~The Quinn Family~: Dawson's Birth Story

Here is an excerpt from the end of my last blog...

"We arrived at the fair around 3:00pm and got home and in the bed a little after midnight! I'd say it was a pretty successful day minus the fact that walking all that time didn't put me in labor. Come on baby Dawson we are ready to share these fun times with you!"

Well little did I know it DID put me in labor!

We had gotten in bed around midnight from going to the State Fair and were all exhausted. I was sleeping so hard until around 5:00am when I felt that I had 'leaked' out on my underwear and shorts. (sorry if this is tmi, but something I want to remember about Dawson's birth story ; ) Dawson was kicking and moving around a lot so I just assumed that he was mashing on my bladder causing me to 'leak'. I got up, changed clothes and quickly jumped back into bed not thinking much about what had happened. Then again around 6am the same thing happened. At that point I started to wonder if it could be my water but after searching online it said that when your water breaks it would be a constant trickle not just a leak. SO, I put on a pad thinking that I was just wetting myself seeing that I was 9 months pregnant and this was my third child it was hard for me to control my bladder. Geesh. I felt like an old woman.

We went on our day as normal; fixing breakfast, playing games with the kids, doing laundry, washing sheets, watching football....UNTIL around 6:00 pm. We were fixing dinner and sitting down to eat when I felt another big gush. It had completely filled the pad I had on. I ran to the bathroom and there was that trickle they were talking about. It just kept coming.

I let Benjamin know that I thought my water had broken and quickly called my parents so they could head this way. I then called the doctor to see what she thought. Sweet Dr. Moody was on call and she said that it sounded like I was losing my water. She said not to rush but to get my children settled and then get to the hospital to get checked. If I had been losing water since early that morning then we only had a 24 hour window before we had to be concerned about infection for myself and the baby. We started gathering our things and getting the kids settled.

At this point I started getting really tickled at Benjamin. Because I knew we were going to have the baby soon there were things I wanted to take care of before I left. I first got cleaned up and put my make-up on so I'd be ready for pictures. Then I wanted to finish laundry so everything would be clean and put away, but Benjamin said no way you are not doing that now. I tried getting the kids and cutting their fingernails and toenails before we left and again he said no way. SO, I just decided to clean up the house and make sure I had everything I needed in my hospital bag. He wouldn't let me do anything. ; )

Our sweet friend Stephanie Lyon came over as quickly as possible to stay with our kiddos for the night. They are wonderful friends of ours and we knew they would be in great hands with her!

Before we left we sat down to explain to the kids that we were going to hospital and were hopefully going to meet baby Dawson soon. They were super excited and couldn't believe that it was finally TIME!

We snapped these sweet pictures and got this video of their excitement before we left.

Click Here to watch the video.

Once we got to the hospital (around 8:00pm) they quickly took me back to check and see if it was in fact water I was leaking. The test came back positive so they moved us straight back to a room to get things set up.

Even though my water had broken I had not started into active labor. I was still having what I thought was braxton hicks but nothing stronger than that. When Dr. Moody came in (around 10:30pm) she said that I was a good 3 to 4cm dilated and 75% effaced, so to start a pitocin drip and hopefully the baby would be here soon.

Since I wasn't technically in labor yet the sweet nurses shared their pumpkin coffee with me before I wasn't allowed anything to eat or drink. LOVED THEM for that!

So then, we waited. I was running on adrenaline because the baby was coming and couldn't sleep but Benjamin seemed to be quite relaxed. : )

From there things moved VERY slow.

At 2:00am I had dilated to 5 cm and was ready for my epidural. The pain began getting pretty hard to breathe through.

At 4:00am I had dilated to 6 cm and received another dose through my epidural.

Then around 5:45am Dr. Moody came in to check on me. She told me to not be concerned that things were moving so slow. She said that for whatever reason this was very common for the third child. The second child will come quickly and the third seems to be stubborn. She went ahead to check me and was surprised to find that I still had a bulging bag of waters and was between 7 & 8 cm! It seems that I had just had a leak at the top and Dawson's head was covering the cervix so when they checked me they never felt the bag. That is why things were going so slow. Dr. Moody broke the bag and said things were really going to get moving now! Yea!

The nurse insisted that Dawson was hiding the bag because he was waiting on his RaRa and PePaw to get there before he made his appearance. She broke my water around 5:50am and mom and dad walked through the door around 6am.

Amazing.

By 6:30am I knew is was time to push. I told the nurse, she called Dr. Moody, and around 6:35am I was ready to go. I had two contractions and there he was!

Dawson Alexander was born at 6:42am on 10/14/2012.

He was 7 lbs 15 oz and 20 3/4 inches long.

And was just PERFECT!!

Our sweet nurse Tina was just wonderful. She had been with us all night and was going off shift at 7am. She was determined that he had to come before she left! We made it just in time. ; )

Dr. Moody was great as usual. She was also the one that delivered Emma Claire so we were very happy when we found out she was on call. She has great bedside manner and is just a joy to be around. Thank you Dr. Moody for everything!

Because we had been up all night we were completely exhausted by the time we got to our room. Look who was out like a light, again!

After we were able to get some rest we were ready to introduce Dawson to his big brother and sister! They could. not. wait. to get their hands on him.

Click Here to watch the video of their arrival.

We are now out numbered! Looking at this picture I still can't believe how blessed we are. I love my husband and children more than I can even express.

Dawson looks SO much like Camp when he was born. I'll have to get a picture on here to compare soon!

Dawson's Proud Big Sister and Big Brother!!

Now, let's talk about one of my favorite things about Rex Hospital. Their food. It's amazing. I love it. It's so good I almost stayed another night to get another meal. They give you a restaurant type menu and you pick ANYTHING you want for three meals a day. This is one of my favs...

Pecan crusted chicken with carmel sauce, zorching, and sweet potatoes. Fresh Fruit. Sweet Tea. Sprite, and a 3 layer chocolate cake. Yummo! And that was just one meal. I'm not even gonna tell you what I had for the other meals because you would be jealous! ; )

We were very thankful when they told us we could go home the very next day! Dawson was a rock star and I was doing great so there was no reason for us to stay. But let me just tell you that if I were able rest well in those hospital beds we would have definitely stayed another night because everyone there is so great. We can not say enough great things about Rex Hospital. They even sent us a meal home to have for dinner that night.

Getting ready to go home!

Just look at that peanut! He is still a good sized baby but because my other two were so big he just seems like a tiny peanut to me. : )

When we got home we had two very excited siblings outside waiting with signs to see their new brother!

Click Here to watch the video.

We were all so excited to have him home.

His first night at home.

All cozy in his cradle in mommy and daddy's room.

His first night was AWESOME. I fed him at 10:00pm put him to bed and didn't hear a peep until 5:00am. Rock star sleeper. I fed him, put him back to bed and had to wake him at 8:00am to take him to the doctor.

Whew. I really hope he keeps this up because I felt sooooo much better today. I don't want to jinks it!

He had a great check up at the doctor today and she said he was doing wonderful. He had lost down to 7 lbs 7 oz so we'll go back at the end of the week to make sure that everything is going okay.