Faith Brooke Strong

Our most generous God has brought another beautiful, healthy, perfect little one into this world today, the day before Ma'Ma's birthday! But let me start from the beginning...
We had quite the birthing team for this process. The Shumakers came Thursday to help Abbie with the daily tasks and will stay until Abbie and Faith are discharged from the hospital Sunday. So here's the team and our log of the past 24 hrs:

Team Member 1 (Jim) Primary contraction monitor interpreter, soothing encouraging voice, expert hand holder. Position: front and center.
Team Member 2 (Wilbur) Primary responsibility: Ice chips, wet cloths, pillow fluffer, cheerleader (she pretended to have pom poms quite frequently). Position: head or foot.
Team Member 3 (me) Primary responsitility: Physical therapist in charge of all things rear, back, spine, bedpan, or bloody. Singer of obnoxious songs. (Drag the magic puffin even came up, as did Push it, Salt-N-Pepper style) Position: rear, literally...
Team Member 4 (Kris) Primary responsibility: Sam caregiver. Change diapers, start movies, make meals, play trucks. Position: at Strong household.
Team Member 5 (Jeff) Primary responsibility: assist with Sam caregiving. Play, Play, Play. Play Chess with Kris. Position: at Strong household.
Other Team Members: Prayer teams, Family, Moral support, phone tree members...

Friday AM: Abbie tells her mom it will probably be today. Jim has to work outside and sweat through his clothes 3x, works late is EXHAUSTED, but he never complained. Not once.

Friday 6 PM: Abbie begins having regular contractions...just like last Friday...

Friday 8PM: Calls me, engages the get ready for baby drill (we were officially on standby at this point, as we were last Friday)

Friday 8:10 PM: Kris and Elizabeth literally run around the house gathering things, charging batteries, phones, and reviewing the drill proceedures

Friday 9:00: This in not a drill, repeat, this is not a drill. All madatory personnell to the Strong household immediately

Friday 9:20 PM: Roses arrive, Shumakers have been engaged since Thursday. Sam is asleep. Kris and Jeff keep Sam, other personnell go to hospital.

Friday 9:30 PM: Check into hospital. Abbie is only 3 cm, but contractions are consistenly 4-5 minutes apart. Nursing staff orders one hour of brisk walking. We rotate this responsibility among team members 1,2,3. #1 rests for 15 minutes, #2 and 3 sing songs, do the loins and tigers and bear skip with Abbie, walk briskly in figure *8 and any other patterns we can on that floor (Pregnant woman on elevator not allowed in protocols)

Friday 10:30. 4cm. Nurse orders 1 hr bed labor. Abbie may be sent home if not progressing. Team entertains Abbie with HGTV and stories.

Friday 11:30. Prayer produces 5.5cm, we are officially admitted!

Friday 12:00. Contractions 3 minutes apart, birthing team fully engaged. Time flew by. We laughed the entire night. Abbie was so pleasant and never even grunted. She'd close her eyes and we'd go into team mode for contractions. Faith would rest, and so would we.

Saturday 6:00 Team becomes slap happy and nurses are amazed at the happy atmosphere and lack of any calls to nurses all night. They allowed us to all stay (only supposed to have 2 team members) because we were so competent and quiet (who us?) We didn't need the nurses until the very end. They hadn't heard a peep out of us until Abbie had to push.

Saturday 8:00 Abbie ready to push, slight delay, Ptosin given to help smooth natural delivery, no meds, no complications When Abbie screams, 10 nurses were there stat, very efficient. Jim turned white and had to sit for about 30 seconds when Abbie was at her worst (blood, hard labor pains) but recovered quickly. Wilbur took his spot effortlessly and all was well. SO glad we were all allowed to be be there.

Saturday 9:03 Faith is born! 6 lb, 14 oz, 20 inches. Takes her first breath, opens her eyes and looks around at everyone, begins grasping with her arms and taking it all in. Stops crying when given to Abbie.

Saturday 9:30 Faith latches on, all is well

Saturday 11:30 Team is disengaged, #1 stays with mom, #2 keeps Sam, #3 does lunch, runs errands for #1, returns to hospital in PM

What an amazing and peaceful experience! Who says that about birth? God is so good.
We worked together like a well oiled machine! All team members were able to rotate and perform others duties at any given time. We tried to keep only 2 standing at one time so someone could sit. Although we were tired, no one felt too tired or exhausted and we were able to stay up all night like a slumber party!
Abbie was AMAZING! She was able to perform breathing with positioning, pressure points (my area) and make it through until delivery 12 hours later. She never complained. She didn't take any pain medications, even lidocane. She only screamed when Faith was being pushed, but I kept thinking she was really going to let one rip, but she didn't. She had to push for an hour, then the doctor was called, and Faith was delivered fairly quickly with no ripping, tearing, or trauma. Jim and I were holding her up at the end, but she did all the pushing and it was amazing! Wilbur caught some amazing shots of her coming up for her first breath, opening her eyes, taking everyone in, and just crying once. They put her directly on Abbie's belly and she calmed right down and kept looking around: so alert!
I was able to go down to the nursery and just look at her for 30 minutes while they moved Abbie to another room. I didn't even get tired until 1:00. Then I was dead woman walking. Wilbur and Jeff kept Sam (he napped after lunch) and Kris and I went back up to the hospital, then home for some sleep. I awoke at 5 alert and ready to go again! I went back to the hospital so Jim could go home and shower, be with Sam, and get a much deserved break. I was able to finally hold Faith! My parents came, then Abbie and I had a few hours together with Faith. I changed her first two BMs and enjoyed how easy she is to hold an calm. When Jim returned, he held Faith, Abbie showered, and I made Jim's bed so he could FINALLY rest. He was sleeping when I left, and I'm hoping he gets at least 4 hrs. Abbie couldn't sleep, but was cozy with Faith swaddled in bed with her and all her needs were met. It was fun taking care of them and tucking them all in bed before leaving. I'm SO glad we're here. God is so good. Enjoy the pictures.