Nathan Joseph Peirce

Nathan has been part of our family for almost a month now. He has brought completeness and love to our home that we didn't even realize was missing. Nathan has been given a very special name. The name Nathan means God has given, or gift from God. He is truly that, our gift from Heavenly Father.
Stephen and I both have brothers, one who only lived a very short time on this earth and the other only lived in the womb before heading back to heaven. Our sweet Nathan Joseph is named after his two uncles that he only spent time with in heaven before coming to earth. We feel so blessed to be able to raise him and have him be a part of our family.

Baby Peirce: Third Trimester

29 to about 33 weeks: Baby boy is so high. These few weeks have been by far the hardest. I didn’t think it was possible he could be so high up. I can't breathe and have horrible back pain. A nightly bath is my only relief from the day.

33 to 34 weeks. Baby has dropped! Yay! Oh it feels so good to breathe again. However the exhaustion has finally set in. I don’t want to leave the house and poor Everett has to suffer because of it. I guess he doesn’t mind though. He gets to watch cars every day. My 33 week appointment was a day before I was 34 weeks. Little boys heartbeat is always in the 140’s and he either measures a little big or just right every appointment. The most exciting thing about this appointment was the doctor told me baby is head down. That for some reason is making everything feel so much more real. I am getting so excited and anxious to meet this sweet little boy.

Sometime around 34/35 weeks: Baby boy got his first hiccups last night. I remember Everett having them all the time but this little guy I haven't noticed him getting them much. It’s fun to notice their differences already. I swear this little guy moves so much more than Everett ever did. I think he’s constantly doing back flips. He is going to be an adrenaline junky for sure just like his dad.

The nursery is almost all put together! Everett loves being tucked into his crib and pretending to nap in it. He tells me to tuck him in, then leave and shut the door. Then he'll tell me he's awake and want to do it all over again.
Overall I feel so under prepared this time around for baby to come but in a good way. I think with Everett I prepared for every little detail expecting every little thing to go a certain way. This time around I am much more relaxed and just trying to go with the flow so that I don’t break down or lose it.

36 weeks: March 12th 12:20am
Around 9:30pm I started feeling super nauseous and just not feeling well. I decided not to go to bed because laying down just wasn't helping. Around 11:00pm I called the Dr just to get some advice. I didn't have a fever but had chills and just didn't feel good. He said since I wasn't having contractions I was fine and he would call in some nausea medicine I could pick up the next morning. So a little while later I started feeling contractions. Now Everett was an extremely fast labor so the second I noticed contractions I figured we better go to the hospital just in case.
We called Christine to come sleep on the couch until we could get back home and Stephen and I headed to labor and delivery. I was dilated to a two when we got there and then an hour later I was a three, close to a four. So they admitted me and said it’s pretty much baby time.
It was all a bit strange. On one hand we were like ok is this baby really coming? On the other hand we were like no, baby isn't coming yet. This labor was nothing like Everett's was. So once I got admitted they gave me tons of fluids and that slowed my contractions way down and stopped me from dilating any more. I still stayed in the hospital until 3:00pm the next day just to make sure I didn't start dilating again.
It was kind of a bitter sweet day. I was a little bummed we weren’t meeting baby but the next night I did get 12 hours of sleep and waking up after that I was honestly a little happy baby wasn’t here yet.

Now a couple days later March 14th
I feel so miserable! Just please baby come out. I am in so much pain all over! I should be glad baby is cooking a little longer. And honestly I am. I am not technically full term for a few more days. I don't mind waiting until that magical full term 37 weeks mark but please baby don't come any later than that. I never experienced this kind of pain and discomfort with Everett. Just so excited and ready to meet this little boy! I'll take the exhaustion if it means this pain in my stomach will just go away.

That pain after my false labor thankfully only lasted a couple days. The next two weeks were spent enjoying the time we had left as a family of three. For a few days I wanted nothing more than for him to just come early. But then I started to enjoy these last couple weeks of pregnancy and enjoy it for what it is.

Then Sunday morning March 25th at 8:40am Nathan was born and our family never felt more complete.

28 Weeks

One of the last times I went to the gym before having baby.

29 Weeks

32 Weeks

34 Weeks

36 Weeks

March

March was an exciting month. Of course our most exciting news was welcoming baby Nathan to the family. We knew it was a possibility that he would come early like Everett did so we tried to have a lot of quality one on one time with Everett and enjoy the last of family time being just the three of us. One of my favorite things that Everett and I did together was go out to breakfast at cracker barrel. It was just the two of us and we had such a fun time. We shared pancakes, eggs, bacon, fruit and yogurt, and biscuits. We colored together on his menu and had the best conversation. Everett is such a sweet little boy and is so much fun to just sit and chat with. Every time we pass cracker barrel Everett asks to go there. He likes to play with the toys after. The two of us had so much fun that the next week while I was at a doctors appointment Stephen decided to take him out to breakfast too. 

Everett did have a rough couple days this month. He woke up one morning around 5:00 and was just crying. We couldn't figure out what was wrong. He just acted like he didn't feel well. Around 7:00 we finally left his bed and came to lay down on the couch. After going to the pediatrician we decided he must have slept on his neck funny. He would only look one direction and it hurt to look the other way. Poor little boy was hurting for a couple days. It was so sad.

Some of the fun things we did were walks at the park with Everett's bike, coloring Easter eggs and reading tons of Easter books, and spending one afternoon in Little Washington. The day before Nathan was born Everett and I spent two hours at the kids fair. He loved every minute of it.

Having 1:00 church this year has been kind of hard on Everett. It starts right at nap time. Stephen has been working Sundays for a couple months now so some weeks Everett and I will visit him before heading to church. Well one of those times Everett fell asleep on the way to church from the hospital. I decided to let him sleep for about a half hour before heading inside. That was the biggest mistake. Short nap Everett is way more cranky than just tired Everett. Church that week was rough.

Baby Nathan has his own birth story post but he was born March 25th at 8:40am. Two weeks earlier we thought he was coming but I was just in false labor. We are glad he decided to wait and come when he did. We are all just smitten with him and he is already so loved!