First Day/Night Home - November 28

Our first day home felt just right! We arrived home around 1:30 to a paparazzi shooting video and pictures so that we could always remember the moment. Both sets of parents were here and after settling in and unpacking we just hung out with the little guy.

Trevor is a sleepy baby. We call him sack of potatoes because at this point he would rather sleep than eat. We'd wake him up for feedings only for him to sack out in our laps!! We wondered if that meant he would be up all night, but fortunately he slept a lot at night too. We tried using the bassinet that Jeff and Dawn borrowed us in our room but Trevor didn't really take to it at all. When he was having a bit of a fit and nothing else worked Sara held him in the football position in bed with us and then he slept for almost 4 hours! We realize that is a big no, no, but we all were exhausted and it worked out just fine fortunately.

On Sunday the nurse from the hospital called to check in and we let her know that he wasn't eating much. We told her that he wasn't breastfeeding at all so we were doing 15 ml dropper feedings of formula every few hours. Well, she was extremely concerned because when we were discharged Trevor had lost more than 10% of his body weight (he was at 7 lbs 13 oz) and now she figured he was high 6's or low 7's. So of course this brought Sara to tears that we were already failing as parenting and starving our child. We increased his formula feedings to ounces via bottle as instructed and waited to meet with the at-home nurse on Monday and a lactation consultant on Tuesday.

In those meetings we learned that we weren't failing as parents by any means, we actually were doing quite well! Trevor just was particular in his feedings and latching for breastfeeding would take time. In the meantime, we made the decision to pump and bottle feed the expressed milk if an attempt at breast feeding was not successful. His weight at the lactation consultant on Tuesday was 7 lbs 6 ounces so we needed him to gain weight and he would with this new plan!

Here's a picture we wanted to share. The little pic is of Brian when he was a newborn. Quite a resemblance huh?

Going Home!

We were discharged from the hospital Saturday morning (November 28) and boy did it feel good to go home with Trevor. The Pediatrician and Sara's Doctor said it was up to us whether we wanted to be discharged Saturday or Sunday. We decided that our hospital experience was nice...even the food was good...but we were just ready to be in the comfort of our own house.

Here is Trevor leaving the hospital:


And here we are at home sweet home!



We introduced Trevor and Randle to one another by having Brian carry Trevor into the house and setting him down. We had sent parents home with receiving blankets and clothes that smelled of Trevor so that Randle could get used to the scent and it must have worked. When Randle met Trevor in person he sniffed for less than a minute and was done!

Hospital Visitors

Because of H1N1, the hospital where we delivered had strict rules on visitors...no children, no more than 2 visitors at a time, and visiting hours were 11-8. However, we did still manage to have some visitors during our 2.5 day stay.

Both sets of Grandparents got to see him everyday and our siblings got to meet Trevor on Friday!

His Name

We thought choosing a name for our son would be hard work given that Sara likes more unique names and Brian likes more traditional/conservative names, but we actually came to agreement on a name very quickly. The amazing part is that we've known his name since July 4 weekend when we were poolside at the Hillins' in Scottsdale....and never let it slip once! Mom Hillins was going through the name book letter by letter throwing out names. Sara and Brian weren't necessarily participating in the event given we knew we didn't want to share his name before he was born but we played along by listening and sometimes saying "no, we don't like that name" or "we like the name, but it rhymes with so and so" or "we don't like the abbreviation." Later, in our room, Sara said to Brian "I like Trevor, do you?" and Brian said yes. We never really spoke about the name again in case that Sara's brother and wife named their boy Trevor, but the morning that we got the text that their son was born and his name was Sam, Brian turned to Sara and said "looks like we've got Trevor" and that was it!!

The middle name is a different story. We had always known that it would be Steven, after Sara's Dad. However, when Sara's Grandma passed away we started thinking that maybe we would have a middle name that honored her. So, Trevor went without a middle name until Friday afternoon when we decided it would be Kelly. Kelly is Sara's Grandma's married name, Sara's Mom's maiden name, and both Sara's and her brother Jim's middle name. :)

Trevor Kelly means prudent warrior and we think that is perfect!

Trevor's Birth Story

Sara had planned to take Wednesday, November 25 as a vacation day as an early start to the holiday and the scheduled induction for Friday. She wrapped up work the day before. Well, Wednesday started out like any other day except that thoughts of Sara's Grandmas weighed heavy on Sara's mind. Her funeral was today and Sara was disappointed that she couldn't go, although she contemplated driving given that nothing seemed to be happening on the baby front. A few friends and family members even commented that they received emails from Sara at 5:00 am on Wednesday!!

Well, Brian was headed to work but doing something on the computer quick before leaving. Sara was about to figure out her plans for the day. Randle had just come in from outside and had brought in some unwanted leaves. The time was 8:00 am. Sara bent over to pick up one of the leaves and felt that something was different. She hurried to the bathroom and realized that her water broke!! Luckily Brian was still at home and got to be part of the excitement. We called the doctor and they told us to make our way to the hospital. Well, Sara wanted to eat breakfast and take a quick shower so she did while Brian packed up the bags for the hospital.

We were at the hospital at 9:30 and got put in the maternal assessment center. They checked Sara's vitals but skipped the check to see if her water had broke because it was clear that it had and was continuing to break! At 11:00 we were in our birthing room and at 12:00 they started Pitocin to help bring on contractions. After your water breaks, you really only have 18 hours to deliver the baby, otherwise the baby doesn't have enough fluid. Contractions were mild at first so we were holding on getting an epidural. At one point Sara thought, hmmm maybe she can do this naturally. And then all of a sudden the contractions got much more intense and were much closer together...every 2 minutes. At that point we decided to get the Anesthesiologist to administer the epidural. Oh, wow...epidurals are amazing!! Sara said you still feel things but not with the intensity as before. The weird part was how much your body shakes like you're cold, but in reality it is all the adrenaline and your body laboring even though you don't feel much of it. At that point we were over 4 cm dilated and it was around 4:00, we were progressing about 1 cm an hour which is about right. We watched some TV and the movie UP. Our friend Mara who had her son Finn by c-section on Monday at the same hospital stopped by for a visit too!

A little before 10:00 pm Sara reached 10 centimeters and the doctor was on her way from delivering another baby at a different hospital (she and the nurse had been in communication all day). With the nurse we did some practice pushes and she said Sara was doing very well. When Dr. Lehrman arrived she reviewed Sara's chart and witnessed some pushing. We pushed for about 20 minutes total. The doctor left the room and shortly after requested that the nurse see her for a moment. Well they were out there for like 15 minutes and Brian was getting upset, like really? who leaves when the baby is coming!! Well, when they made their way back into the room they gave us the news that baby Hillins wasn't tolerating the contractions well. His baseline heartrate was 140 or so and during the contractions his heart rate went to 200 and then dropped to 100 afterward. Dr. Lehrman said it was best if we did a c-section to get the baby out safely. She said we could continue pushing but it could be 2-3 hours before the baby arrived and that was no guarantee that a c-section still wouldn't be needed. Sara and Brian were a bit frustrated only because of the long day we've had and the excitement that we had about giving birth, but the doctor knows best so we followed her advice. That was 11:00pm.

By 11:10pm Sara was wheeled into the operating room. She pretty much had tears the whole way there. She was anxious about the procedure since she didn't do any research on c-section. She just remembered the "bad stories" about people getting blood clots, infections, and sometimes even dying. C-sections are a major abdominal surgery. At 11:20pm Brian rejoined Sara in the operating room. The nurses and doctors tried to help keep us calm by having small talk with us...where did you meet, how long have you been married, etc but all we wanted was for them to focus on the procedure!

Throughout labor and then the c-section, we kept the 3-D image of Baby H close - here it is turned sideways - faced to the left:


At 11:29pm baby Hillins was born. Some memorable moments included when they were pulling him out they said he had a lot of hair, when his butt was out they said oh he's a big boy, and at some point they said "he's really long...oh wait, his legs aren't even out yet!!" Even the nurses weren't exactly sure how baby Hillins fit inside Sara given how small/basketball she was! He was 8 lbs 12 oz and 22 inches in length. Dr. Lehrman said after the operation that it was definitely for the best that we did a c-section because Sara had a small pelvic bone and the baby was big! You could even see on his head where he got "stuck" in the birth canal...he had a bit of an indentation about 1 cm past his forehead.

The entire process was certainly amazing and we were so glad to hear our little guy cry. Brian got to hold him right away and Sara got to see him. He was the most precious looking baby!! The took him to the nursery and monitored him for a while because his heart rate wasn't coming down. After a little while though it did. He was given an apgar score of 9. Brian spent time with him in the nursery to make sure all was well and then came back to the operating room to see Sara. Sara just remembers telling the nurses and doctors to please not leave any parts (tools/bandages/etc) in her!! At around 1:30 or so they put Sara in a recovery room and brought in Trevor (at this point we confirmed the name). What a little cutie!! He loved looking at Mommy and Daddy!

Around 3:00 am we got put in our hospital room and a nurse came in to check Sara and Trevor's vitals and to give Trevor a bath. Nurses came in pretty much every hour to check on Sara, give her medicine and whatnot. They were all surprised to see Brian sleeping on a blow-up mattress he had brought in, but it was a good thing he did. That was much more comfortable for his back than the old hospital fold-out chair. We put Trevor in the nursery that night so we could get a few hours of sleep, but let's be honest, we were too excited to sleep (well, Sara at least) plus with getting woken up every hour, sleep just wasn't meant to be had!!

What a wonderful, although long day! We know with certainty that Grandma Kelly had a hand in bringing Trevor into the world on the day of her funeral. It really is a circle of life. She wanted us to focus on the baby rather than be sad about her going to heaven. We know though that she was with that day helping us along and continues to watch over us. She is Trevor's special angel.