Daily Life with the Davises: The Birth Story

I woke up at 5:00 am on June 23rd having contractions. I got up out of bed and walked around to see if they would stop. I had been having contractions for two weeks so I figured they would stop like all the other ones had. Phillip's alarm went off at 6:30 and I was sitting in a chair in our room timing the contractions. He sat up so fast when he realized that I wasn't in bed. I told him that I was having stronger contractions than I had been but I wanted him to go ahead and go to work and if I needed him that I would call. I went ahead and called my mom and asked her to come to Little Rock and suggested that maybe we could go to the mall or the grocery store and walk around. I was determined to get this baby out!!! I told her not to get in a hurry. I went ahead and took a shower and go ready just as I would have on a normal day. Mom got to my house at 9:00. The contractions had started to get stronger at this point. I insisted that I needed to go to Wal-Mart just in case he was born so we would have groceries for our company. The contractions continued while we were in Wal-Mart and began to get closer together. My mom started timing them and they were about 5 minutes apart. My mom kept telling me that we needed to go to the hospital. I told her that I would call Phillip to go ahead and come home and if they continued to get stronger I would go. I called Phillip to come home at 10:00. I finally decided that I was ready to go to the hospital at 10:30! We loaded up the car and got to the hospital around 11:00! When the nurse checked me I was 4-5cm and 90 % effaced. After she told me that I asked her if they were going to keep me. She just smiled and said "Honey you are in labor! " I laughed and said Oh Ok! I mean this is my first baby I have no idea what all this is suppose to feel like! She also told me that I could not get out of bed and walk around because my bag was very tight and she said when my water breaks she thinks I will have the baby very soon. I was pretty sad about that because I was pretty uncomfortable at this point. She checked me again at 11:45 and I was 5cm. I got my epidural at 12:25. Dr. Deed broke my water at 12:55. I was 7cm dilated at 2:25 when she checked me again. I was fully dilated and effaced at 4:20. The nurse asked all of our family and friends to head to the waiting room so that we could start pushing! She sat me up for about 30 minutes so he would drop down a little bit. I started pushing around 5:00! I did 8 sets of three pushes and Dawson Gregory Davis was born at 5:40 p.m.! He weighed 8 lbs 2oz and was 21 inches long. I am so very blessed that my labor was so easy! I didn't even break a sweat. My nurse and Doctor were wonderful. We laughed and joked the whole time that I was pushing!! My Mom, Heather and Phillip were back there with me. Dawson came out screaming! He turned pink very quickly! His Apgar scores were 9 and 9! We are so blessed that he is so healthy! Because he looked so good when he was born they left him on my chest for a while and let Phillip and I bond with him! When Phillip and I started talking to him he immediately got very quite! He definitely recognized our voice. It was a really neat experience! They wiped him off and wrapped him up and went ahead and let our family and friends come back to meet him! Being a mother is the most amazing thing! We are truly blessed! Enjoy the pictures!

Just got checked into the hospital! We are so excited that we will finally get to meet our precious little boy today! We have dreamed about what he is going to look like for so long now!

Dawson's sign for the hospital door! My Aunt Teresa made this for me! I love it! Everyone could see the door to our room from the waiting room so when Dawson had arrived my mom hung the sign on the door letting our family and friends know that he was here!

Dr. Ashley Deed delivered Dawson.

Some of the welcoming crew! My mom said that our family and friends took over the entire waiting room! Everyone was so excited to meet Dawson! Thank you to everyone that came to help us celebrate this very special day in our life!