Thursday, March 26, 2009

Updatey date

Hola!!

Were still chugging away here in the Ackerman household! We've seen lots of visitors, gone out to eat for the first time as a family, gone to church three times, attended a wedding and a funeral, a going away party and two doctor's visits- all since Brennan's been born!

My day to day life is a walk of prayer right now. Things like, "Lord, please allow him to go down so I can take a shower today", "Lord, please give me wisdom on how to take care of this little guy- there's so much information to process", "Lord, thank you for a healthy baby", "God, why will he not nap?", "Please let him sleep well tonight", etc, etc. Brennan's had some awesome nights last week, he did a six hour stint between feedings (so 5 hours of sleeping) twice, and he did several 5 hour and 4 hour stints. But he's still really unpredictable, last night he was up every three hours! However, I can handle that- ANYTHING is better than the hell that was the first week!

Were heading to Bridgman this weekend to see the Zuberts who flew in today to meet Brennan. Were also getting his newborn photos taken (the BEST shower gift!). He's four weeks old, a little past the "newborn" stage, but oh well. Get this, we had his 4 week check up yesterday and the child already weights 10 lbs 3 oz!!!!! I guess he's eating pretty good, eh? :)

I try to send Jon photos or videos throughout the day- here's one we were going to send him today (it's probably boring for most of you!):

Wednesday, March 18, 2009


THANK YOU to all you ladies who emailed me what worked (or didn't work) for you and your wee little one- I really appreciate your time!!! I've decided for now to attempt a 2.5 to 3.5 schedule (i.e. babywise). Once we get some sort of routine down, then I'll feel comfortable being more flexible with him. He's doing GREAT at night (he usually sleeps 5 hours between feedings and then another 4 hours between feedings), so now were working on getting him to NAP during the day. The child does NOT like naps! Yesterday he was awake from 8-3. Worst.day.ever. I balled my eyes out and ended up calling Jon to come home and rescue me from a child I had been holding for 7 hours who would scream anytime I put him down. Thankfully Jon took him and told me to go to Beaners for a few hours. He's the best. And today, Brennan went down for two naps already AND I got a shower in!! Horray!

Honestly, parenting is the hardest job I've ever done. Ever. Between trying to learn how to breastfeed, being exhausted, trying to do whats best for Brennan regarding scheduling, etc. . . it's been difficult. But I know it'll be worth it. He's an absolute doll, he really is. I took him into work today to show him off, he was too cute! The transition from a "young professional" to a mom has been pretty rough, too. The feeling of, "I'm chained to this child who needs to eat every few hours" sometimes overwhelms me. But I'm thankfully past the "cry every night cause I'm so overwhelmed at the thought of motherhood" stage. Jon's probably happy about that :) Now I just cry every once in a while :)

Sorry this post is all about the little guy, he's my life right now!! I'm praising the Lord for him!

Saturday, March 14, 2009

It's Hard To Say Goodbye. . .

Hey ya'll. This is going to be quick because Brennan is in his swing "sleeping", but I know it wont last long!

A brief update. . . my Grandma McMahon passed away early Sunday morning- so Wednesday we took a 9 hour road trip to Buffalo, NY. Thankfully Brennan did pretty well and slept most of the way. It was interesting finding places to breastfeed, we ended up putting receiving blankets up in the car and me feeding him in there. Seriously, where do you all breastfeed when on the road??

The service was honoring to my Grandma, which was awesome. My mom and Aunt Maureen did the eulogy and my mom did a great job weaving in the gospel. I'm going to miss her. Whenever we went to Buffalo growing up, Meg and I stayed with Grandma and Grandpa. We would stay up super late watching I Love Lucy episodes and eating hot fudge sundaes on the couch. I will always remember those times!

It was funny how Irish everything was. The McMahons, and South Buffalonians in general are proud of their Irish heritage (were talking our family china has shamrocks on it-kind of proud). Get this- my Grandma and Grandpa met because my Grandma was asked to write to a WWII soldier. She got my Grandpa's name and they corresponded for quite some time. When he came home from the war, they met ON St. Patrick's Day on the front steps of their church, cool huh?

Well, I think the little man is on his way to waking up so I should go. Before I do though, I have a favor to ask of you- will all you mamas that read this blog (the three of you!) PLEASE either comment or email me (chaeliackerman@gmail.com) whether or not you scheduled your baby or not? I am trying to decide whether to adhere to the strict BabyWise every three hour schedule, or taking a more flexible approach to it (i.e. every 2.5 - 4 hours feeding him). I'd love to know how you scheduled your YOUNG infant, what you did in the day vs. the night, what your reasoning is, etc. Also, I'd love to know how you fit in time to shower every day :) I'm excited to read the comments!!! I know every baby is different, but I want to compare notes with ya'll and try to formulate some sort of plan for the little guy (or perhaps he's too young for a plan)??

Gotta run!

P.S. Thank you to Lacey who graciously walked me through BabyWise the other day!!!

Monday, March 9, 2009

We have a Son!!!

We welcomed Brennan Joseph Ackerman into the world Tuesday February 24th at 1:38 am.
Jon had the idea of Brennan after reading Brennan Manning's "Ragamuffin Gospel". After two days in the hospital, we finally decided on Joseph for the middle name to honor both our dad's (my dad's first name, Jon's dad's middle name).

Here's the delivery story:

On Saturday night, Jon and I were snuggling on the couch watching Hitch. I felt like the baby was kicking me in the bladder over and over again and couldn't get comfortable. I stood up and there was a sudden leakage- twice. And I looked at Jon in shock and said, "oh my gosh, I think my water just broke". But I wasn't sure because, hey, the kid was just kicking my bladder so maybe I just peed my pants (classy) and it was just a trickle, I was thinking it would be a gush. I leaked a little bit more during the night and didn't get one second of sleep- I was so high anxiety of not knowing what was going on!

Sunday, after much debate, I went to Trinity with Jon to help out with the Widows brunch his department was hosting. I wasn't leaking AT ALL and felt perfectly normal, so we didn't think anything was up. Sunday night, I started leaking again and again, NO SLEEP. I decided to call my doctors office first thing monday morning to see if they could see me and figure out what was going on. I figured if my water truly did break- I would of had contractions by then. So I called the doctors office Monday morning and they told me to PROMPTLY get to the hospital. If it was my water breaking, they wanted me to deliver within 24 hours because of risk of infection (whoops).

So Jon and I race around to pack our bags (totally unprepared), shower, look at each other and say, "what the crap is going on?", pray, etc. We arrive at the hospital, they triage me, take a sample and confirm that I was leaking amniotic fluid. Turns out I "sprung a leak but I still had fluid left". I was only dialated to a 1 and did not have a soft cervic, so I was going to have to be induced, yuck. I did not want to be induced, but the doctor insisted. My doctor kept saying to me scarily, "I want you in pain, I want you to have PAINFUL contractions". Seriously, she said this to me everytime she saw me- SCARY!!

So they put us in an OB special care ward to start the cervix softening medicine. As our Scottish nurse is about to put the medicine in me, she checks my cervix again. I'm now dialated to a 3 and my cervix is completely soft. All this without one ounce of medicine. So, I don't get the cervix softening medicine, and they wheel us over to labor and delivery. I get checked there, and I'm now dialated to a four. And I had yet to feel one contraction. Jon literally asked the nurse, "so, when does the pain start, we thought she'd be in pain by now?" Whenever I felt a contraction, it just felt like he was kicking my bladder, honestly.

All this time, we are on the phone with my mom who was vacationing in Florida (we all thought I'd go late, NEVER thought I would go early!!!). She found tickets that would get her in around 6:30 ish. Then her flight was delayed and she missed her connecting flight in Cinncinatti. So the airline put her on a different flight- that was also delayed! THANKFULLY, she arrived around 10:30- Praise the Lord!!

Finally, after long periods of waiting (hospitals, I tell you what), I get some pitocin to speed up the process (remember, the doctor wants me in PAIN! They want this baby out!). I was on pitocin about an hour and the doctor comes in to break the rest of my water. I'm now dialated to a five and Jon and I are contentedly watching Chuck.

Let me tell you what, about five minutes after she broke my water, it suddenly became very DIFFERENT. My contractions started to KILL, I could hardly breathe between them. I laid on my side on the bed (they made me stay in that position for the fetal heart monitor, not the most comfortable), clinging to Jon, and trying to make it through. An angel in the form of an anestesiologist arrived and gave me my epidural. By this point, I was shaking because of the pain and having three contractions in a row- staying still for the epidural was HARD! As soon as that took effect, the delivery from that point on was great, it really was. My mom arrived, the doctor checked me two hours later and I was fully dialated. I pushed for around 35-40 minutes and then met my baby boy. He was beautiful and healthy with a full set of lungs!!

I know you're wondering- Jon did great! He left during all the blood draws, IV's, epidurals, etc. But he was fully there the rest of the time! He even held a leg during pushing, watched Brennan be born and cut the umbilical. Everyone in the room was keeping an eye on him, he even had a chair behind him in case he needed it. It was so wonderful to have both him and my mom there- they made a great team coaching me.

I honestly look back on the delivery with fondness- I felt enough to know how to push and where, but the epidural took most of the pain away. It was so wonderful to know we had a healthy baby! The rest of the week was not so great. . . but we'll save that for another post, my fingers hurt. I need to go check on the boy, have a good one!!!

P.S., we had our first outing last Friday at Adam and Allison's wedding- you can check out Coastline Studios blog and you may see someone you know. . .