*warning: lengthy post ahead!
On December 28, 2019, our third child, Griffin Jack Lowery, made his entrance into the world at 38 weeks 6 days. My initial goal when we found out we were pregnant and learned my due date was early January was just to make it through Christmas Day. And thankfully, he listened and cooperated!
The night of the 26th I did not sleep well at all. I just tossed and turned all night and could not get comfortable--which was not the norm. I had been sleeping great the entire pregnancy! Friday, December 27th, I just felt "off." I had lost my mucous plug on Christmas Day so I knew labor was more than likely coming within the next few days (Daniel was really hoping it happened before January 1st so we could get the tax credit lol). I had no appetite, I didn't feel super well and starting about 1pm I had some pelvic pressure. I took a hot shower to see if that would relieve it at all and it didn't.
A sweet friend of mine is a L&D nurse and I knew she was working (fun fact--I initially met her because she was my nurse with Holt) so I texted her my symptoms. I had never gone into labor on my own before! She advised me to come in and just get checked out. Of course, we had dinner plans with our BFF's, so I texted Kaley to let her know what was going on. We decided they would go ahead and come over to our house, the boys would stay with the big kids and she would go with me to the hospital and just see if anything was happening.
4pm--I get into a triage room. My contractions are irregular BUT I was 3cm and 70% effaced (at my appointment on Monday I was only a 1cm and 0% effaced). I drink some ice water and we decide to walk the hallways for an hour.
5:45pm--they check me again. Still a 3cm and 70% but baby has moved down and my contractions are in a consistent pattern of every 2-4 minutes. They decide to admit me, believing I am in early labor. I decide to walk some more. The doctor on call is Dr. Farrell--she was extremely nice and really cute! I am so thankful for God's provision in that a great doctor was on call and Audra was working! I call Daniel and let him know what's going on--he finishes packing stuff for the hospital and gathering things together. I also call my parents (the 27th is their anniversary) and Daniel calls his parents, so they decide to get their stuff together and head to Fort Smith.
7:45pm--Daniel arrives at the hospital. Kaley went back to my house to wait with my kids until my in-laws could get there. I get checked again. I am almost a 4. Baby is more engaged in the pelvis.
10:00pm--my parents arrived about 9pm. My Uncle Jim and Aunt Linda (the photographer) and my grandmother made it about 9:45pm or so. I have been bouncing on the ball and my contractions have still steadily been coming every 2-4 minutes. So far I have been handling the contractions really well and haven't had to request an epidural yet. I get checked again and I'm 5cm and 75% effaced.
Starting about 11pm, my contractions started spacing out and calmed down for a while--maybe a contraction every 15 minutes or so. We finally decided to try and get some sleep and I slept from 3:30-5:30am.
6:00am--check me again and I'm still 5 cm. They decide to break my water and get me on pitocin to get things moving again. I request an epidural because I know what pitocin contractions feel like an I don't want to miss my window.
6:40am--get my epidural
7:00am---Audra is back for the day shift so I get to have her as my nurse!
9:00am---I'm a 7-8cm. Things are moving!
9:30am--8-9cm. Audra has another lady in labor needing to push so she turns down the pitocin in hopes of me stalling a bit.
10:50am---I am feeling pressure and like i need to push. I call Audra and tell her to hurry!
10:55am--Audra rushes in and calls the new on call doctor--Dr. Hill.
10:59am--I start pushing. Dr. Hill asks Daniel if he wants to announce the gender.
11:05am--its a BOY! Griffin Jack Lowery is born---he has some good lungs and is absolutely perfect!
7lbs 3 oz
19 ¼ inches
We did not find out with this pregnancy whether we were expecting a boy or girl--our first surprise! And it was one of the NEATEST moments of my life! Daniel got to call out whether it was a boy or girl and it was just like nothing I had ever experienced. If we decide to have a 4th baby, we will probably keep it a surprise again! It's always emotional when your baby is born, but this one was a little more so due to the fact he was our rainbow baby. It was a really precious moment!
Griffin was born at 11:05am and our big kids came up to meet him about 2:00pm that afternoon. It was a precious time! They were pretty smitten with him from the beginning and were sad to leave the hospital without him, but we assured them we would be home the next day.
In true 3rd kid fashion, we didn't even decide on names until I was about 37 weeks pregnant. I think it was driving everyone else nuts more than us! We finally sat down and hashed it out one weekend in December--my parents had taken the bigs to Branson for the weekend with the rest of my family and we had an entire kid-free weekend---it was amazing!
Our boy name was pretty easy to agree on. Griffin had been on my list since college. It's just a name I came across and liked--it was different, not heard of often, very masculine sounding, and I loved the meaning--"fierce warrior." We also love to incorporate family names when naming our babies. Jack was my grandpa's name and means "God is gracious." I have always been very close with my grandparents and when Daniel joined the family, they treated him as if he was another grandson. So it was especially meaningful to both of us to use it. Boy name...done!
The girl name was much harder. We had a list of girl names but Daniel didn't really like any of them. So back to the drawing board we went! We finally found one we both liked and could imagine using if this baby ended up being a girl--Annelise. Annelise means "God pledged His grace" which we thought was especially fitting since this was our rainbow baby. It also incorporates family names--my paternal grandmother's name is Joanne, so we liked that it incorporated "Anne" from her, and Elise is a family name on Daniel's side. We both had already agreed on a middle name--Rose--after my maternal grandmother who's middle name is also Rose. So if Griffin had been a girl, his name would have been Annelise Rose. Maybe if we go for a 4th and it ends up a girl, we will use it then!
We got home from the hospital about 1:30pm on Sunday afternoon and my mom and grandmother stayed with us the first night to help with the big kids. They had decided that Monday morning they would take Holt and Evie back to Conway for the week to give us a chance to recover and just enjoy one-on-one time with Griffin. They left about 11:30am and at 12:15pm, my mom called in a panic. She told me that my grandpa Jack had died very suddenly that morning. I stood frozen for a moment before going into crisis mode and making a plan. The plan was they would pull off at Ozark, eat lunch, and Daniel would head that way to get Holt and Evie and bring them back home. Griffin had his first doctor appointment the next day, but as soon as that was over we would head to Conway to be with the family.
While we were shocked and obviously saddened about his sudden passing, God's fingerprints were all over the situation:
1) Griffin came on his own 8 days before his due date. In all reality, this shouldn't have happened. I don't have my babies early. If I had still been pregnant when he died, I would not have been able to travel for the funeral. Plus, since Griffin did come early, my grandpa knew he had a great grandson named after him before he died which I am so thankful for!
2) It allowed us to have some of the tough conversations about death and what happens after we die with our children. We believe the Bible is absolute truth and we believe God loves us so much that He sent Jesus to earth, where he died for our sins on the cross and was raised to life 3 days later, conquering death and allowing us the opportunity to live in heaven with him for all eternity. We also believe that you will not go to heaven after you die unless you believe in Him--John tells us in his gospel that Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." We were able to tell our children that even though we were burying Poppa Jack's physical body, he wasn't there anymore. Instead, we know he is with Jesus in Heaven, because Jesus lived in his heart and he lived his life for Him. On the night of December 30th (the day Poppa Jack died), Holt decided he wanted to ask Jesus to live in his heart and be the boss of his life! We rejoiced in this news and I know my grandpa would have been so happy to know Holt made such a wonderful decision!
3) My grandpa had been battling the beginning of Alzheimer's for the last couple of years. Even though we miss him terribly, the Lord was so gracious in that my grandpa never had to suffer in the later stages of Alzheimer's and he was in great physical health, up until the moment he died.
Needless to say, the first week of Griffin's life was very eventful. We are so thankful to have a healthy, happy baby boy join our family and can't wait to watch him grow!
7lbs 3 oz
19 ¼ inches
We did not find out with this pregnancy whether we were expecting a boy or girl--our first surprise! And it was one of the NEATEST moments of my life! Daniel got to call out whether it was a boy or girl and it was just like nothing I had ever experienced. If we decide to have a 4th baby, we will probably keep it a surprise again! It's always emotional when your baby is born, but this one was a little more so due to the fact he was our rainbow baby. It was a really precious moment!
Griffin was born at 11:05am and our big kids came up to meet him about 2:00pm that afternoon. It was a precious time! They were pretty smitten with him from the beginning and were sad to leave the hospital without him, but we assured them we would be home the next day.
In true 3rd kid fashion, we didn't even decide on names until I was about 37 weeks pregnant. I think it was driving everyone else nuts more than us! We finally sat down and hashed it out one weekend in December--my parents had taken the bigs to Branson for the weekend with the rest of my family and we had an entire kid-free weekend---it was amazing!
Our boy name was pretty easy to agree on. Griffin had been on my list since college. It's just a name I came across and liked--it was different, not heard of often, very masculine sounding, and I loved the meaning--"fierce warrior." We also love to incorporate family names when naming our babies. Jack was my grandpa's name and means "God is gracious." I have always been very close with my grandparents and when Daniel joined the family, they treated him as if he was another grandson. So it was especially meaningful to both of us to use it. Boy name...done!
The girl name was much harder. We had a list of girl names but Daniel didn't really like any of them. So back to the drawing board we went! We finally found one we both liked and could imagine using if this baby ended up being a girl--Annelise. Annelise means "God pledged His grace" which we thought was especially fitting since this was our rainbow baby. It also incorporates family names--my paternal grandmother's name is Joanne, so we liked that it incorporated "Anne" from her, and Elise is a family name on Daniel's side. We both had already agreed on a middle name--Rose--after my maternal grandmother who's middle name is also Rose. So if Griffin had been a girl, his name would have been Annelise Rose. Maybe if we go for a 4th and it ends up a girl, we will use it then!
We got home from the hospital about 1:30pm on Sunday afternoon and my mom and grandmother stayed with us the first night to help with the big kids. They had decided that Monday morning they would take Holt and Evie back to Conway for the week to give us a chance to recover and just enjoy one-on-one time with Griffin. They left about 11:30am and at 12:15pm, my mom called in a panic. She told me that my grandpa Jack had died very suddenly that morning. I stood frozen for a moment before going into crisis mode and making a plan. The plan was they would pull off at Ozark, eat lunch, and Daniel would head that way to get Holt and Evie and bring them back home. Griffin had his first doctor appointment the next day, but as soon as that was over we would head to Conway to be with the family.
While we were shocked and obviously saddened about his sudden passing, God's fingerprints were all over the situation:
1) Griffin came on his own 8 days before his due date. In all reality, this shouldn't have happened. I don't have my babies early. If I had still been pregnant when he died, I would not have been able to travel for the funeral. Plus, since Griffin did come early, my grandpa knew he had a great grandson named after him before he died which I am so thankful for!
2) It allowed us to have some of the tough conversations about death and what happens after we die with our children. We believe the Bible is absolute truth and we believe God loves us so much that He sent Jesus to earth, where he died for our sins on the cross and was raised to life 3 days later, conquering death and allowing us the opportunity to live in heaven with him for all eternity. We also believe that you will not go to heaven after you die unless you believe in Him--John tells us in his gospel that Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." We were able to tell our children that even though we were burying Poppa Jack's physical body, he wasn't there anymore. Instead, we know he is with Jesus in Heaven, because Jesus lived in his heart and he lived his life for Him. On the night of December 30th (the day Poppa Jack died), Holt decided he wanted to ask Jesus to live in his heart and be the boss of his life! We rejoiced in this news and I know my grandpa would have been so happy to know Holt made such a wonderful decision!
3) My grandpa had been battling the beginning of Alzheimer's for the last couple of years. Even though we miss him terribly, the Lord was so gracious in that my grandpa never had to suffer in the later stages of Alzheimer's and he was in great physical health, up until the moment he died.
Needless to say, the first week of Griffin's life was very eventful. We are so thankful to have a healthy, happy baby boy join our family and can't wait to watch him grow!
We love you Griffin Jack! So thankful you're ours!
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