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.

William's Birth Story

I figured I should write this now since Will is almost a year old. Better late than never!

If this photo doesn't scream
"I'm so totally done being pregnant"
I don't know what does!

I had a relatively normal pregnancy. I had minimal morning sickness (Thank goodness because I still had to hike up the hill to BYU campus for one more semester! – That was the one time I almost lost it.). I was working full time basically my entire pregnancy. The first half of my pregnancy I was finishing my last semester at BYU, preparing to graduate, working as a supervisor at the Wilkinson Center Information Desk, and had just started training to become a manager at Jersey Mike’s. We found out the sex of the baby a week before graduation and announced both the gender and the pregnancy to our families when pretending to take graduation photos. After that, I pretty much just spent the summer working full time as the Jersey Mike’s manager for their store in Orem. I trained the whole crew from scratch and helped the Franchise Owners open and run the Orem store. Our store then became a hub to train new employees for the American Fork store that opened towards the end of the summer. I spent my whole shift on my feet and never stopped working.

My blood pressure was high at every doctor’s appointment. My Dr. wanted to make sure my hypertension didn’t turn into pre-eclampsia, so he had me come for weekly check-ups for the last two months of my pregnancy (Aug – Sept). These appointments continued to go as well as could be expected. They had me do a non-stress test where they hooked me up to a machine that monitored the baby’s heartbeat for 30 minutes. They also had me get an ultrasound at each appointment (this is why we have so many ultrasound photos in William’s baby book). Then I would meet with Dr. Young and he would always start off with, “Your blood pressure is a little high.” He told me he wouldn’t keep me pregnant past 37 weeks because they were worried about the effect this would have on the baby. Because of this, I told Jersey Mike’s that September 3^rd would be my last day of work (since the week after that I would be 37 weeks pregnant). I had a relatively relaxing week and we planned to have my mom come into town the Sunday after that (September 11^th). My dad was teasing me, asking how likely it was that the baby would come that early.. Anyways, my mom came with me to my doctor’s appointment that Tuesday (September 13^th). Everything went how it normally would, this time the ultrasound tech printed up a nice profile shot of the baby and a 3D photo as well. When Dr. Young came in, we discussed my high blood pressure again and he said, “Alright, when would you like to be induced? Tonight or tomorrow?” That came as a bit of a shock but my mom immediately got excited and started texting up a storm. I responded, “Uh, Tomorrow? We absolutely can’t wait til next week?” He explained that that would be too risky so I agreed to go in on Wednesday September 14^th. He called Timpanogos Regional Medical Hospital while I was still in the room and scheduled the induction bright and early at 5am. My mom and I hustled to pick Christopher up from school and ran around buying a ton of last minute things for the baby.

That belly is HUGE!!!

The next morning, we woke up and called in to the hospital to make sure no emergency deliveries came in before us. They said no and that I was first on the list. So we drove to the hospital and got all checked in and settled in the delivery room. Around 7am they started me on Pitocin. They also brought me breakfast, but I wasn’t allowed to eat so Chris ate it. There was a TV in the delivery room that had nonstop movies playing all day. I remember watching The Hunger Games and The Good Dinosaur. The Good Dinosaur was not at all what I expected it to be. I asked for an epidural the same time one of the doctors came in to break my water. I feel like things went pretty fast after that. At 10:50am I was dilated to 5cm. At 11:40am I was at 8cm. By noon, the nurse started talking me through “practice pushes”, but they felt pretty real to me. I remember she had Dr. Young come in pretty soon after that so I could REALLY push. Pushing took a while. I remember reading somewhere that on average you’re pushing for an hour for your first baby. But that hour came and went. By the two hour mark I was getting discouraged, but I could see the baby’s head thanks to the handy dandy mirror they kept at the end of the bed. William’s heartrate would drop every time I had a contraction and pushed, so Dr. Young told me he was going to use a vacuum to speed the process up and help me push the baby out. But right after he opened the packaging, he pretty much had to drop it so he could catch the baby.

William Jeffrey Hughes was born September 14^th, 2016 at 2:29pm.

He weighed 6lb 11oz and was 20 inches long.

Everything up until this point felt pretty robotic and instinctual, I didn’t let myself think about anything too much or else my nerves would get the best of me. I had no idea what I was doing or what to expect, I just did whatever the nurses and doctor told me to do.

However, once he was out, he looked like a limp fish. Nothing could have prepared me for the extreme dread I felt. I know babies come out a purple-ish color and very floppy looking, but this was different. Dr. Young handed the baby to the NICU respiratory team right away and they began frantically working on him. It took William 8 minutes to breathe on his own. He wasn’t breathing at all for the first four minutes after being born and then they managed to pump some oxygen into him. That first baby breath and cry is so iconic and expected after giving birth, but we didn’t get that. The room felt tense and the only thing I could focus on was my little baby’s unmoving body. Those minutes felt like an eternity.

He had to be hooked up to a
CPAP for that first day after
he was born. 

Finally, there was a little cry and the NICU team let me hold William for a second and give him a quick kiss before whisking him off to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. They informed us that only mom or dad could go with the baby, and since my epidural hadn’t worn off yet, Christopher had to leave me to be with the baby. I don’t know how normal baby births go, but this was not at all what I had expected or anticipated. My mom stayed with me so that helped, but I still felt very lost and worried. Everything was “back to business” after that as the nurses were getting me prepped to move to my recover room, but I was still very anxious. Anyone who knows me knows I hate to not know what’s going on, so this was torture. Chris had to watch as the Neonatologists performed surgery on our newborn, placing umbilical lines and monitors all over his tiny little body. He eventually was able to Facetime me and fill me in on everything that had happened after he had left with the baby.

I'm gonna have to leave it "To Be Continued..." so I don't create the World's Longest Blog Post, but Part Two (or William's NICU Stay) is in the works!

One Year Down, Eternity to Go!

December was probably the busiest month of my whole life. Hence, no blog post.
So now I've got the awesome task of catching up.

In case you missed our Halloween costumes, here they are again.

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Also, in case you missed it, my mom wrote a book! Check it out here:

And So It Begins...

And her first picture book, 10 Little Nephite Missionaries, available for pre-order here:

10 Little Nephite Missionaries

I'm so proud of her!
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November was an eventful and busy month. On November 17, Christopher got into a car accident. He was hit from behind and it pushed him into the car in front of him, crushing our car. There were 5-6 cars total involved. I received a text message from him while I was in class that simply said, "I was in an accident." After some prodding and a phone call, I got a little more information out of him and rushed to the scene with the help of Ashleigh who drove me. Poor Christopher was really out of it and had me worried all day so I skipped my classes and got my work shift covered so I could stay home and watch him. The paramedics on the scene said he had a concussion but the doctor at Urgent Care said it was just whiplash. I wasn't taking any chances. He had bit a big chunk out of his tongue and had a huge bruise on his hip where the seat belt buckle was. The collision was enough that the air bags went off and our car was totaled.

 The fun part about this whole story is that for the two weeks between the accident and when we got back from our trip to VA, our car was in the tow lot. They charged us $40 for Every. Single. Day. Plus tow costs. We paid a ton of money to get the car out and tow it to our driveway so the insurance company of the guy who hit us could look at it. They barely called us yesterday to set up a time to see it. Sheesh.
However, we have been truly blessed despite this situation. Our friends have been so extremely helpful in driving us to places we need to go and family members have lent us money. My parents have even let us use their Honda Civic for this next school semester. And so very thankfully, we had our $1000 emergency fund to pay for all the towing costs. Thank goodness we had those savings in addition to our school savings!
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Things have been looking up since then.

We decorated our house for Christmas and really got into the Christmas spirit.

And we got to take our long anticipated trip to Virginia to see Christopher's family!

Much fun was had and McKell got her baby fix.... for now. I love these people to pieces and they never cease to make me laugh. I am so extremely lucky to have married into such a great family!

While in Virginia, the sister missionaries shared the "He Is The Gift" video with us (see it here: https://www.youtube.com/) After that, I really got into the Christmas Spirit. It was a lot easier to feel happy even though I was stressed out about work and school and all of our trials. I set aside time to make Christmas goody plates for the people around me. We also went to the "Tree of Life" in Draper and made Gingerbread Houses :)

More good news, I went to my court hearing for my small claims case at the beginning of December and it was dismissed, meaning I don't have to pay for all the damages to that kids car who crashed into my yard (not even into me!). Just as well, it wasn't even my fault. Even better, my insurance rates didn't go up either.

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For Christmas, we decided to surprise my mom and drove down to Arizona for two days. A short amount of time, but it was SO worth it. She screamed. Ha ha. It was also fun to see the whole family and all the changes they made to the house since I hadn't been home since last Christmas.

My dog is getting old...

Unfortunately, when we drove back to Utah it started to snow and made the 10 hour trip more like a 12 hour trip. Poor Christopher got home around 4am and had work a few hours later at 8:45am. He's a trooper though, and I definitely know he got some major mom points by driving me down for Christmas!

(P.S. we stopped at the Hoover Dam on the way

home because Christopher had never been.

Look how excited he is!)

For New Years we went to a Van Lady Love concert and had a blast. We got caricature drawings of our faces and then went back to my apartment for some dancing and Martinelli's. It was a great way to ring in the New Year, surrounded by great friends, making unforgettable memories.

Steele, the base player from Van Lady Love.

Finally, Christopher and I just got back from our 1st Year Anniversary trip to SLC. We had are awesome time pretending we were rich snobs in Salt Lake and spending lots of money (Christmas gift cards) on all our fancy mealtimes. I am so lucky to have married such a fantastic guy. He is hilarious and I have to say, we're pretty much the perfect couple! I love you Christopher!!

Freaking Fancy breakfast at $23/plate. NBD.

Anyways, that's all for now.
School starts tomorrow and
I am NOT excited.
Woop woop.

(Continued.)

Alright, now to finish off the events of September and catch up on what's been going on in October...
Here goes nothing.

Some fun things we did in September include seeing Mindy Gledhill at the Velour and (almost) participating in the World's Largest Scavenger Hunt.

Mindy was a super energetic performer with some goofy dance moves, but she has an amazing voice and Christopher has loved her since like forever.

The rabbit is supposedly Ryan Innes.

On September 13th, Provo put on this HUGE scavenger hunt event called the Passport to Provo. The scavenger hunt tasks were everything from snapping a photo with a local landmark to sampling a product at a local restaurant. It sounded like a blast! We wanted to do it, but we all ended up working on Saturday and all members of your team had to be present at the start of the event. Bummer. But, surprise, surprise! I was actually working the after party event at the Convention Center. So, between my connections and Christopher's connections to the Google Fiber people running the after party, we were able to get our friends in for the free food and music as well as snag some pretty cool shirts!

This is the official-looking
Guinness World Record lady.
She's a party animal.

The Guinness World Record people were at the after party, counting the number of Provo "passports" (scavenger hunt lists) to determine if the number of people in attendance broke the previous record. As it turns out, Provo more than doubled that number, completely destroying the old record. The previous record was 924 people and they had 2,079 people participate. Google Fiber put on a crazy cool party with a DJ and then Ryan Innes (a local singer who was on The Voice) performing and the Convention Center provided some awesome food munchies. (btw, preparing all those sodas was a pain in the butt.)




The best part though, was that I got to cut this EPIC cake!






The end of September ended up being the most exciting for us. Although I had many tests and Christopher had a lot of homework, we made sure we still got to hang out with friends so we wouldn't go stir crazy.
Monday September 22^nd was the start of Kolby’s Birthweek. We wanted to make sure this year's birthday was awesome for him, so we started the week off by getting Virgin Drinks at Los Hermanos. That, and chips and queso. Best sort of snack ever.
Tuesday September 23^rd We went to our favorite sushi place, Kyoto. They always have buy one get one deals on sushi rolls so it's really just the best.

Wednesday September 24^th I worked until 10pm at the Info Desk, so Ash and Kolbs grabbed Sodalicious and were going to meet us here. My mom actually surprised me by coming to the Wilk too! She decided to visit the same time my dad would be at BYU recruiting. I don't know if Kolby's Birthweek was good for him, but it was good for me! I love when my parents come visit!!

Thursday September 25^th we rented not one, but TWO puppies from the rent-a-puppy organization. I LOVE PUPPIES!! (This was also the day of the epic Costco trip I took with my mom. I love her.)

Surprise from the Parents :)

Friday September 26^th my dad promised us dinner, so we went to Tucanos. This is starting to become a tradition and I don't know if my belly can handle it! It was so dang good though, and the first time mom and Cody had been there. The rest of the family was pretty much out of commission for the rest of the night after that, so Christopher and I went to hang out with our friends in the woods and play Slenderman. It was terrifying, especially because it was drizzly and dark. We gave ourselves a good scare and sang to Kolby at midnight because it marked the start of his actual birthday :)

Saturday September 27^th – Kolby’s Birthday – Once Kolby got back to Provo, we had cake and presents at his apartment.
After that we went to Barb and Larry’s and hang out and play games and use their projector for movies and Mario Kart.

Sunday September 28th my parents went to church with Christopher and I. That was interesting because it was the first time since we moved into the new apartment that we actually went to our new ward. It was also funny because it was a Married Student Ward, so my parents might have felt a little out of place. Christopher and I are still trying to get used to the new ward.

Monday September 29^th My parents left, so that was sad for me. L

WOO!!! I FINALLY CAUGHT UP ON SEPTEMBER!!
Now for a quick synopsis of what's been going on in October and I'll let you all be on your way.

Friday October 3^rd we saw Neon Trees in Downtown Provo for the Free Rooftop Concert Series. So fun! I only know all their old music, but the new stuff was pretty catchy too! I didn't get any good pictures because we were pretty far back, but Cody got pretty close when he was swept away by the randoms who started off next to us.

Tradition!!

Saturday October 4^th was General Conference. I had to take a test, but after that I watched what was left of conference with Ashleigh (I don't have internet or cable at my house). I had to deal with some microbiology lab results for class between sessions, then we (me, Ash, and Cody) watched the afternoon session at Ashleigh's apartment too. We all went to SLC so the boys could go to priesthood session. Ash and I went shopping at City Creek Mall (like every other woman in SLC). Christopher had a mission reunion after that, so Kolby, Ashleigh, Cody and I went to get dinner at Chipotle (A tradition for Cody after Priesthood session). I always love any excuse to go to Salt Lake City. It's where I got engaged after all :)

Sunday October 5^th We watched the morning session at Kolby's apartment and ate Coffee Cake (tradition!). For the Afternoon Session we played our usual version of Conference Bingo ;)
Fun times had all around. We got pretty sugar high too.


Saturday October 12^th I got a couple inches cut off my hair - about time! - and we decorated our house for Halloween! I am literally beyond excited that we have a porch!!

Before our bike got stolen....

We installed a black light on our porch too.
Looks creepy, doesn't it?

(Tuesday October 21st I got sued, but that's not exciting.)
Wednesday October 23rd we carved pumpkins, so now our house is officially festive! We made pumpkin seeds of course. All about those traditions.

This is how the pumpkins looked the first day.

Mine.

Christopher's.

This is how they looked after a couple days...

Doesn’t seem that busy, but school projects and tests all the time…. Ugh.

BUT, now we're caught up! Hopefully I'll be better about this when we FINALLY get internet on October 30th. SO. EXCITED.

ta-ta for now.