monkey bread we opened presents with Austin. I think he enjoyed the noise of us unwrapping presents more than what he actually got for Christmas. Next year will be more fun when he can open his own presents!

A little later Grandma and Grandpa Beaty came over to open presents and visit before taking us to the airport to fly to Tampa.

Pictures with Santa

My Mom and I took Austin to get Austin's picture taken with Santa in downtown Homewood. He did great! Luckily there was no line to wait in and Austin seemed to like Santa.

Austin's Birthday!

We woke up early and got ready to leave for the hospital. We had to be there by 6am. The nurses hooked me up to the monitors and it turns out that those "odd feelings" in my stomach last night were actually contractions!!! I guess today was meant to be Austin's birthday after all.

Around 7am Dr. Sharp came in and broke my water and started me on pitocin. The contractions weren't bad at first but continued to get worse. I was trying so hard to tough it out and avoid the epidural but I finally caved in at 7cm. I was so scared about the epidural but it was nothing in comparison to the pain of those last few contractions! After the epidural the rest of the labor and delivery was a piece of cake! I'm so glad that my Mom could be there in the room with me. She really helped me through it!

At 11:23am Austin Michael Beaty was born! I only got to hold him for what felt like the blink of an eye before the nurses took him. He weighed 8 pounds 4 ounces and was 21 inches long. I couldn't wait to hold him again. It seemed like an eternity until I got to hold him again.

I left work a little early to make sure I had everything ready for tomorrow. Michael and I walked to Sam's to have what will probably be our last dinner out for a while. It was a beautiful evening. After dinner my stomach started feeling odd but I didn't want to worry Michael so I kept it to myself. I didn't get much sleep because I was so nervous about the "big day"!

I had my doctor's appointment on Monday and Dr. Sharp said that I was 3cm dilated and gave us the choice to schedule an induction or wait until things happened on their own. Since my parents were going to be in Atlanta for my Dad's tennis tournament we decided to schedule the induction for Thursday October 4th!!! I am excited and nervous. I'm so glad that my parents will be near by.