Utahns tell their pregnancy story in new TV series

On Labor Day, appropriately enough, the story of the birth of Ashley and Thomas Hughes’ youngest son will be part of a new cable TV series. Titled “Expecting,” the UP TV series weaves together narratives from three couples.

What makes this show a bit unusual is that there are no camera crews, no directors, no producers — the couples shot their own home video and the stories were edited into episodes.

The Hugheses’ story was different from those of the other two couples. After they became the parents of twin boys Simon and Cohen, their third son, Miloh, was born in December 2013 — and died of SIDS in May 2014. It changed their lives.

“Honestly, it’s given us a whole different perspective on life,” Ashley said. “Our family is so much closer together.”

“We just understand the importance of certain things,” said Thomas, a two-time national amateur kickboxing champion. “The material things that we sought after — we did 180-degree turn and realized it’s family and it’s making memories of our family that we really strive to go after.”

The Pleasant View couple were determined to add to their family, and Ezra was born March 2. ”Expecting” follows that pregnancy.

“Not that you can replace a child, but there has been a void that’s been filled since our new baby has been here,” Ashley said.

It’s a touching, funny and bittersweet story that “Expecting” editors put together from the Hugheses’ YouTube videos.

“They were looking for somebody who had already done the work — already filmed themselves throughout the pregnancy,” Ashley said. “They were just looking for people that had already shared their experiences with pregnancy up to delivery.

“There’s no producers involved. There’s no written script.”

“It’s all 100 percent us,” Thomas said. “You’ll laugh and you’ll cry.”

They don’t flinch from dealing with their latest pregnancy or their loss. They’ve been doing that online since 2014.

“Watching other people on YouTube has helped me in so many different aspects of my life,” Ashley said. “I was like, ’Well, if we can help anybody who is going through the same thing that we went through, that’s partially a reason we wanted to do it.‘”

The other reason was to create a video journal for their family.

“We didn’t have any home video of our son that passed away a few years ago,” Ashley said. “I think we have a 15-second clip of him while he was alive. And we really regret that.

“So we thought if we can just film a little bit every single day, that would be such a fun memory to look back on. It’s kind of both those reasons that we started doing the vlogs.”

They haven’t posted to their YouTube channel for a while because they’ve been promoting the upcoming premiere of “Expecting.” And they’re dealing with 7-year-old twins and a 6-month-old baby.

“It’s pretty crazy, but I actually grew up in a house with eight boys and three girls,” Thomas said. “It’s just kind of what I’ve always known.”

And the boys are growing up with their memories online.

“They’ll watch their birthdays a lot and they’ll watch Christmas a lot,” Thomas said. “That’s probably why we have that many views on those videos.”

Although the twins aren’t sure which of them is which in the videos.

“I‘m not either. So I just guess,” Thomas said with a laugh.