Welcome to our family William Graham Pierce!

August 10, 2016 at 8:03 am Will joined our family! He is healthy and weighed in at 7.2 pounds and is  20.75 inches long!

We are so incredibly grateful to our Father in Heaven for this miracle boy! I am especially grateful that for how hard my pregnancy was, I was able to make it full term without major complications! 

Having a planned surgery day was much easier than what I went through with Cameron. 

I walked into the OR, had my spinal block, and before you know it, Will was here, healthy, and crying! My OB said- "Cherish! I don't think I have ever said this to anyone before- but this darling baby looks just like Cameron!!" They peeked him around the curtain, and sure enough! Will was a spitting image of his brother right at first! My handsome boy! It was so nice- that he was healthy, and that the hospital has come out with some new policies allowing moms with some extra precautions to hold their babies skin to skin in the OR! I got to cuddle and hold Will while they finished my surgery! It was total heaven to snuggle my brand new baby!

Something interesting and extremely rare- maybe 5 births per year at my hospital- that was noted is that the cord was completely knotted! Will was a very active baby, up until the last 2 weeks he was still turning head up then down then up then down!! My doctor remarked it was amazing that the cord was so strong and healthy, because sometimes those knots can cause some scary complications! Will was completely unaffected thankfully, so like I said, it was something interesting that happened!

Once we got settled into our room, Dan went to pick Cameron up from Grandpa and Grandma to come and meet his brother. 

I was not prepared for the amount of love that Cameron's 3 year old heart could hold for this baby. I knew he would want to hold and love him, but I assumed it would last 2 minutes and he would be on to the next thing. 

Well, let me tell you- if he had his way, no one else would ever have a turn holding HIS baby- HIS brother. That first day, every time a new nurse or aide came in, he would exclaim- "This is MY baby! This is MY brother!!" He is just so proud, and so in love, and so sweet! It just melts my heart!

Grandpa and Grandma came up a while later and met Will too!! 

Cameron has continued to love Will every moment. I worried a little- but I didn't need to. He has been a little extra sensitive, but not jealous or upset at all. He is so protective and loving!! He was so proud to have him home!!

Cameron is proud to announce....

Our family is getting a ...........

Little Brother! I am so incredibly excited that Cameron is going to have a brother to be friends with. We are hoping to welcome baby William Graham Pierce in mid August. Cameron calls him baby Will. <3

First trimester down!

This pregnancy has been SO different than my pregnancy with Cam.  I have been extremely exhausted. I had severe leg cramps, and the tell tale nausea and vomiting. My legs were swelling!! And I have just been sick! At my first appointment, my doctor ordered the normal pregnancy blood tests, along with a ton of others- my vitamins and minerals, iron, calcium, etc. Anyway, it ended up being like 13 tubes of blood.
Results come back- well! My iron was critically low, my calcium and vitamin D were very low, my sodium and potassium low but normal still- then another test that showed I was having muscle damage- because of the low iron!
This baby is stealing every thing I have and more!! The solution has been to double my prenatal vitamin, take vitamin c with liquid iron, take vitamin D and calcium, on top of my blood thinner injections, blood pressure, and thyroid medicine! I am running on quite the pharmacy!  The good news is that I feel SO much better- my leg cramps went away after I was on the iron for only a few days.
Thankfully, my doctor is great, and the baby is good!! I am now just about 15 weeks, and my nausea is also gone! I hope for good! I was sick the whole time with Cameron, so the fact that I am feeling so much better this time is a welcome change!!
Cameron has been so silly- every time I got sick, he did too. He would say, "Oh mom! So sick!!" and proceed to spit into the toilet!!! I finally caught him doing it one day when I wasn't sick so I had to get a pic and document it!
         Don't worry- our toilet had just been cleaned. I can't believe he sticks his head so far in.

 I think I could even suggest that I would feel like a million dollars if Cameron slept! 3 years- longer for me- of no sleep. I don't remember the last time I got 6 or more hours in at one time. I average 3-5 hours of sleep a night- and usually not all at the same time. That being said, sleep is my biggest fear about having a toddler and a newborn!
We are working on a sticker chart with Cameron- I took him to Toys R Us and let him pick 2 big ticket items. He chose a talking Daniel Tiger, and a large Baymax. He has to fill his sticker chart of good nights- no waking up and waking mom or dad- and staying in his room until his alarm clock turns green. It will be progressive- he has two charts, this first one is 9 days, the second is 16. Well, we started February 16- he still has 4 more stickers to earn. It is going slow- but the fact that he has slept 5 nights since February 16 is awesome.

Here is to more sleep, warmer days, and feeling good for the rest of my pregnancy! We find out what we are having in just 18 days! Any guesses????

Finding out

December 17- I was scheduled to have carpal tunnel surgery in both wrists early in the morning. 

Dan and I got to the hospital, got all checked in, got into pre-op and my IV started. The nurse came in and asked for a urine sample- she almost forgot! 

Well, that urine sample was to check a pregnancy test. The nurse turned to me- "Are you sure you can't be pregnant?" I replied, "Yes, well no, I mean yes, no- it is possible, just highly unlikely." She handed me the pregnancy test- "Well that there says I am pregnant!" We did an extra to make sure!! 

Surgery is risky business in the first trimester- and since this is an elective surgery, the surgeon came in and said, "I will just plan on seeing you again a year from now." 

A few thoughts and feelings I had- 

• Excitement!
• Dan was actually excited this time- he said to me- "Merry Christmas Babe!"
• Shock
• This figures- haha- I got rid of nearly everything from Cameron! Though this baby is a complete different season so that really didn't matter. 
• Excitement!!
• Grateful
• Full of prayer!

When we found out, I was seriously 3-4 weeks along- barely pregnant. 

The benefit of being high risk pregnancy, is all the ultrasounds. I have already had 4!! 

Baby #2 at 9 weeks!

At 11 weeks!

Again at 11 weeks- This kiddo was moving all over. When baby kicked legs, my OB exclaimed- "Look how long those legs are!!" You can see the foot and toes at the top! Crazy! 

This past appointment- This baby didn't want to cooperate. We couldn't find the heart beat- but we could hear all kinds of movement! So Natalie- my OB said- "Well! We will just have to take a picture and do an u/s to find the heart rate! We are going to peek in there and this baby won't be holding still at all!"

Sure enough- moving all over the place! Even by u/s it took a few minutes to locate the heart beat and focus in on it to get a count! 

I am so grateful that my Father in Heaven has blessed me with these 2 miracle babies- Cameron and this sweet and busy one! 

Three year pics and our big announcement!

That's right! This awesome guy is going to be the best big brother ever! Baby due August 2016!

I might be a little biased, but Cam is so photogenic! He is one happy kiddo!! We sure love him!

Charli Marie Anderson Feb 25, 2015

Our new niece made her debut this week! She is amazing and beautiful and already such a good baby!
She was 6 lbs 2 oz and 19 inches long. Red hair just like her brother!

Kristen is recovering well and they were able to go home Sunday!!!

I sure do love this new little princess!

 I think it is safe to say that her big brother is pretty in love with her too!!

Babysitting!

My friend Nicole has a sweet baby girl that is 4 months younger than Cameron. She teaches school and back to school season is here! We watched Braelynn today for a few hours. Cameron and her were really cute together. Cam was a good helper, until I was feeding Braelynn a bottle and not him. He just kept looking at me as if to say, "How on earth could you do that to me, Mom? Feeding that baby a bottle! That should be me!" He didn't cry or anything though.

Cute baby friends!! Braelynn is a cute baby. She is also a big girl!! Cam isn't small, and she is nearly as long as he is!!