William turns ONE!

Here's William's monthly milestones, leading up to his FIRST BIRTHDAY!


William Jeffrey Hughes
Born September 14th at 2:29pm
6lb 11oz

Poor guy had a little bit of a rough start since his cord was wrapped around him and he was facing up during delivery. He didn't breathe right away after delivery and needed help breathing for the first couple minutes after that. Due to lack of oxygen, brain swelling, and acidic blood, they whisked him off to the NICU right away. He was on a newborn body cooling treatment for 72 hours to slow down his metabolism, allow his body time to heal, and to treat his HIE (Hypoxic Ischemic Encephalopathy - brain injury caused by lack of oxygen and blood flow to the brain). He spent almost 3 weeks in the NICU.

This cute little guy is ONE month old today!

I can't even believe it!! He's accomplished so much in such a short amount of time. He's packing on the pounds and starting to outgrow a lot of his clothes. He's rolled over three times by accident now simply by flailing his legs and arms while pitching a fit about tummy time haha. We sure love having him around!  ❤️

This cutie is TWO months old today!

He got some shots earlier, but after napping for most of the day he's a happy little chatterbox! We love hearing his baby cooing and seeing his little smiles! I'm so in love with this little guy!! 😍😘

Guess who's THREE months?? 😍

Little guy loves smiling and talking, standing up with help from mommy and daddy, eating his hands, and rubbing his eyes when he's tired. He naps in his crib now (🙌🏻) and has officially outgrown newborn sized anything (😭).

FOUR months!!

This cutie is all smiles, all the time. He wiggles his way all over the floor but has yet to roll over. He constantly rolls onto his side when on his back though. He's also just starting to giggle! He's a huge chatterbox and loves attention. He sticks his tongue out all the time and loves to stand up (with mommy and daddy's help). We can't believe how big and chunky this little guy is getting! 😍

My little valentine is FIVE months old today! 😘

Little chunk has been in six month clothes for the past two weeks and the size two diapers we switched to around then already don't fit. As you can see, he loves grabbing everything he can and shoving it into his mouth 😂 He loves to cruise around in his baby walker, make a mess of his baby cereal, and throw his teething toys on the ground for mommy and daddy to pick up. I think William is the only person in the whole world who can keep me up all night, insisting it's playtime, and I'll still be happy to see his big goofy smile in the morning! We sure love him and all his crazy antics!  ❤️

Happy Half Birthday to this little guy!!

Can you believe that he's SIX months old?

It's so hard to keep up with how much he's been changing recently! He never stops moving. He does this thing where he slams his arms down all the time. He's also constantly moving his little chunky feet (almost like he's marching). The only time he does stay still is when he's grabbed his foot and put it in his mouth!! He wants to do whatever mommy and daddy are doing and always grabs our food or drinks. Because of this, we got him a sippy cup yesterday! He's tried oatmeal cereal, avocado, and bananas. We plan on trying peas, sweet potato, green beans, acorn squash, and carrots soon too. He must know what sweets are because he always launches himself off of our laps and towards our plates any time we're eating cake or drinking soda. He finally flipped over on purpose this month while he was trying to get our attention. He's done it before trying to get out of his crib, but this was the first time he did it while we were watching. He hasn't done it since even though he totally can. He much prefers staying on his side. He's VERY opinionated and has this huge fear of missing out. Because of this, we still suffer from short naps. However, he loves being outside and going on walks, it will instantly calm him down (and almost always put him to sleep). We love our little guy and are so excited to see what new things he'll learn this month!!  ❤️

It has been quite the weekend! William turned SEVEN months on the 14th, we celebrated Christopher's birthday on the 15th, and then Baby's First Easter and Cody's birthday today. William is a pro at sitting up and rolling over nowadays. (It was all a little shaky still at 6 months.) He loves most baby foods he's tried, but really only eats a couple bites. He's much more interested in grabbing the food off of our plates! He is extremely good at moving around in his baby walker - so much so that we've had to baby proof before he can even crawl! He's started noticing when I'm not in the room and gets pretty whiny until I get back. I guess this is separation anxiety. He's really good with people after he warms up to them though (and as long as I don't leave his sight 😉). He's getting so big and fits in 9 month clothes. We love our happy, loud, hyper, opinionated baby boy! 👶🏻  ❤️  😘

William is EIGHT months old!!

He is such a momma's boy 👩‍👦. He loves being held and tries to eat everything off of our plates 🍽. One of his teeth finally came in, so he likes to "chomp" on any foods we give him and stick his tongue 👅 out ALL THE TIME (probably to feel the tooth). He's also started "army crawling". He'll pull himself across the living room floor because it's not carpeted in order to get into things he shouldn't 😂. He's wearing 9 month clothes now and is giving us a work out 🏋🏼 every time we pick him up 💪🏻. He loves going on walks in his stroller along the Provo River Trail 🏞 and has a meltdown if we go back inside before he's ready. He also LOVES the swings at the park and thinks they're so fun. He says "dada" 👨🏻 all the time now, although usually it's more like "dadadadada". He also likes to do this kind of cackling laugh - he thinks it's so funny. He got to meet Chuck Norris 🥋 this month, so we're expecting great things from this baby in the future. We're kind of nervous 😬 that he's getting more mobile but we're excited to watch him grow and discover new things! We love you William!!  ❤️❤️❤️

I can't believe we have a NINE MONTH OLD!! William had his second tooth (bottom right) pop thru less than a week after his first tooth made an appearance! Now that he has both bottom teeth solidly in place, he LOVES eating anything and everything! He has gotten a lot better at eating veggies 🥗 but he gets seriously offended if he is not eating the same foods as we are. Because of this he has also figured out how to sip our drinks through a straw and how to drink out of his 360 cup like a big boy! We shouldn't have any problem dropping bottles 🍼 by 1 year 😉. He's also moving around a LOT more. He can army crawl very quickly around the apartment. He pulls himself up from sitting position into standing position on everything - in fact, he loves standing up basically all the time (he's often standing up in his crib after he wakes up from naps now). We got an activity table and a sit-to-stand baby walker to help him figure out how to balance better (Thanks Laura!). William also enjoys walking all over the place while holding on to our fingers (he used to only use us to stand still). And he has finally figured out how to jump in his door bouncer, so that entertains him long enough for me to get ready for the day 💁🏼.

William is getting so expressive and it is so fun to see his little personality! Or should I say BIG personality - he has opinions about everything! Recently he's been throwing full blow temper tantrums 😡 where he arches his back and throws back his head. However, when he's in a good mood, he babbles nonstop, saying "dada", "baba" and "mama" (not sure he actually understands what those last two mean). He also uses high pitched screams to communicate fairly often 😖. He flaps his arms like he's flying when he wants our attention and then laughs so much because he thinks it's hilarious when we do it back. He's also figured out how to shake his head "no" because we have to tell him "no" every time he tries to eat a power cord or pull on a lamp - he's always getting into trouble! He also loves to dance 🕺🏻. He has a little basketball 🏀 hoop that plays music 🎶 every time you make a basket. Chris spent a day teaching him how to place the ball through the hoop and now William dances every time it plays music 😂. It is so cute!

There were a couple of firsts for our little cutie this month as well. He has his first major fall: he ran off the porch in his baby walker and scraped up his face. Thank goodness it healed up quick, cuz that was rough for all of us. William also went on his first camping trip. He had a blast! He loves being outdoors, so it was basically a dream come true for him. He got to be outside, have mom and dad's full attention, and got to eat a ton of graham crackers. The neighboring campers commented that he did really well, so we're glad he didn't disturb anyone's trip.

We're anticipating that he'll learn to stand on his own any day now and have been scheming how to further baby proof the apartment before he is completely independently mobile 😬. He's growing up so fast and we're doing our best to keep up!! This little boy keeps us on our toes, but we wouldn't have it any other way 😘.

William is TEN months!! 😱 Here are some of his skills:

- Crawls REALLY well
- New tooth (upper right lateral incisor - I looked that up haha)
- Gives Chris big hugs when he comes home from work
- He throws toys down the stairs and knocks over block towers
- He gets into EVERYTHING
- His favorite place to play is under the kitchen table
- We went to a water park for the first (and second) time
- Had his first Fourth of July (didn't like the fireworks)
- He's started to shake his head "yes"
- He signs "all done" when he wants to get out of his high chair (although really it's just a wild flailing of his arms)
- He still doesn't sleep through the night (the kid is addicted to cuddles) 😴
- He loves dancing to any kind of music 🎶
- And he thinks belly buttons are hilarious 😂

He's super entertaining to be around and makes me laugh everyday with his goofy personality!  ❤️

William is ELEVEN months old! Can you believe this little boy is almost one year old?! He has 6 teeth now (four on the top and two on the bottom) and shows his toothy grin every chance he gets! He's also started clapping. He used to be able to sign "all done" when he was done eating in his high chair, but learning to clap has confused him 😂. We'll keep signing "all done" and "more" for him til he gets the hang of it though! William thoroughly enjoys climbing up stairs (both in our apartment and at the jungle gym at the park). He also started standing on his own for short periods of time 😱. He'll probably start walking sooner than we're prepared for!!

One fairly new and extremely exciting development is that for the past week now, William sleeps through the night! A whole ten hours! That makes us very happy!!

There's a reason this post is a week late: I'm totally in denial. 😭 William is ONE YEAR OLD! This last month he took his first steps! 🚶🏻He's still a little cautious, but he's walking across rooms now. He's also teething again which we suspect is why he stopped sleeping through the night (Dang!).. 😭 Along with the walking, he's decided that he should climb on EVERYTHING. He's a little daredevil and SO sneaky! He gets into everything he's not supposed to. His favorite word is "Gak!" We have no idea what it means, but he says it allllllllllll the time and it's the cutest thing. He also waves "hello" and "goodbye" and every time he wakes up from a nap 😂. His hair is getting so long it's in his eyes now - he'll probably need a haircut soon! We're excited for William's birthday party this weekend and can't wait to see how he continues to grow in the next couple months. 😍

🔻🔻🔻

Here are some photos from William's FIRST BIRTHDAY PARTY:

Sneaky boy snuck a cupcake while I wasn't looking!

Opening Presents!

The Aftermath

He starts off a little unsure what to do with the cake....

       

... But quickly figures it out!!

Happy Birthday, William! :)

William's NICU Stay

William Jeffrey Hughes
Born September 14th at 2:29pm
6lb 11oz

Poor guy had a little bit of a rough start since his cord was wrapped around him and he was facing up during delivery. Due to lack of oxygen, brain swelling, and acidic blood, they whisked him off to the NICU right away. He's hooked up to a lot of monitors to keep track of and regulate everything right now, but the main treatment they're doing to treat the HIE (Hypoxic Ischemic Encephalopathy - brain injury caused by lack of oxygen and blood flow to the brain) is called newborn body cooling. William has to stay in this cooling blanket for at least 72 hours to slow down his metabolism and allow his brain time to heal.


September 15th (NICU Day 2) - Today they took him off of the CPAP breathing machine that was in his nose, so he's improving! (See second photo above). He's looking at a 2 week stay in the NICU but we're so glad this little guy is already making improvements!


September 16th (NICU Day 3) - First Family Photo



September 17th (NICU Day 4) - Baby William has reached the 72 hour mark of his cooling treatment, so they've begun the reheating process at half a degree per hour. He's also weened himself off of the milrinone (medication that was helping his heart pump). It's been a little rough today for him with all the changes but he LOVES being sung to so whenever things are getting hard, the nurses or Chris or I sing to him and he calms down almost immediately. We love our little William! He's doing great! 👪 ❤️ #warriorwilliam
September 17th (Evening Update) - Baby Will is no longer on the cooling treatment! He is swaddled and warm and cozy now :) All those brain probes will be removed in 24 hours after monitoring how he handles this new situation. I'll be happy when all those wires are gone! #warriorwilliam


September 18th (NICU Day 5) - William got all his head wires out, is opening his eyes and looking around, and he nursed today!

Baby William has to do three things now before he can come home:
1. Regulate his body temperature in an open crib.
2. Have regular feedings and gain weight.
3. Breathe without needing oxygen (which he already does now ✅)
Things are looking good! #warriorwilliam


September 19th (NICU Day 6) - Little William is getting an EEG today to measure his brain function after being off of the cooling blanket treatment. The probes have to stay on for an hour but he slept through the whole time they were putting them on and will probably sleep through the whole thing. We should get the results tomorrow. #warriorwilliam
 

September 19th (Evening Update) - William got the rest of the lines out of his umbilical cord and they put a picc line in his head for the last two medications he's on (tpn and lipids). The picc line and a couple sticker monitors (for heart rate, lungs, blood oxygenation, and temperature) are the only wires he has now!

September 20th (NICU Day 7) - William has to be under some lights to combat some jaundice. They put a feeding tube down his nose and have started him on a feeding schedule which should help clear up the jaundice as well. He also got an MRI today, we should get the results soon.




September 22 (NICU Day 9) - This little guy got big boy clothes today!

We also got the results from his EEG and MRI. The EEG showed that all the electrons in his brain were firing like they are supposed to. ✅ The MRI showed a couple small bleeds but the large bleeds is what they're worried about. The small bleeds should resolve themselves. ✅

He got off the UV lights today and he's in an open bed now too! They've continued to bump up his feedings, stretching out his stomach gradually so he'll be up to bottle feedings in like 3 days. The feeding tube and Picc line should come out around then too! That's the last requirement for discharge from the NICU, we're so close!

Grandma got to hold him for the first time today too!  ❤️


September 27 (NICU Day 14) - Here's a picture of baby Will looking like a gangster in his too-big onesie and his beanie 😊 And here's to hoping he gets that line out of his nose today! He's maxed out on his tube feedings so they're letting him eat however much he wants and whenever he wants now!

September 28 (NICU Day 15) - William got another echo on his heart and an EKG done today. BUT he also got his feeding tube out!! He just has to eat 50ml or more nursing or bottle feeding for the next 48 hours then we can take him home!

September 29 (NICU Day 16) - William passed his 90 min car seat test and his hearing test! Christopher and I have to watch a CPR video and "room in" with the baby at the hospital tonight, but we should be able to take him home tomorrow!  ❤️

Rooming in that night
September 30th (NICU Graduation Day) - Guess who's home??? 😊 ❤️
   

Chris's POV: William's Birth

**I just want to warn you guys, Chris is WAY better at describing emotions and feelings. This re-telling is not for the faint of heart. As he said, "If this doesn't make you cry, you don't have a soul." It's pretty heart-wrenching. Read at your own risk.**

Alright. So, I’m hoping to pick up from where McKell left off with this - The Day of William’s Birth.

So, from my point of view, McKell was in the middle of delivery and William’s numbers were dropping on his little monitors and I could tell that the doctor was getting worried. He called in some NICU people to be on call. We had been seeing William’s head for a while but then he just got stuck and wasn’t really moving. The doctor pulled out the vacuum and right before he was going to try use that on William to pull him out, he [William] popped out which was exciting because we were getting worried that he was sitting in there so long. The doctor had to drop the vacuum and just catch him basically, but William was completely limp. He came out and I saw his little mouth open and there was a tiny little gasp. The doctor commented about how slippery he was. He was blue and didn’t breathe, didn’t cry, and didn’t move.

William's Birth Card shows his APGAR scores:
2 at one minute and 5 at five minutes.
(Any score lower than a 7 is a sign that the baby
needs medical attention.)

The doctor fumbled and finally got William’s umbilical cord cut and then passed him off quickly to the NICU respiratory doctors and they went to work on him. So, I just kind of stood there next to McKell and as the doctor finished up with McKell’s labor and stitched her up and I remember them mentioning all the numbers of how William looked and how well he is responding (APGAR Score) and he was getting low scores for everything for what felt like forever. It was at least four minutes of no breathing at all, they were just pumping oxygen into him, trying to get him to do something. He started receiving oxygen and wiggled a little bit, but wasn’t really doing much. So about eight minutes later, or a lifetime later, he finally cried out and that was the biggest sigh of relief because I was thinking,

“Alright, he’s crying, awesome. He’ll get through this, he’ll be fine, they’re gonna let us hold him and it’ll be great.”

They wrapped him up and they gave him to mom and he already had a little tube going down his throat. They gave him to McKell and he was crying. McKell gave him a little kiss and said hi to him and then the NICU doctors said, “Alright, we have to take him.” So, they took him back and put him in the little tub, the little baby NICU beds that have the plastic covers and they said,

“Dad, you need to come with us, because mom has to stay here.”

And so, I kind of looked back and McKell just said, “Okay.” And Bunny said, “I’ll stay with her.” And I was like okay, this is more serious than I thought, so I walk out of the delivery room and I feel like I’m abandoning my wife because you know: 1) she can’t hold her baby and 2) her husband is leaving, so I feel terrible because I want to comfort her but I was so worried about William. We walk down the hall, get to the NICU, they put him in the little NICU “room”, and they tell me,

“You have to stay ten feet away from him because we have to do some procedures on him.”

And that scares me of course and makes me feel horrible because at this point William is crying. His lungs are starting to work and he’s crying out but it’s the saddest little cry ever – it was breaking my heart listening to him crying. They have the head doctor come over to me and he explains that because of his [William’s] condition - not having blood flow for such a long time, not having oxygen to replenish his blood stream, and just the trauma of his birth - that he was at a severe risk for brain damage. That he possibly had heart damage as well, and acidic blood and that they needed to operate immediately or he wouldn’t make it. And so, after all this - nine months of waiting around for him and getting excited to be a dad - the first thing that happens is, you know, I might lose him.

I told the doctor, “Just do whatever you have to do.” They explained to me the cooling treatment they were going to put him on. They were going to keep him in a cold blanket which when they told me this, I thought, “That sounds horrible. You don’t want to make a baby cold! That’s just the cruelest punishment I could think of.” But that it would slow down his metabolism and give his organs time to take a break so that his heart and his brain could recover at a good pace. That he could have a better chance at recovering. And you know, these words that they kept using: “have a better chance”, that he could “have more time”, things like that were scaring me because I was thinking, “What if we do all this and he still not make it?” And for the first while, it depended on William. Was he going to make it?

There's a baby in there... somewhere.

I sat there and watched as he cried. There were nurses and a few doctors holding his arms and legs down as they put tubes into his umbilical cord, attached sensors all over his body, put a thermometer down his throat, put wires and little needles into his head, put the CPAP up his nose, and wrapped him in this blanket that pumped cold water from a refrigerator through it to make sure his temperature stayed cold. And I sat there for what felt like forever, I was sitting in the chair, watching this from a distance and not being able to be there for him. The most I could do was just support him from a distance and pray for him. During this, I’m trying to stay strong and be optimistic, but I’m pessimistic at heart so I’m having this inner battle with myself just trying to stay positive and fearing the worst.

And they finally finish and they say, “okay dad, you can come over.” I go over and at this point they’ve started to sedate him because he’s going to be sedated on this treatment so he forgets that he was cold and uncomfortable and unable to nurse or interact with anyone really. And I just stood there and looked at him. I remember staring at his head and staring at his little face just covered in all this equipment, seeing his curly hair all messed up and I have this crazy feeling just like “This is my child and I love him.” And I don’t know if dads really hit that at that point, but I just couldn’t not care about him. He was my son and I was terrified for him and I didn’t want to lose him.

William has quite the grip.

A nurse said that I could hold his hand and have him grab my finger. So, I put my finger by his hand and - this is when I couldn’t really contain myself - he grabbed on to my finger and his fingertips were white because he was squeezing so hard. He was just softly crying because he didn’t know what else to do and I’m sure he was uncomfortable and in shock from everything that happened. I just kind of held on to his fingers and sat there. I just tried to talk to him and let him know that he would be okay and that we were watching out for him and that he would get to see mom soon. Then I just cried and couldn’t believe that all of this was happening. I was so worried for him.

And so, I don’t remember how long it was, but after a while, they brought McKell into the NICU so she could see him. They pulled the curtains around us so we could have a private moment and we both just kind of held on to his little hands and just sat there and looked at him. And honestly, I just felt defeated. I didn’t know how I was going to overcome this and be able to stay strong because my wife had just gone through this really painful process and now she’s like, “Was it all for nothing? Is he going to be gone, do I not get to enjoy him in this life?”. We just sat there for hours I think, just staring at him, wishing we could hold him and wishing things were different.

This shows all the machines that were in the "room" constantly monitoring our baby. It was hard to get near him because there were so many cords and wires surrounding his bed.

Then grandma (Bunny) wanted to come see him so I decided to go back to the room where McKell was staying. I just went back there and I prayed and I cried, that’s all I did. And by some miracle, after everything, William made an amazing recovery and McKell will tell you guys more about it. But that was kind of my experience with the first moments of William’s life and my first moments being a dad, really. And I know that our family has been through a lot and we’ve been prepared for a lot, I’m just grateful that we’ve had the blessing of seeing him recover and being able to be with him. It was really the only thing that would make that situation better, is knowing that he would grow up and that we could be with him and that I could be his dad.

Yeah, that’s pretty much it.