Savannah Chubb held baby Griffin tightly against her chest, as close to her heart as possible. She is blond with soft eyes and a gentle demeanor. Her husband Joseph, tall and slim with a week-old beard, peered at the baby with a gleam in his eyes. Grateful parents, that’s what they were. Grateful for their tiny and precious miracle.
A month ago when baby Griffin was born, Joseph and Savannah knew something was wrong. “I didn’t hear him cry. He wasn’t crying like you’d expect with a newborn, and I caught a glimpse of him when he came out. He was so blue. He wasn’t breathing,” Savannah said, burying her face into baby Griffin’s warm neck. “I’ll never forget those few seconds of realizing that something was wrong.”
Moments of horror passed between Savannah and Joseph, who were watching the terrible event unfold in the delivery room. “All I saw was his little body, so blue and so still. They quickly took him away to the NICU and put him on oxygen in the incubator,” Joseph said.
Baby Griffin fought for his life. He ended up staying in the NICU for eleven days. For Joseph and Savannah Chubb, things were dim and dark. They had never expected this outcome.
“We were both in shock and shut down. I cried the entire time,” Joseph said. “I was so anxious and nervous, and I kept on hoping everything would be OK.”
But things went from bad to worse. Joseph and Savannah both had car wrecks shortly before the delivery, and Savannah’s blood pressure was rising to dangerous heights. After the birth, Joseph faced incredible sadness, but he knew he had to be there for his wife.
“When he came out not breathing, I was terrified, but then I decided to focus on Savannah and comfort her,” Joseph said. “We knew we could not give up. The doctors did their thing, and somehow, somewhere way deep inside of me, I knew our baby was going to be fine.”
Savannah was not as optimistic. “I would look at him in the glass bubble while in shock and disbelief. That was my baby in there, helpless. When the neonatologist told us what was happening, it was like a movie moment. I just heard noise, not speech. I was beyond shut down.”
Baby Griffin defied the odds. Doctors and nurses noticed he was crying, fussing, and moving around, all unusual actions for most NICU babies. A few days later, baby Griffin could breathe on his own. They tested him for three days then released him.
“They told us he was truly a miracle baby,” Savannah said. “One nurse told me that he was not her average NICU baby. He was eating fine, and after tests, they found no damage to his brain. Baby Griffin is our very own miracle. You hear about miracles, but let me tell you, they are real.”
After horrifying days at the hospital, Joseph and Savannah brought baby Griffin home to their Southside Apartment in Birmingham.
“He was twelve-days-old when we came home, and there was that initial fear that we are on our own,” Joseph said. “But little by little, we are figuring things out as new parents. We love our miracle baby Griffin so much. I don’t know to what I should attribute his miraculous recovery.”
Joseph and Savannah met when they were teenagers attending punk shows. Then they reconnected in 2017 and began dating, only to elope to the Appalachian Mountains. Parenting was always something they both desired. Now, they love everything about having their very own baby.
“Parenthood is something we’ve both looked forward to and wanted. Our favorite part is watching him grow up knowing that he can be anything he wants to be,” Joseph said.
Savannah peered at baby Griffin still glued to her heart, both love and tears pouring from her eyes. “I will always think of baby Griffin as our miracle,” then she added while grinning, “He’s our very own miracle on 34th Street!”
Joseph and Savannah Chubb do live on the street made famous by the movie, Miracle on 34th Street.
But to them, the miracle was as real as the air they breathed.
