THE LOWE FAMILY NEWSLETTER VOLUME 100 JUNE 2015

ANNOUNCING THE BIRTH OF OWEN DAVID LOGUE

BORN JUNE 8TH 2015 AT 6:22AM

WEIGHT 9 LBS 1 OZ

LENGTH 20 INCHES

Coryn had calculated that Owen was due on May 28^th. Since Ava Claire was born three weeks early she was hoping that labor day might happen as early as Mother's Day but this time she was overdue according to her calculations. I am sure we all remember that math was not one of her stronger subjects. The doctors decided that June 12^th was a more likely due date after reviewing his sonogram: very fortunate that they calculated a later date otherwise Coryn may have faced an induced labor. I would say that Coryn was actually correct (for once) since he weighed a couple of pounds more than his sister at birth. Owen obviously takes after his ever running late father!

Once again I was privileged to be present for his birth at St. Lukes East Hospital, in Lees Summit. Jeremy called me about three in the morning to let me know that Coryn's waters had broken and that they were headed to the hospital if I wanted to join them. I hastily pulled on some clothes, made sure I had my egg timer in my purse and programmed the hospital address into my GPS and drove in the dark(which we all know I do not enjoy) to help in any way I could. By the time I made my way up to the their birthing room Coryn was already having strong and regular contractions so I had her focus on the egg timer while doing her breathing exercises assuring her that before the sand ran half way through the hourglass her contraction would be over. This worked well for the first hour, by the second she was headed into transition and she was beginning to lose focus. It did not help when the nurse examined her and said she was dilated to about a seven and the doctor commented that this labor was probably going to be longer than her first and excused herself to get some sleep. I was not thrilled with the doctor's remark: a woman in labor needs to hear that things are moving along well! Coryn said that she didn't think she could handle the intensity and unrelenting contractions for much longer and wanted an epidural. I suggested it was a little late for that but the doctor decided otherwise and called for an anesthesiologist. As they were preparing Coryn for the procedure- which was difficult due to her need to move around during contractions - she screamed hysterically that she needed to push. The anesthesiologist ran out, the doctor ran in and I looked between her legs and saw that the head was almost out! A couple of pushes and out came Owen David after a labor that was even shorter than her first! So much for the doctor's opinion! Once again with Jeremy's support she managed to have a natural childbirth!

Unfortunately the baby was very bruised, especially facially from his fast and furious delivery and sustained burst blood vessels in his eyes too but of course to me he was totally perfect. Everyone was amazed by his size! He looked like a two month old! Like his sister he has a head of dark hair and now that his bruising has disappeared he looks just like her although Coryn says he has several sets of dimples, but I have only seen a couple so far!

You might be wondering who was taking care of Ava Clare at this point. Fortunately Jeremy's aunt was staying with them for a few days as Coryn and Jeremy had had a false alarm a couple of days before and she had driven up from the Lake of the Ozarks to help out and decided to stay in case she truly went into labor in the next few days.

I left the hospital shortly after the birth and headed home to hopefully sleep for a bit after letting the family know that we had a new baby to love. Later that day I returned to the hospital and witnessed Ava Claire's maternal instincts. 'He's adorable,' 'he's so cute', and every time he cried she would pat him and murmur 'there, there.' And of course she wanted to hold him on her lap the entire time. Unfortunately she also wanted to check out all his body parts to see how they worked. Coryn found her enthusiasm exhausting so I took Ava Claire home with me for a couple of days so that she and Jeremy could go home the next day and just bond with Owen themselves.

Jeremy has not been able to spend as much time as he would like with his family as all the rainy days we have experienced this spring made installing roofs impossible for extended periods, ergo they are very behind schedule and being pressured into completing jobs as quickly as possible. To this end Jeremy has had to join his uncle and cousin Shelby working along side their roofers in order to tackle the backlog of work . A lot of this work is scheduled in the Lake of the Ozarks so Jeremy is also having to be away for days at a time. Coryn and the children did spend a couple of days there this past week so he could at least have a little time with them. I have been helping as much as needed always enjoying the chance to do so.

In my last newsletter I was gloating about my dry basement despite heavy rainfall: shortly after I was drowning in my sorrow when an absolute monsoon of torrential rainfall fell for hours and caused water to seep up through my foundation once again. I had to pull up half my carpet squares and vacuum up gallons of water two weekends in a row. I decided it was time to stop swimming against the tide of reason and admit that despite regrading around the house, adding new gutters, gutter guards and downspouts and routing out all the drainage lines my home was still taking on water. I called my contractor who suggested a sump pump, epoxy injections into the concrete around the main water pipe into my basement which was an obvious problem spot and more dirt up against the house on one side. Having a sump pump installed was a very noisy and messy job. They had to jack hammer the concrete floor, excavate a mass of waterlogged clay and gravel to make a pit big enough for the sump pump to sit in. All of this was carried away in wheelbarrows through my downstairs family room and bar area and across my newly poured stamped concrete patio and up my freshly mulched garden path to the driveway. They even bought the garden hose inside to wash some of the mud away. It was a disgusting, smelly mess but if it works it will be well worth enduring a week of having my basement resemble a swamp rather than my family room.

Bryn will be arriving in KC before the 4^th, spending some time here before he heads to Orlando to visit Leslee and Craig. Then I believe he plans to fly off to England to see Sean and the Tuckers.

Marc will be glad that Bryn is no longer using his towels and eating his snacks when he stops by on his trek to the beach.

Josh is still in Bolivia and plans to be there through August as I understand it but …. who knows.

Frankly with torrential rain almost every day in May along with the heat and humidity plus my two felines it is hard to comprehend why Josh would pay to volunteer to work with big cats in the rainforest when he could just pitch a tent in my back yard.

Kay and I recently had a fun shopping spree for her birthday up the street at the Oak Park Mall where we found some great bargains to guarantee that she will be the best dressed teacher. She was recently awarded $1000.00 for classroom improvements for having the most improved test scores for a class in her school so she is off to a great start for the new school year plus she will also begin work on a degree to work with foreign language students.

Ming-Jon continues to do contract work and has recently signed a lease on a new apartment so we hope its a good move.

Ming and Lori unfortunately lost the buyers for their lake house at the last minute so they are having to go through the whole process again so I hope they have a buyer by the end of summer as it is such a hassle to maintain a vacation home in the winter.

I have not heard much from Sean. I know he got together with Ethan in London to celebrate his cousins birthday and he was thinking about visiting a foreign country the following weekend. He has found a flat, he has his own bedroom but is sharing the rest of the facilities with a young couple. So expensive to live in London.

Leslee and Craig are planning to visit this summer to meet their new nephew as I hope many more of you will be!

Coryn and Jeremy have asked Bryn to photograph their family to mark this major addition to it. Ava Claire will finally get to wear the confection of a dress her mother whipped up for her – I was expecting it's debut for her birthday party but since Owen didn't make his a timely one Coryn decided to keep it for family pictures. Hard to protect a dress from all the cake and ice cream spills that a two year old creates.

My heartfelt thanks to Coryn and Jeremy for inviting me to share in the birth of their big and beautiful son, it was such a privilege to be with them through the birthing process. Boy oh Boy as Ava Claire loves to say!

Children, your mother is so happy to have another healthy grandchild that I would make a couple of batches of Oreo balls to celebrate if you were all here! Love to you all always.