Express delivery: Dash didn’t dawdle

When Hailee and Dan Stewart told friends and family they planned to name their baby boy Dash, they were often met with jokes about whether Dash would live up to his name.

Hopefully he’ll be a sprinter, they teased.

When Dash entered the world Monday, he didn’t disappoint.

“It was all done, start to finish, in 45 minutes,” Hailee said.

Dash’s arrival — which came two and a half weeks before Hailee’s due date — was so quick, Hailee didn’t even make it to the hospital. She delivered her son on the bathroom floor of her Salmon Creek home, just 2 miles from the hospital.

“You’d think, 5 minutes away, you’d make it,” Hailee said.

Hailee works from home and was in the middle of a business call when she thought she felt her water break. After wrapping up her conversation, Hailee called Dan and her mom and sent a couple of her neighbors text messages, letting everyone know the baby was coming early.

When Hailee was pregnant with her daughter, Avery, she had about 45 minutes after her water broke before contractions began. She took a shower, packed a bag and headed to the hospital. The entire labor and delivery took about seven and a half hours.

Hailee’s doctor warned her that her second delivery could be quicker. But, assuming she still had a little bit of time, Hailee decided to make the 10-minute drive to pick up Avery from preschool.

As she drove, Hailee’s contractions started and continued — every three minutes. By the time Hailee was pulling back into the neighborhood, she could feel more pressure and knew she was losing a lot of fluid.

She looked in the rearview mirror and saw Dan driving behind her. Back home, Hailee insisted on going inside to change her pants before heading to the hospital.

“I got inside, and I never came out,” Hailee said.

She made it to the downstairs bathroom and realized the baby was coming.

“Dan kept saying, ‘We’re going to the hospital,’ ” Hailee said. “I said, ‘There’s no time.’ “

“I was kinda being mean, telling her to put her pants back on,” Dan said.

But when Dan checked Hailee, he saw the crown of baby Dash’s head.

“That’s the point when she said, ‘Wash your hands,’ ” Dan said.

Hailee lay on the bathroom floor. Five minutes after she had walked into the house, baby Dash was born.

“I didn’t even push,” Hailee said. “He delivered himself.”

After the shock of Dash’s quick arrival set in, Hailee and Dan realized they were in a bit of a pickle. Hailee couldn’t move, and Dan had baby Dash, still connected by the umbilical cord, in his hands.

They turned to 3½-year-old Avery for help. Avery retrieved Hailee’s cellphone so she could call 911. Then, Avery walked next door and summoned help from neighbor Karen Ellis.

“She said, ‘Come quick. My mom’s having a baby now. She needs help,’ ” Hailee said.

Karen found clean towels and blankets for Dash and helped clean Hailee up. Then she rounded up neighbors to distract Avery while the paramedics took over. Neighborhood kids were arriving home from school as Hailee was being helped out to the ambulance. They hurried toward the Stewart house to check out the ambulance and talk about Avery’s new baby brother.

Hailee and Dash were taken to Legacy Salmon Creek Medical Center.

“All of the hospital staff were in shock,” Hailee said.

Dash arrived at 3:32 p.m. — their best guess based on the time of the 911 call — after only 15 contractions. He weighed 7 pounds, 3 ounces. After 24 hours at the hospital, Hailee and Dash were discharged.

“I’m just glad everything worked out,” Dan said.

That’s not to say things went as planned.

“My plan was to stay north of the equator, be the supportive husband,” Dan said. “But it didn’t work. My plan got shot out of the water.”

Hailee planned for a delivery similar to her first delivery. She was prepared for it to be quicker but expected to be in a hospital and to have an epidural. People have asked Hailee how she handled the unexpected natural birth.

“You can do anything for a short period of time,” she said. “I didn’t have time to think about the pain. We were panicked. We were in ‘We’re in trouble!’ mode.”

But one thing did go as planned. Hailee and Dan had always planned to name the baby Dash Daniel Stewart, after an airplane Dan flew in the Army. They just thought they would have to wait to see if Dash would be as speedy as his name suggests.

“Well, he’s already living up to his name,” Hailee said.