23 week appointment

I had my 23 week appointment today, and I've finally gained back the weight I've lost plus 1 pound. I've actually gained 5 pounds in the last 1 1/2 weeks, which is where my 1 pound total gain came from. So, I'm finally gaining which is good considering I'm getting close to the 3rd trimester. My doctor confirmed that everything looked good from my ultrasound appointment a few weeks ago, and she told me that the placenta is at the top of my uterus which is why I can only feel the baby move in certain places (on the sides and down low). But as the baby grows the placenta will keep moving up, so where I feel movements will change. I have my next check up in a month and at that time I will do the glucose test, something that I'm not looking forward to but oh well.


Picture at 24 weeks

Kindergarten Orientation

Gabriel's kindergarten orientation was Friday afternoon. He was excited to go, but a little disappointed when we got there because he thought that we would be in a classroom not in the gym/lunch room area. They had snacks, free school T-shirts, a reading area, and 4 other activities/games set up. Gabe liked and did well with all of it except for one of the activities/games. He did great with all of his pre-kindergarten skills for all of the other areas, but the activity/game he liked the least was an area that at the moment he isn't very good with. He doesn't know all of the letter names/sounds and therefore had a hard time matching a picture with a letter. That is a skill that we will be working on this summer before kindergarten. I know that he doesn't even have to know all of them before kindergarten, because that is what they work on at the beg. of kindergarten. But, I would still like him to do better than he is currently doing before school starts in August.

Happy Easter

Carissa and Gabe were both really surprised and excited by their Easter baskets this morning.

Pregnancy

A couple more things I wanted to write down about this pregnancy so far. I have been feeling the baby move for probably the last 6 weeks, and Ben felt her moving last week when we were together. He only felt her move a couple of times, but he did get to feel her moving around. She is getting stronger/pushing harder and today Carissa wanted to feel her move. But, so far no luck with that yet. Also, I've kind of figured out when she is most likely to move now too.

Another thing is that I will be 22 weeks tomorrow, and I still haven't gained back the 4 lbs. that I lost yet. With Carissa and Gabe and this baby too, I started out by losing weight. But, then with Carissa and Gabe I gained the weight back and started gaining weight by the end of the first trimester/beginning of second trimester. I think that maybe I am getting too much exercise/not getting enough time to eat this time. About 3 days a week, we leave home early and don't get home until after dinner. I bring snacks and lunch with me to school and eat when I can, but so far my weight stays the same. Also, I end up doing a lot of walking with a heavy backpack while at school which includes a lot of uphill and up stairs walking. I'm sure I will gain weight at some point, but I'm thinking I may gain really fast once this semester is over.

Easter Eggs

Tonight, Carissa and Gabe got to dye their Easter eggs. They were both very anxious to dye eggs and waited about 4 days before we finally did it.

No training wheels

We were thinking during the fall last year that Carissa was probably ready to try riding her bike with no training wheels anymore, but decided that since she wouldn't be riding as much during the winter that we would wait until spring to take off her training wheels. So, we decided that this weekend was the time to take them off. After we took the training wheels off she hopped on her bike and she was off. We didn't have to do anything to help her at all. We thought that she would do well, because her training wheels had slowly been bending upwards as time went on and she kept on riding just fine. But, even knowing that this transition just seemed to go easier than expected. Gabe only figured out how to pedal about a year ago now and he will still need his training wheels for at least a little longer, but he is doing great with his bike.

Tubing

This morning Carissa, Gabe, and Ben all went tubing with my family since my dad's work rented out a tubing place for 2 hours this morning. Carissa and Gabe have never been sledding or tubing before so I was excited to watch them even though I wasn't going. Both of them loved it, and wanted to keep going when our time was up. However, on Gabe's second run down the hill he tried to follow directions by putting his feet down to slow himself down towards the bottom of the run and due to his height he basically ended up on his face in the snow. The employees there came to check on him and get him along with my dad. He cried a little, but not too much and the employees gave him a cookie too. Then we made sure that Gabe knew the the rule of slowing yourself down with your feet didn't apply to little kids, and the rest of the time he did great. On a side note, I got Gabe's crash on video since I was taking pictures/videos of the kids going down.