GUESS WHO'S BACK? BACK AGAIN. CONNOR'S BACK. TELL A FRIEND.

Connor's Bilirubin level's have dropped back down to a 14, so he's down to low intermediate risk. No more lamps, no more blue glowing "bili-blanket" when we're feeding him. We finally have our cute little baby back with us in our room. The doctor has released him pending one last check at 7:00 tonight.



Tiffany took this picture while she was trying to catch him smiling. He smiled before she stared taking pictures and as soon as she turned the camera off, but this is as close as she got during.



I took this picture last night when we were trying to wake him up... He tends to fall asleep during nursing.

UPDATE

The nurse just came in and said that Connor has dropped from a 17.1 mg/dL to 16.1 mg/dL (on a scale of 1-25). They have four zones of Risk:

Low Risk
Low Intermediate Risk
High Intermediate Risk
High Risk
Critical Risk

Critical Risk is from 20-25 and is where there is a high chance for brain damage to occur. Here's how Connor's measurements went:

40 hours: 15.5
50 hours: 16.9
62 hours: 17.1 (This is the point where they were getting a little stressed.)
74 hours: 16.1

The nurse said that if this trend continues, he would likely be able to come home without his glowing blue friend. So that's all good news.

Tiffany has been cleared to leave, but they said the insurance company will cover another day and she's welcome to stay, so we decided to do that. So it looks like we're here for at least (and hopefully only) one more day.

MORE PICTURES

Connor decided he needed a little bronzing after 9 months in the womb. :) Jaundice has kicked in in full force, so the hospital was kind enough to give us this contraption that allows him to stay with us in the room while receiving some fluorescent light therapy.



Two days after surgery, Tiffany is sitting up for the first time and feeling good... or at least better. Check out the size of her poor swollen feet. :(



You can tell by the smile on my face that this picture was taken before the game...



Cute Aunt Bethany came by to visit with Joel & Kaylee. It was almost exactly a year ago when the roles were reversed. You can tell in this picture how yellow the poor little guy is from the Jaundice.



Can you say "Lortab"?



We finally got a picture of the elusive Dr. Seale whose hands are the only part to make an appearance in any of the pictures thus far (being passed the scissors to cut the cord in the C-section pics.) He is hands down the best doctor I've ever had any experience with. Extremely competent, sharp, professional, practical, patient, sympathetic, concerned, tactful, comforting, and an all-around good man. (I was going to put "funny" because he almost always makes us laugh, but that word almost carries with it a connotation of unprofessionalism -- He definitely has a sense of humor, but he uses it with discretion to put his patients at ease.)

Two stories that might give you some insight into his personality. First, for a pediatrician, he recommended us to a friend of his who he had talked in to coming out to Utah to practice. We took his advice, and we are glad we did -- She is great. But the first time we talked to her and told her she had been recommended by him, she said that they had been in the Air Force together. For some reason, a military background explained a lot.

The second story is that a friend of ours is in residency here at McKay Dee, and when we told him who our doctor was, he said he really liked him. He said, "One thing that impresses me is that he's Catholic, but unlike many people who claim to be Catholic, he is a serious Catholic who lives his religion." Again, no surprise. You can see it in his countenance -- He is a man of great integrity and discipline.

I just asked Tiffany what word she would use to describe him, and she said, "Nice." That is the perfect word. This pic was taken shortly after he removed the staples in Tiff's lower abdomen.



Tiff up for a recommended walk. But where is she going...?



...To see her little baby in the nursery under the fluorescent lights.



He is at a "High Risk" level of Bilirubin right now (which is Jaundice), but there was only a small increase between last night and this morning, so that's a good sign. They told us that if he increases any more they'll have to put him on an IV and keep him under the lamps round the clock, so we're hoping that's not the case. Last night, we nursed him every 2 hours (which is rough when nursing takes about an hour each time) to try to move the Bilirubin through him and then they would take him back to go under the lamps. Now he is supposed to nurse more every 3 hours with the fluorescent pad on at all times and they keep him under the lamp the rest of the time.

A sweet nurse volunteered to take a closeup shot of him.



Grandpa Rob came up this morning and helped me give him a blessing at this last feeding, so we are confident everything will turn out alright. Thanks to all of you for your prayers on our behalf. We'll keep you posted.

THE REST OF THE STORY...

Connor Spencer Hilton. 7 lbs, 8 oz. 21".



Sorry about cutting the posts short yesterday, but things got a little crazy after that last post. Shortly after I posted that message, the doctor came in to take a look. He watched Tiff do a couple of pushes, and then he suggested that we use suction to try to guide him out. He had Tiff push through one contraction with the suction and his hands trying to move the baby's head, and then he had her give everything she had with one big push while he pulled as hard as he could until the suction finally popped off.

He said, "We can continue pushing, but the hard part of the head is just not fitting past the pelvic bone. I think we'll just do damage if we continue trying to push him out. So I think we just ought to do a C-section."

Looking back on the situation, I can see the nurse was a little stressed (even though she didn't show it) because Tiffany had been pushing for 2 hours straight and she couldn't see the baby's head. That's when she finally said she wanted to go see what the doctor wanted to do. My guess is that Dr. Seale already knew before he walked into the room that we were probably going to have to do a C-section. But he tried his best to work the head into a position where it could pass through the bone.

There was a little stress at that point, because the baby's heartrate had dropped with all the pushing and pulling. They gave Tiffany some oxygen and had her lay to one side. Dr. Seale watched the monitor until his heartrate jumped back up.

They immediately started prepping for the C-section, changing out of their delivery clothes and getting everything cleared up. They slapped me into a gown, hat, booties, and mask. They started unhooking Tiffany and getting everything ready to go. The anesthesiologist came in and started prepping for the surgery... And then we all waited around for about a half-hour.

There was apparently another patient in the C-section room. I was thinking, There isn't more than one C-section room?? They answered that question by explaining that the reason it was taking so long is that policy at the hospital was to always have one room open for emergencies. If our baby was in distress, then we could and would move in there. But since he was doing okay, we waited.

After 20-30 minutes (and what felt like hours), we finally went into the room. Everybody scrambled to get everything ready. And within just a couple minutes, they were going to work. I sat on a stool by Tiffany's head, so I couldn't really see too well what was going on. But as they pulled out the first rag covered in Tiffany's blood and I started to feel a little lightheaded, I was glad I was sitting down and decided it would be best to just look at Tiffany. What struck me funny was that they were all very relaxed and just chatting about current events and making jokes.

Then suddenly, the mood seemed to shift a little and they were all business. From what I observed, the baby had moved so far down that they were having a hard time pulling him out. The doctors were calling out orders and the aide was handing them different instruments. Then Dr. Seale did something that surprised me a little. He reached into the cut on the top side, grabbed her stomach, and yanked as hard as I did installing his little carseat. He yanked 3-4 times (enough to tear the uterus 8 stitches worth), and then put his other hand in and started to pull.

The anesthesiologist said, "Better get your camera ready." I scrambled to get it out of my pocket and turned on. Then as soon as the camera was ready, I fired off this picture:



(How gross is that??) They suctioned him out, and then Dr. Seale clamped and cut his cord. They called the time of birth "5:30 on the dot." Then the second doctor held him up for me to take this picture:

(5:31 -- I marked him with a Sharpie.) :)



They rushed him into a second room and said I could follow. Two really nice nurses suctioned him out more and wiped him down. Here is a pic of that:



He only cried a tiny bit. Just a little cry once in a while. They looked at all his vitals and made sure he was breathing okay. Then they wrapped him back up and had me take him back in so Tiff could see him. I went in and held him up so she could see, but she was shaking really bad and not looking good. I asked her if she was alright, and she said she thought she was going to throw up. So I told the doctors, and they gave her a little medicine to help.

The nurses then took me to go get the baby fully cleaned up, so we walked into another room and put him under the little heater in a bin, and she scrubbed him down. She washed his head over the sink, and then brought him back over and laid him down. Right then, Sherlene and Kelly (her good friend who works at the hospital) came and looked through the window. I was really glad to see them -- The whole experience was really stressful, and for some reason just seeing Sherlene standing there smiling gave me a lot of comfort. (I'm getting all emotional thinking about it again.) Here's the pic I took right before they walked over:



It occurred to me that my side of the fam would want to know how things were going, so I took a picture with my phone and sent it to everybody. 20 minutes later, when I saw a message from Mom pleading to know how things were going, I realized I didn't have enough bars in that part of the building to send a picture message. So that's when I sent out the text saying that he was here.

They then took me over to recovery. Tiff will hate this picture, but it shows you what color she was when I walked in. (The doctor told us today that she lost a lot of blood in the C-section, and that if she felt lightheaded and weak that they may consider giving her a transfusion.) She was pale and really shaking. But I can't tell you, after such a short period of time, how happy I was to have our little family back together in the same room. It had really stressed me out that nobody had told me how she was doing and that I didn't know where she was or if everything was going alright. (Especially after Lance & Chelsey's story.)



Sherlene was there with Tiffany, which I know Tiffany really appreciated. She held the baby for a minute. Then Tiff held the baby and tried to get him to nurse (which definitely is easier said than done.) This pic is right before that with our nurse, Barb, on the left. Barb helped us through most of Tiffany's original labor. She was excellent! We really enjoyed having her as our nurse. She even stuck around past her shift to help Tiff with the breastfeeding.



After Tiffany was in the recovery room for an hour, we were finally able to go to our room here at McKay-Dee and have the fam see and hold the baby. Everybody was great, and Mike & Joel were nice enough to run get me some food since I hadn't eaten a real meal since the night before. Here are some pics of the fam and Connor:







After everybody left, we had one last (hopefully) scare. The CNA came in to check on Connor's vitals. When the CNA went to move him, Connor made this weird cough/gulp noise, and all this blackish/brownish stuff came out of his mouth. The CNA hurried to get him to his side, but he was already choking on the stuff. The CNA quickly grabbed the suction ball and suctioned about three times and Connor started breathing again. The CNA went to grab the nurse, and Connor threw up this stuff again while he was gone for a few minutes, so I was trying to keep him on his side so he wouldn't choke.

They said it looked like blood, so they called the doctor who told them to take him to the nursery. They came back a few minutes later and said that it appeared that he must have swallowed some of Tiffany's blood during the C-section and that it was making him throw up. They were going to have NCIU clean out his stomach, but when they checked, his lungs were clear, so they said the best thing would be to have him try to eat and clear it out that way.

He threw up the same stuff again this morning when they brought him in about 8:30, but he's been fine since. Here's the most recent pic I took when I changed his diaper this morning:



(I think the red on his chest is from laying against Tiff's skin a few minutes before that.)

This baby business is sure stressful! I was thinking when he choked yesterday that I didn't know if I could take any more in one day. Tiff has become a quick legend here on the floor for having to go into a C-section after 10 hours of labor with 2 hours of pushing. Everybody has been feeling bad for her. (Although the story seems to get a little bigger and better each time somebody comes in -- The last CNA to make a comment on it thought she was pushing for 6 hours.) :)

She has done great though, and we're really glad that we have skilled doctors and technology that allowed Connor to make it here safely (and for Tiffany to stay here safely.) We couldn't ask for more.

THE BIG DAY!

Filling out paperwork

Watching the monitor

Updating the blog for y'all (Texas shout-out)


9:30 am -- Dr. Seale came in to break the water (No Picture of this one) ;)

Dr. Fred "Rocky" Seale


10:02 am -- The nurse asked Tiffany how she would rate her pain. ("5 stars. Two enthusiastic thumbs up.") She answered that on a scale of 1 to 10, she would rate her pain a 3. (A 4 is where they decided they would give the epidural.)

10:17 am -- After the last contraction and noticing that Tiff was really sweating, I asked if she was ready for her epidural, and she squeaked out a "Yes"

10:22 am -- Anesthesiologist arrived after the longest 5 minutes in history to start the epidural.

10:35 am -- Epidural finished. Tiff happy.

10:45 am -- Dilated to a 2.5 and "almost completely thinned out"

Post-Epidural (and calling Melanie)


11:16 am -- Quote from temporary nurse: "I'm going to back off the pitocin a little bit because you're pounding out contractions every 30 seconds with almost no rest in between them."

11:40 am -- Dilated to a 4. Nurse backed off the pitocin again. Quote: "I think your body has figured out what we're trying to do here and doesn't need any help from us. We don't need to rocket the baby out."

11:49 am -- I think about Taco Bell just across the street as I eat a graham cracker, a fruit rollup, and a granola bar.

12:39 pm -- Dilated to an 8!!! (Nurse backed off the pitocin again.)

1:18 pm -- I wish Joel was here to pop my back... It kills!... er... But not nearly as bad as labor must! (I probably shouldn't be whining about any pain right now.)

1:38 pm -- Fully dilated! The nurse said the head needs to come down a little more, so it may be another hour of resting... or we may start pushing now. Waiting to hear back from the doc.

1:50 pm -- Starting to push.

2:45 pm -- "Resting and descending" for 15 minutes.

3:51 pm -- Been pushing for almost another hour. I'm not sure how Tiff is doing it -- We both only got a few hours sleep last night, and I am totally wasted already. The nurse said the baby is at a Stage 3 (which was a new term I'd never heard, but that has something to do with the position on the head in the birth canal.) The nurse just went to call the doctor to see what he wanted to do.

Our little baby is growing!

We just hit Week 32, which is an big deal (all you baby-experts know this) because that is the week where the baby has developed enough that if he were to be born today, his chances for survival are really good (95%?). But we are really hoping he won't try to take after his two cousins born earlier in the year (unless it's in the "cute" category.) :)

In celebration of that, and the fact that everybody who sees Tiff thinks she must be having the baby this week (she REALLY loves that...), I decided to post the pics of her progression throughout the pregnancy. You may be asking how I talked her into letting me post these pictures of her. The answer is simple... I didn't ask. So enjoy them while you can, because they'll likely be pulled down faster than the picture of Leno on the CBS website for the Emmy awards' main page once Letterman started talking about it. (Classic episode.)

16 Weeks

20 Weeks

27 Weeks

31 Weeks

36 Weeks

38 Weeks