My Beautiful Girls

Jarom's first day of school!

I have been so wary about the schools here in Charleston, and with good reason considering their statistics and reviews from parents. But since I have been unsuccessful to this point at getting him into another school we decided to go ahead with Oakland (the school we are zoned for). To my relief Jarom's teacher is amazing. We are still playing this thing out day by day, but so far besides him reporting multiple movies they watched in a day, and the excessive down time that they have occasionally had (I'm hoping it is just from it being the first week) it seems to be going well.  

I can't believe I have a first grader!!! He has grown up so fast! I would say I feel old, but I really don't... so I'm not going to say it. 

Jett JoRay Dawson

Even though it took me forever, I wanted to introduce our handsome little man Jett. 

He was born July 4th 2013 at 9:24 am. 

Weight: 7lbs, 11oz

Length: 21 inches

The delivery was long and difficult, but the reward was worth it. 

I started having contractions around 6:00 p.m. on July 3rd, so to keep them going I took the kids on a short walk to feed the geese in a nearby pond. We hardly finished feeding the ducks and it started pouring rain... so we ran all the way home but still ended up getting drenched. 

The contractions were still going strong at 8:00 so I told Thayne and we slowly started getting everything in order just in case we had to go in to the hospital that night. 

at 9:00 I called David and Shalysse to see if they would be willing to watch our kids that night because even though I wasn't progressing very fast I was pretty sure we would be going in. 

They came over at 11:00 and we left for the hospital at midnight. At the hospital I found out I was dilated to 4 cm, so they admitted me to the hospital, told me it was probably going to be a long night and gave me an epidural. 

Sadly, the epidural didn't work right so my left side was completely dead to me, and I could feel everything on my right. It wasn't pleasant but it was bearable.

 The Epidural also made my blood pressure drop drastically, which in turn made me pass out... which caused the medical team to come rushing into my room and give me essentially an eppi in my IV to bring my blood pressure back up fast. 

My blood pressure plummeted enough times that I was told I had to stay on my left side the whole night and not move, but that didn't totally solve the problem. 

It was a lousy night of no sleep.

Around 7:00a.m. I was dilated to 6cm!!! It was taking forever and I was getting the feeling that I would never get there, not to mention, it felt like my epidural was slowly wearing off to where I was feeling more and more pain. 

Shortly after they checked me Thayne decided since I wasn't progressing very fast and he hadn't had much sleep through the night he would go get some breakfast. I assured him I would be fine, but then my epidural stopped working all together. I was told that the anesthesiologist could come check it as soon as he finished up with another patient that he just started working on (20 minutes).

The contractions were awful! Not only did they hit me at full force all at once, but for some reason with every contraction I would get a shooting pain from the epidural sight all the way to my head, and then down into my legs. It was insane. 

By the time thayne came back from breakfast I was totally focused. He felt terrible for leaving. 

The nurse was awesome, but due to me dropping my head to my chest and focusing on completly relaxing through each contraction she would frequently grab my arm, or tap me or ask me if I was still with her over and over again until I answered (totally unnerving and distracting when you are putting every ounce of fucus into surviving one contraction.). But I can understand her concern, considering I did pass out a couple times through the night.

I was finally able to push at 9:00 or somewhere around there, and could not have been more grateful when Jett made his appearance. 

I definitely think labor was a lot easier when I was younger.  

   

 Jett's first time to the beach at 3 weeks. He got sunburn on his face pretty bad. I felt AWFUL!

Jett is such a sweet boy. I'm crazy about him, as is the rest of his family. except for needing fed CONSTANTLY he is a pretty care-free kid.  

He is growing so fast, it is hard to believe how much he has changed and grown since he was born. 

Taysia ADORES her little brother. She is my biggest helper; willing to do ANYTHING I need her to do, even burp him, which can be quite the challenge if you are as small as she is. But where there is a will, there is a way and she will find a way. 

Jett's blessing day was last Sunday, August 25th. He looked so handsome in his little tuxedo. It was the same tuxedo that Jarom wore, with a new shirt/vest combo that I made for him.  

He couldn't have been better for his special day. He didn't even spit up (which is saying something). and throughout the entire blessing he just stared up at his daddy, so attentive and sweet.

Grandma Dawson was even able to come visit us and be here for his blessing thanks to all the family members who chipped in and bought her a plane ticket to South Carolina for her birthday. It was so fun to see family again.  

I'm pretty proud of my three boys. They are just about as handsome as they come. 

It has been difficult adjusting to 4 kids, but I count my blessings every day (all 4 of them) and feel grateful that I have so much to be thankful for. 

It is amazing to me how fast a family grows. I never would have dreamed I would be right here 8 years ago when I married Thayne. And even though some days are crazy, and life is anything but predictable I wouldn't have it any other way. I wouldn't trade all the sleepless nights I've had for even one perfect night's rest without my little Jett, or a full week of chaos for one calm and predictable day; I would be losing far too much. 

I'll admit it, I haven't fully adjusted to the 4 kids thing, but I'm getting there. And I know it won't be long before I feel like it is all second nature and routine.

Seriously, how could I NOT be crazy about this adorable face? :)

We love him to death! Thanks for joining our family Jett!