How fast they grow...

3 days old...first day at home!



A week or so old...compare this one to the other bobby pics!

Rolling over already....Sept 9th

I have to admit I am a pretty proud parent. This week Bray has learned to roll from his tummy to his back. But I also have to admit that its because he sleeps on his tummy which pediatricians do not recommend since the risk of SIDS is higher when babies sleep on their tummies. This has been an inner struggle for me the whole time...doing something I knew was not the "best".

I did not plan on Brayden sleeping on his tummy...actually when my 14 year old student, (who became a mother 2 months before me) told me she put her baby to sleep on her tummy I was shocked! For the first couple weeks Brayden could sleep anywhere anytime. At about his fourth week of life he was getting a little harder to get down for naps during the day. One day I was at my parents house and I left and went to the gym while my mom was watching Bray. She put him down for a nap and when I came home I went to check on him and what did I find...my little baby sleeping soundly on his tummy. I was like "Mom! You know they are not supposed to sleep on their tummies!" She of course said yes but that me and my two sisters all slept on our tummies. (If you were born during the 70's or 80's like me, that was a time period where doctors told mothers to let babies sleep on their tummies.) So anyways after this nap where Brayden slept great we slowly transitioned him to sleeping on his stomach. We learned that Brayden actually wanted to be and liked his tummy better. At night we would lay him in his crib on his back for a while. He would be fine and so we would let him lay there for 30-40 minutes. Eventually he would start "talking"...we would come in flip him over to his tummy and his eyes would literally shut. Now when we lay him down on his back at night he immediately starts fussing or "yelling" at us--and I believe this is his way of saying come turn me over. Anyways, all this to say that I have learned as a parent I decide what is best for my kids. Sometimes you just have to do what works. Brayden sleeps great on his tummy, takes good naps, and sleeps through the night. So ultimately yes I am doing something that is not recommended, however I think if I did what was recommended, I think I would have a baby who never sleeps!!! My life as a mother would be a whole lot more stressful and crazy if he did not sleep well. Ultimately I just have to trust God that my little Bray will be ok, and God already knows the whole course that Bray's life will take.

All this to say...babies who sleep on their tummies roll over sooner then babies who sleep on their backs. Last weekend I was looking through my own baby book where my mother chronicled that one night she had to get up with me two times because I had rolled over and could not go back to sleep. It was so funny because that next week I had to do the same thing with Bray. At 4 am one morning I heard him talking...and I thought hmmm, this is odd. I went in and I saw the cutest little face staring up at me. I was so shocked I ran back into the bedroom and called for Steven to come here. Of course Steven thought something was wrong and I had to calm him down. It was so cute to see little Bray there in his crib looking up at us! We were such proud parents. (Its amazing at how you get so excited about such little things!) Congrats Brayden on your accomplishment. (Now you just need to learn how to get back to your tummy so we don't have to get up in the middle of the night! :-)






Brayden doesn't get tummy time, he gets back time!



He loves splishy splashy time! All wrapped up!

3 months already!

Wow, I cannot believe I have already been a mom for three months. The time has flown by and I have learned so much. I have absolutely loved every (mostly every) minute of motherhood to my precious baby boy. Things I have learned:

-That I no longer come first--Brayden's needs take precedence to my own. If I am hungry, but its time for him to eat, he gets to eat first.
-Patience-Not to wish each stage away just so he'll be at the next
-Time management-how to get ready in less than 20 minutes or how to look decent without taking a shower
-How to do things with one hand
-Unconditional love-Even through all the crying, spit-ups, middle of the night feedings, diapers, stressful moments, moments of not know what to do I love this boy with all of my being. It doesn't matter if he has been crying 1 hour straight I would still do anything for him. I truly cannot express the love that a parent has for their child, besides unconditional...and just think, how Christ loves us even more than we can love our own children!

Brayden is now three months old and he is doing great! He in about 25 inches long and we are guessing somewhere around 13 lbs. He weighed 11 lbs. 10 oz at 9 weeks and we have not weighed him since. He is sleeping through the night (praise God) and has been since about 8 1/2 weeks or so. He is smiling and giggling at us now and it is so fun to see his personality coming out. He loves looking at people and bright lights or colors. Papa Rick Reed can get him to talk the longest and it is so cute to see. Here are some recent pictures of Bray around three months!

More of the Story...

Anyways it was getting near the end of school, I was pregnant, huge, and miserable. I was so ready to be away from school and the kids that I prayed every day this would be the day our baby boy would make his entrance. Everyone talks about the first few weeks of pregnancy being so hard but no one tells you how bad the last few weeks are.

Well it was a Wednesday night and Steven had church so I watered my whole yard and then went to sleep. I was planning on going to our end of the year field trip with my school kids the next day. (Steven was planning on going too, incase anything happened with me.) About 1 am I woke up and felt really hot and sweaty. I asked Steven to feel under me because I thought my water had broke. Well as it turns out it hadn't...we had just put a new plastic water-proof mattress cover on our mattress and it was just making me sweat really bad. So with that I turned over and went back to sleep. Exactly 2 hours later at 3 am I woke up with the strangest feeling. I woke Steven up and said, "Steven I think my water just broke!" With that announcement he popped straight up out of bed. I said its ok, we can take our time I feel fine. So we did. We called the doc and he said to go ahead and go to the hospital. We showered and got a few things together and at 4 am we were headed to Forsyth. The ride to the hospital was surreal...knowing that we would eventually have a child in our arms was crazy.

I had not actually started contracting very badly so I was able to relax and walk in the hospital calmly (more so than Steven). We called our parents and announced the news that we were going to go have our baby and they were both ecstatic. Well, we checked into LDR and I was put in triage for forever since I was not actively contracting. Finally after five boring hours and some prodding with nurses I was put into a nice LDR suite. At Forsyth they have recently re-done the LDR rooms and they are really nice and huge. About 9:15 am they came and checked me and decided to start me on Petocin because I really was not in labor. Petocin is a drug that helps induce labor and make your body contract. I had thought I would try to be drug free and forego the epidural, however they say that Petocin makes your contractions worse. So I had an epidural at about 3:30 that afternoon because my contractions were getting really intense. Fortunately the Petocin was able to help my body relax enough and it actually sped up my dialation! However it also made Brayden's heart rate drop once I was about 8 cm. I remember the machine thing started beeping a nurse popped in immediately. She looked at what was going on and then explained it to me. When she left I started crying and said that I just wanted this baby out now. They ended up taking me off of petocin for a hour or so to monitor Bray. Then the doctors decided they had to put me back on it to help my labor get to the last stage. Once I was about nine cm, they came in and checked me and said that Brayden had turned and he was facing the wall instead of down. I was really upset at this point. Here I had labored to 9 cm and I thought I was going to end of having a C-section. I remember praying for God to turn that baby and get him here. Finally around 8:30 on Thursday night I suddenly felt this overwhelming urge to push. Steven's mom and my mom were in the room and Steven looked over to them and said "See ya when the baby gets here." They left and I pushed for 1 hour and 7 minutes and Brayden was born at 9:47 pm! He weighed in at 7lbs. 1 oz. and 21 inches long. Here are some pics of the fresh Brayden Ackley.



Me feeling pretty good and texting friends and family to update them.





Brayden a little more cleaned up.

First Born hugs!




N......C.....State. NC STATE!



Getting him warm in the hospital.



Daddy dressing Bray to go home!



Bray and mommy ready to go home!

7 weeks already!

Whew, this last seven weeks have flown by yet been very slow and tiring. I just now have had the time to sit down and write and reflect on these past two months....so lets start from the end of school.

I was measuring pretty large, actually I was measuring two weeks over what I should have been which was ok but the doctors wanted to check things out. So I had another ultrasound because they thought baby Bray was extra huge. What ended up being the case was that he was normal size when they measured me but I had a whole lot of extra amniotic fluid in there which was making me so big. They said everything looked ok but they would do anther ultrasound in a week. (At this point I was about 38 weeks along.) In the meantime I talked to one of my med school friends (Jenn Wilson) and told her of my latest pregnancy news. Around the same time Casey did some research on extra amniotic fluid in the womb and the results did not look so good. Jenn also did not tell me of all the problems associated with this. Casey was quite worried and Jenn told me after Bray arrived safely of all the horrible conditions such as the intestine's of the baby developing outside of his abdomen.

Here are a couple pictures of how huge I was. Things that were said to me a million of times by all sorts of different people..."Are you sure you are not having twins"...."You still have not had that Baby"...."You look like you are going to POP!" Wow, being a huge pregnant person taught me SO many things NOT to say to a pregnant woman. Advice to all: Just say wow you look so great or cute, don't comment of her size! :-)




I will have to finish my entry later because Bray is waking up and it is time to eat!

We are down to single digit days!!

I can't believe it is June 3rd and we are less than 10 days away from our due date. However, I can only remind myself this is just an expected date and sometimes babies don't always come on the date the doctor prescribed. This is a very trying and testing time on my patience. I am still teaching full time and wanting this baby to get here soon. The students are getting on my nerves, my feet are swelling, and a I feel like a whale on steriods. With all these things to complain about, I really can't complain at all. My pregnancy has gone so well and I am extrememly thankful. Hopefully in the next few days we can be posting that Baby Ackley has arrived and be calling him is real name!!

Can't wait to see you soon baby!!!

30 weeks with 10 more to Go

Wow, I have gotten behind in my blogging. But hopefully once the baby comes I can use this to keep everybody posted on how he is doing!

I am now about 30 weeks along in my pregnancy which means only about 10 more. I can't believe that in 2 months my life will change forever. I know this child will teach me about my own selfishness and show me how to depend on God more than ever. I try to imagine what it will be like to hold this bundle of joy in my arms and know he is my flesh and blood and I just can't wrap my mind around it.

Today we went to the doctor for my Diabetes test and for another ultra sound. I had heard horror stories of how the drink they use to test you blood was so awful. I did not think it was that bad, but if you know me, you know I like sugar. Well anyways some time went by and I went back for my ultrasound to check my uterus. Once she finished looking at the baby I was like oh no, I don't feel so good. I think if I had stood up at that moment I would have passed out. But thankfully I didn't!! It was quite a weird feeling though. And also my placenta has moved up with the baby so a natural birth should be in order now.

Once again I am amazed with God's grace and goodness to me during this pregnancy. As I have all these worries and fears about delivery, being a mom, and supporting a child God always comes to the rescue and calms my fears. I am so thankful that there is someone bigger than me out there controlling all of life's issues.

Oh yeah, we got to see a pretty good view of Baby Ackley's face today in the ultrasound, it was so cute. The technician doing the ultrasound said he had nice round checks. I am sure he will be a chubby baby. I can't wait to meet you little Peanut Ackley!!

A testimony of Love

Two weeks ago today a wonderful guy named Marc Holton passed away. While he left this planet I am certain that he is in Heaven now, a far better place than this earth we call home. It's just hard to understand why God would take a guy so young with so much potential? I found myself asking "Why God?" when I found out the terrible news. While I can't understand God's plan in all of this, as I am sure many others can't as well, I can take comfort in the fact that HE is God and I am not. To us, death is such a terrible thing (and it is don't get me wrong), but in reality for believers in Christ Jesus they get to go home and see their Maker...what a wonderful thing that is.

When we went to Marc's memorial on Sunday I was still in shock that a friend, young person my age was being laid to rest. As the service progressed God's presence was evident. The words spoken about Marc--how he touched so many lives, made so many people smile, and shared Christ's Love with so many around him, was an incredible testimony to the Love Marc had for Christ. I believe this is the legacy Marc Holton would have wanted to leave here on earth, although I am sure he hadn't planned on leaving quite so early.

Marc- I know that God was glorified through your life, and death. I know we will see your big smile again one day. I will miss your big laugh and playing rook with you at camp, although I am sure we will have a lot of time for that in Heaven. :) I know God said to you when you entered Heaven "Well done my good and faithful servant." And I am saying the same thing--your life inspired me to live and love a better life.

See ya later!

The sad things in life...

As I read all these books about pregnancy I see the importance of getting good prenatal care, eating healthy, and taking your prenatal vitamins. Which brings me to think about my 7th grade student who is 13…. she is a couple months ahead of me. I am guessing she will probably have her baby in March or April. Can you imagine…being thirteen and getting ready to have a baby? I am having a hard time imagining how this will all work out at 25 and I have a husband. This poor young girl hardly ever comes to school, sleeps when she comes and lives in one of the worst projects in Winston-Salem. I wonder if she is getting the good prenatal care all pregnant women deserve?

On another non-pregnancy note we just found out my 83 year old grandfather has Alzheimer’s. We knew he had been losing his memory for a while now, but he has finally seen a doctor that has announced the news. My grandfather’s reaction to the doctor’s statement is “I am not brain dead, that doctor said I am brain dead.” My grandfather I guess thinks nothing is wrong with him, but his short-term memory is defiantly going. He always has to ask my grandmother what day it is and he has been getting up at 12 midnight thinking it is time to start his day.

Recently he has been taking medication for his Alzheimer, but the doctor told him he could not drive…what??? He could not understand why he couldn’t drive. He said without being able to drive he could not go to work on the farm and he might as well die. This is a man who for 83 years has worked—physically on golf courses as the superintendent, and on my cousins’ farm for everyday of his life, probably at least 12 hours a day. This man defines himself by his work.

What is hardest for me…is not that he doesn’t know who I am—I am sure that will come, but is to see him suffer. He cries at night because he knows he is losing it. My grandmother is a great woman and she has stood beside papaw for 60 long years, but she is suffering. My mom, (who is also a lot like her father) a tough, strong woman is suffering. It’s hard to see those you love so much struggle, and feel so much pain that they don’t know what to do.