Griffin's Birth Story

*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!

We love you Griffin Jack! So thankful you're ours! 

Baby Lowery #3: 31 Weeks

I promise we are alive! It has been a crazy two months since I updated last. Sorry sweet baby #3!

Since my last update:

* we survived another Rhea Lana season! The Lord continues to sustain and provide and we keep marching forward trying to build this business. This was my smoothest and best event to date--all the praise hands! They told me when we initially bought the franchise that it would take (at minimum) 2 years before you feel like you start to turn the corner and they were exactly right. We were THRILLED to have met that first milestone in working/owning a small business!  It takes 3-5 years (with any small business) before you start becoming "successful" and we feel like we are on track with that timeline. We continue to be thankful for this company, the women I get to work with, and the opportunity to minister and serve other mamas as we are all on this journey called motherhood. We are also thankful for our INCREDIBLE support system that help make my events possible--my in-laws (and usually several friends and our church family) lovingly and graciously help my husband hold down the fort at home and take care of the kids while my parents drive all the way over and help me run the event (my Mom usually stays with me the entire 2 weeks). We know there is no way we could make this work without their help! We are excited for what's to come with the future of this business!

* when I got back home from Rhea Lana, Holt went on his first field trip! They went on Thursday so Daniel and I both got to go and experience the Wild Things Farm pumpkin patch with him and it was a blast!

*the kids and I took one last trip to Conway before baby comes. During my RL event, my sweet, precious Leadership Team surprised me with a baby shower and my mom gave me a prenatal massage as a gift--the trick being I had to go to Conway. Hallelujah! We drove down, I had my massage and we got to spend some quality time with my grandparents too before driving back home. From this point on, I'll be staying pretty close to home so I'm thankful we had the opportunity to go!

*Holt finished his soccer season playing with the green team

* we had our annual Fall Festival with our church on Halloween night. As usual it was chaotic and full of chili and hot dogs and way too much candy! Next year we will have another little Lowery with us to celebrate!

* this past weekend (as in yesterday), my parents took Holt and Evie to the Razorback game in Fayetteville and Daniel and I spent the day painting the nursery. The room has basically been white since we moved into this house 2.5 years ago and that was my one big project I wanted to complete before baby comes. We chose Sea Salt by Sherwin Williams as the paint color and I LOVE it! It's more of a light blue color with some green and gray undertones, depending on the light in the room. Perfect gender neutral color! All that's left is re-painting the trim and then decorating and getting it ready for sweet baby #3---we better hurry since we basically have about 2 months before he or she gets here!

Starting this week, I have doctor's appointments every 2 weeks which is exciting! We are in the home stretch and when I think about all the fun things we have going on over the next two months I know it's going to go so fast! I plan to decorate for Christmas soon so I don't have to stress over it and we can just enjoy the Holidays. My last appointment a couple of weeks ago I had another ultrasound to check on a couple things they couldn't see well at our anatomy scan. Everything checked out great!

This baby is seemingly much more chill and doesn't seem to move as often as my others. I'm hoping that means he or she will be really laid back and "go-with-the-flow"! Holt moved CONSTANTLY and still does outside the womb; Evie had specific patterns where she would be active for a bit and then slow down which is the same for her too. This one, I sometimes have to go lay down and count kicks just to be sure everything is ok. Although, usually at night it seems to wake up every so often and ROLL everywhere, which kind of tickles (I have an anterior placenta this time so I have quite a bit of cushion). We are so excited and getting anxious to meet this little one--and find out whether we are adding a sweet boy or girl to our family!

How far along: 31 weeks
Sleep: Still sleeping relatively well. I wake up every so often and have to switch to my other side but all in all I can't complain
Aches/Pains: My lower back--particularly my right SI joint--has been giving me issues the last several weeks. I am seeing a chiropractor this pregnancy which has helped tremendously and my husband has been helping massage it. I'm also trying to stretch more but goodness!
Food aversions: none really but more often than not, food just doesn't sound good and I have to make myself eat
Food cravings: Would you believe I'm drinking coffee?? CRAZY. I don't know if it's the cold weather or what, but I'm WANTING coffee. So strange because I didn't want it at all with my other two. I also go back and forth between craving salty foods and sweet foods--anything from sandwiches and mac-n-cheese to brownies and donuts. Not helping me figure out whether this baby is a boy or girl!
Gender prediction: I can honestly say I don't have a clue--100%. I'll admit, I was a bit prideful before getting pregnant. I mean, I've already had one boy and one girl and those pregnancies were vastly different so I just KNEW I would know, even though we weren't officially finding out the gender. But this baby has kept me on my toes! I have had things happen from BOTH my other pregnancies so it is totally throwing me off--which I secretly love because I truly love surprises and I think this will be one of the best ones I ever have! Not much longer and we will find out!

Baby Lowery #3: 23 Weeks

Quite a bit has happened since I last updated about a month ago.

The kids and I stayed with my parents the first week of August while Daniel was on a mission trip to Alaska. We celebrated Holt's 5th birthday with family and my parents took him on a surprise birthday trip to the Ark Encounter in Kentucky. They had a blast!

We all made it back home and had our 20 week ultrasound and doctor's appointment. We took the kids so they could see their new brother or sister. Everything checked out really good which we are so thankful for and no, we didn't even peek at the gender!

The next week, our A/C unit started having issues---with it being 115 degrees outside. One night we had a guy here fixing it until 10:30pm and then three days later it completely died. Absolutely no reviving it. I will say, it was 21 years old so we knew when we bought this house that we would be buying a new A/C unit at some point. Ugh. Adulting. We ended up staying with our best friends for four days (bless their sweet souls) while we tried to figure out which company and unit we should go with (way more complicated than we thought it would be by the way). We finally got our new unit installed and we were so thankful for cool air!

In the middle of the A/C saga, Holt started Pre-K at his new school, Grace Academy! Grace Academy operates as a classroom setting to help and come alongside homeschool families. They have classes Pre-K 3 all the way up to seniors in high school. They run a schedule of hosting school classes at Grace Academy on Tuesday and Thursday and then you homeschool the other days of the week. We are still undecided where we will put Holt for Kindergarten next year, but so far we have loved Grace Academy and his new teacher, Mrs. Chronister.

And now, Rhea Lana season is officially here and our life will be a little crazy for the next month or so. This will be my 4th event (crazy) and I am really excited about this one! We have had some changes happen since the Spring Event (due to the federal DC Circuit Court ruling back in June) which is adding a little more to my plate, but I think overall it's going to go really well!

How far along: 23 weeks
Sleep: I am still sleeping really well at night. Only having to get up for the bathroom occasionally and trying to soak that up since I know it's bound to change in the future.
food aversions: Not near as many! I'll actually drink a tiny bit of coffee now and food is actually starting to sound good
food cravings: Nothing super specific yet. At this point I'm just thankful that I'm actually getting hungry and food is starting to sound good. I usually have PB & banana toast or a protein bar for breakfast, usually a toasted ham & cheese sandwich (with extra pickles) for lunch and I'm doing better with cooking dinner again. I"m also loving dessert (and poptarts for a snack in the afternoon). I still just prefer to eat out at a restaurant, butttt since we just bought a new A/C unit, we are having to be pretty strict with the budget.
gender prediction: The last month or so I have really been thinking girl. But now I might be changing my mind again and thinking boy. haha! It's kind of comical because we truly have no idea. And when people ask us what we are having, we tell them we are going to be surprised, and the reactions are pretty funny!