Forgetting Easter

I was reading through my friends' blogs and I realized that they all had a post about what they did for Easter. It has almost been a month since that sacred holiday had passed, and I thought to myself, "Surely I made my own Easter post...right?" Nope! Searching through my blog, I realized I had never made an Easter post, so I dug up the pictures from that day and slapped 'em on ye olde blog.

We had a dinner and egg hunt at my sister's house. She is moving to Colorado this summer and this was the last time she would get to hold a party for all of us.

Strategically placed eggs...kind of.

 Me and my nephew Jayson. He was born two days before Bonnie.

 Jordyn looked so cute in that bucket hat, her levi jacket and striped skirt. Thank goodness it was a warm day.

 Jordyn loves to dig. Even if she can't dig, she loves to hold a shovel.

 Bonnie was talking to grandma. I think she was sad that she couldn't eat any of the candy that was everywhere.

 We are waiting for someone to tell us we can go and grab the eggs.

 What a huge difference a year makes. Last Easter Jordyn needed help finding eggs. This year she was picking them up quickly and throwing them in her basket.

 We found an egg that had a $1 bill in it over here.

 Her basket couldn't hold all the eggs she was finding.

 It isn't Easter unless you get chocolate on your fingers!

 Jared was helping Uriah open his eggs to get all the candy. The kids also got a large bottle of bubbles, courtesy of aunt Lindsay.

 For some reason, kids are fascinated by hoses...

We had a great Easter. We were spiritually fed and the weather was so beautiful. It was the first real nice day we had had in a while.

For now, I am working on losing some weight. I realized that my bad habits of eating junk while I was pregnant didn't go away when I had Bonnie and that I wasn't losing the baby weight like I used to be able to. I have started counting my calories on everydayhealth.com and watching my portions during dinner and I am almost down to what I weighed before I got pregnant with Bonnie.

This is how I plan to lose more weight. Now that the kids are going to be home with daddy all summer, I am hoping to be able to get out and at least get about 30 minutes of some kind of exercise a day. I just need to remind myself to start small. Jared took a Health and Fitness class this semester and for his final he had to bring someone in to his class and have them do some fitness tests. Being a good wife, I volunteered. I learned that 40% of my body is fat and that I have pretty crappy upper body and abdominal strength. I was talking to Jared about my weight loss goals and his teacher said to me, "It took a lot of time to gain that weight, it's going to take a lot of time to lose it." I had never thought of it that way before. My biggest roadblock in losing weight was that I wouldn't see a difference in my weight in one week, so I'd quit. Now that I can look at it differently and see it as a long term commitment, hopefully I will be able to stick it out. Since I started counting my calories, I have limited myself to 2000 calories a day or less and I have lost 5 lbs already. My first goal is to get down to 200 lbs and I've got 20 lbs to go. If I can make it that far, I will make a bigger goal for myself to lose more weight. Baby steps...that's what I need to remember.



Wordless Wednesday...A Day Early

A Month of Maternity (leave)

I just started going back to work yesterday, and it felt absolutely AWESOME to get out of the house and back to work. Yes, of COURSE I would like to stay home with my new baby and with my kids, but after doing that for a month straight, I just needed some me time, and if going to work is how I get it, then I'm okay with that!

It's kinda crazy how quickly a month can go by when you aren't really paying attention or waiting for anything to happen. The first week after Bonnie was born was great, but then I started getting mastitis, really bad constipation and severe headaches. I had never felt so cruddy after giving birth before, so I called my doctor's office and talked to the nurse about the mastitis and she told me that drinking more fluids and eating more calories should help with the headaches and constipation. After I got off the phone with the nurse and thought for a second, I sure felt like a moron!

Here I was, resting at home with a new baby, thinking I was doing all the right things, but I hadn't thought about drinking liquids or eating food. I mean, I drank an occasional glass of something and snacked throughout the day, but considering that I drank a ton of water when I was at work and ate 3 meals a day and had regular snacks, I was really depriving myself! Not to mention the fact that I was losing fluids and iron after having the baby, and I wasn't putting enough back into my body to replenish everything. What a dope! I thought I was taking care of myself by holding my baby and sleeping all day...who knew!

So, after I started taking care of myself like a normal person, things got better and I got into a groove of keeping the house clean and organizing and trying to structure my days. I mostly watched a lot of TV, cleaned the kitchen and did laundry. I tried to get in some scrapbooking but I just never remembered or made time for it.

At Bonnie's first doctor's appointment she had only lost one ounce, so she was doing great. A week later at another appointment she had almost gained a whole pound! I can't believe how big she looks already, even though she is still small. We sure love having her around.

Bonnie laying on the couch after drinking a bottle.

 My little lazy boy, having a snack and watching TV.

 After I learned how to make homemade alfredo sauce, I just couldn't stand to buy it at the store anymore. I think Jordyn is glad that I made that decision.

 I found this cow costume in a bag of baby clothes someone let me look through. Jordyn barely fits in it, but I just had to put it on her. She was stinkin' adorable!

 Daddy likes to snuggle with Bonnie.

 Sometimes they do get along :)

 I remembered that I've had this play mat since Uriah was born, so I went and dug it out of the garage for Bonnie to lay on.

 I can't wait until she can reach up and snatch those dangling butterflies.

 This is what our back seat looks like now that we have 3 kids. We barely fit!

 Little Miss Bonnie likes to play dress-up too. A special thanks to my amazing friend Kira for making this tutu and headband for her (and one for Jordyn).

 Aunt Lana and uncle Ben went to Mexico on vacation and brought Bonnie back this adorable dress. I just HAD to put it on her!

 Jordyn and auntie Kayla. They both have great smiles!

You can tell they are both McCurdys! Their smiles look so similar!

Auntie Kayla is their favorite, probably because they get to see her a lot more than their other aunts!

Well, maternity leave was good but I am really liking being at work and having some time to myself. This feeling probably won't last long, and I might want to be at home with my baby after a few weeks of work, but I will enjoy it while I can. I can't wait to watch my little bon-bon grow up!

One Born Every Minute

At least, that's what it felt like during that last week of February/first of March.

When we took this picture around the end of 2011, we had no idea how close our children would actually be. In order, #1 was due February 17th, I was due February 29th and #3 was due late March. As it turned out, #1 was 10 days overdue and was born on February 27th, 2012. My baby was right on time, and #3 was 4 weeks early and came on March 1, 2012. So, for future reference, since my baby's real birth date will only come around every 4 years, we will probably be celebrating birthdays on February 27th, 28th, and March 1st every year. Crazy, I know!

Now, I think it's time I started talking about my newest little bundle of joy. I told my doctor that if I was going to be induced, I really wanted to be induced the night of the 28th/morning of the 29th so that my baby would come on her due date. After my doc looked into it, labor and delivery told him they were going to be completely full that day, so he had to schedule me to go in on the night of the 27th. I was a little sad that I wouldn't get to have a leap day baby, but I honestly didn't care because I just wanted to hold my baby and be done with the pregnancy. So on the night of the 27th I called labor and delivery about coming in and they told me that they were really busy and that they would call me if they could take me in that night. I did a lot of waiting and never got a call back. I figured that I would just have to wait for labor to come on its own now. Then, on the morning of the 28th, I got a call from a nurse in labor and delivery saying that they wanted me to come in that night because my doctor asked them to take me. Apparently, they weren't going to be as full as they thought they were. So we made the necessary arrangements and that night at 9 we went to the hospital. I was already having contractions, and when I got into the hospital bed and got hooked up they told me I was having regular contractions every few minutes and I was dilated to a 2.

To make a long story short, from about 10:30pm to 6:30am I had two doses of a cervix-softening pill

and only dilated 2 more centimeters. Around 7am my doctor came in and broke my water and I asked the nurse to give me some medication through my IV that would help me relax between contractions. For the next 45 minutes or so, I could breathe through the contractions and get along without too much hardship. Jared even helped me eat some jello since I was hungry. For the last 30-45 minutes, the pain got so bad that all I could do was grip the rail of my bed with one hand and Jared's hand with the other and try to breathe. Thankfully the meds they gave me helped me relax between contractions, and very soon I was telling the nurse that I could feel the pressure I needed to feel to push. I asked them if I could push when I felt ready and they told me I could. I asked them this 3 times because when Jordyn was born, they weren't ready for me to push when I was ready. They started getting everything set up they needed to catch the baby. My doctor was rounding the hall checking on patients and they asked him if it was okay for me to start pushing. He said it was okay. I asked the nurse one more time if I could push when I felt like I needed to and she said that I could and then they would see what kind of "pusher" I was. Well, one contraction later I gave a push and the baby's head crowned. One of the nurses went to get my doctor, but he was down the hall delivering another baby. I pushed again and my baby's head came out. The nurse asked me if I could stop pushing and, very nicely, I told her that I couldn't stop. They tried to get my doctor to my room but he couldn't leave his other patient. I heard them say that the doctor wasn't going to make it and I pushed one more time and my little girl was out. There was no one there to catch her and she just laid there on the bed for a few seconds.

They put her up on my chest so I could hold her and she wasn't really moving or anything, but she looked okay. I asked the nurses if she was okay and they said everything was fine. They whisked her away to clean her up and my doctor finally came in to check on me and finish everything up. I wasn't hearing any crying and I began to wonder what was up. I couldn't see her because the warming bed was across the room and my doctor was working on giving me 2 stitches and I couldn't see around him. After a few minutes, I finally heard my baby cry for the first time. I felt relieved, but shortly afterwards I learned that they had to put a small oxygen mask on her face and massage her chest a little bit. She wasn't really in any serious danger, they just wanted to help her out a little. My doctor finished up his stuff, shook my hand and told me congratulations, and I could finally relax and wait to get my baby back.

Bonnie Lyn McCurdy was born at 8:30 am on February 29th, 2012. She was 7 lbs 10 oz and 21 inches long. She had some nice, dark brown hair all over her head and quite a bit of peach fuzz that covered her back and shoulders.

We think she looks more like a McCurdy than a Nichols.

Proud daddy holding little Bonnie.

Me and my twin brother and our babies. His little guy was born on February 27th, after missing his due date by 10 days!

Getting ready to go home.

Relaxing at home.

What a great miracle it is that my Heavenly Father allows me to bring children into the world without complications. I consider myself a very lucky woman.



Coming Due

Wowzers, I'm definitely due for another blog update! January was full of ups and downs. One of my previous blogs mentioned our financial troubles, so I'll get that squared away right in the beginning. Jared met with the Financial Aid Appeals committee and they denied him financial aid again, even after all of the proof and documentation we provided. I wasn't as prepared for that news as I thought I was. We found this out early on a Friday morning. Then, early Friday afternoon Jared called me at work and told me that someone from the financial aid office had called him to tell him that they were looking over his files again and they had decided that they couldn't deny him for the reasons that they did, so they reinstated his financial aid. I cried a lot that day, tears of sadness and tears of joy. I told Jared they couldn't do that to me, that they were going to make me go into labor! So anyway, we got financial aid to live on this semester and for the summer, we paid off debt with our tax return and now that we are hyper aware of the situation, we (mostly me) are going to make better financial choices and make sure that if this ever happens again, we are able to take care of ourselves. It felt so good to be able to drop about 4 monthly bills, and I am going to make sure I never get myself stuck in a situation like that again!

With my new job responsiblities, the end of January and all of February have gone by very quickly, like a blur! In the past two and a half years that I have had my current job, I have never ever been this busy, and I am loving it! I am loving the new things I am learning and being able to help students successfully work through their 4 years of pharmacy school. I haven't gotten the new pay that comes with the new job, but I know those things take time and I'm not worried, and I'm having so much fun being busy that I would probably take the job without the extra pay anyway! I am getting ready to take a month off for maternity leave, and I know I am going to miss the hustle and bustle of work (but not too soon) :)

I am 6 days away from my due date now. I went to see my doctor yesterday and he tried to schedule me to be induced on the night of the 28th or morning of the 29th, but labor and delivery was all booked for inductions, so he scheduled me for the night of the 27th. He told me that I don't have to go in if I don't want to and that I can wait and see when the baby comes on her own. At first, I was 100% sure that I wanted to be induced and get this baby out, but now I am thinking that I would like to wait and see when the baby comes on her own. I will probably bounce around between wanting to be induced and waiting for the baby to come on her own before I actually decide. I have 4 days to make up my mind :)

I decided that I wanted to move Jordyn into Uriah's room before the baby came so that she was used to sharing a room with Uriah and wasn't trying to adjust to a new baby sister and a new room. A few months ago we got a bunk bed that hasbeen in my family for a long time and put it up in Uriah's room. Uriah thought he had the coolest bed ever and we couldn't keep Jordyn off the top bunk, and she couldn't get down from it by herself. Now that we have moved Jordyn's things to Uriah's room and put Jordyn on the top bunk, she climbs up and down the ladders like a little monkey. Now we can't keep her ON the bed! The little stinker. I know the kids don't really understand that they've got a baby coming, but I know they will love her and accept her when she gets here!