Jeff rushed home from work to meet Maribeth at home, where they left for the hospital together. Maribeth called Pap-Pap to let him know the news, and Pap-Pap and Grandma Mrozek left immediately so they could beat a snowstorm out of Minnesota. Jeff also called his parents to let them know “Baby Klein” was being induced today.

Maribeth and Jeff arrived at Good Samaritan Medical Center around 10 A.M. and settled into room 319 of the “C pod.” Maribeth began receiving petosin around 1 P.M. As Nurse Aimee attached the monitoring devices, she said it could take up to 12 – 24 hours for the birth to happen. So we walked around the "pod," ate some fruit popsicles, and played cribbage (for the record, Maribeth eked out a last-second victory). One nurse who was monitoring us confirmed what Maribeth had suspected all pregnancy: “You’re baby’s going to be a gymnast, he moves around so much!”

Active labor kicked in around 6 P.M. The contractions came hard and heavy, so Maribeth decided to receive an epidural around 7:30 P.M. Wow, what a difference. Within an hour, Maribeth rapidly changed from 4 cm to 8 cm dilation.

As Maribeth moved to 10 cm, the nurse recommended we continue waiting for the baby to descend further into the birth canal before beginning to push (so that Maribeth would have less pushing to do in the end). Around 11:30 P.M., one of our other main doctors (Dr. Thompson) arrived at the hospital and prepared Maribeth for delivery.

The first amazing moment was seeing the slightest bit of baby’s head appear. It was almost unbelievable to see the little dark head of hair. Fantasy and reality mixed as Maribeth began to push more and more. The nursing staff was excited that we didn’t yet know the gender of the baby, and they were all so encouraging during the delivery. Maribeth pushed for over 30 minutes when just after midnight, she started a final series of pushes and out came … A BABY BOY!

He came out firing on all cylinders: crying right out of the womb, kicking and waving, and BIG with a full head of hair. He even came out with his hand and elbow raised towards his head. After a bit of cleaning, he was given to Mom and it didn’t take long for us to name him: Callahan Lewis Klein.

Callahan weighed 8 lbs. 15.6 oz and measured 21.5” long at birth. He was born at 12:10 A.M. on Tuesday, January 29th, 2008. He came into the world kicking and screaming and ready to live. Welcome, Callahan Lewis Klein, and Happy Birthday!