Weeks 22-24

24 weeks, 4 days, or a little less than 6 months along!

This pregnancy is going by so quickly!  I can't believe we've reached viability day--the day that a medical team will try to save a preemie rather than just marking it as stillborn.  Not that it's going to be a problem with Artoo coming early; he seems very happy in there, kicking my bladder!  As I said last time, he's a mover and shaker.  Most of his movement is very low still.  He gets some good shots to my bladder, but it also sometimes feels like he's hitting my intestines!  He's been doing some rolling and turning as well, which makes things very tight and uncomfortable.  I'm not sure Gabby has actually felt him in a while (she's just not patient enough to sit with her hand in one place and wait for him), but when I tell her he's moving she'll say "baby brother is dancing."  She also hits and shakes my belly and say "wake up, baby brother!" when she wants to feel him.  I'm hoping this isn't indicative of what she's going to do during his naptimes!

At my last appointment, I was up 14 lbs, which is more than the 11 lbs I was with Gabby around this time.  Despite that, my OB looked at me and said "you know you can eat, right."  I assured her that I'm eating a ton, but I have tried to increase consumption since then.  This little guy still loves meat and fat, so I'm doing my best to oblige!  I'm not doing nearly as well this time around with exercise (unless chasing Gabby and walking around lab counts as exercise), since not only have I been really busy with work, I caught a cold that is just lingering.  I'm finally starting to feel better, after almost a week and a half of being sick.  Looking back, this is the time I caught my first pregnancy cold with Gabby too!  It's weird how similar things are between these pregnancies, and also how different!

Gabby is doing a bit better with sleeping.  It still takes forever to get her to go to sleep (although she'll pretty consistently fall asleep at 9:30; scant comfort when bedtime is at 8:15!), and someone has to be in the room with her while she's getting there.  But she only woke up 1 time the night before last, and slept all the way through last night!  I'm hoping that's a trend and not a fluke--sleeping through the night again was amazing!  She had no problems at all transitioning to her big girl bed.  She is absolutely in love with her new room, and now calls her old one "baby brother's room."

Here's her room with some of her furniture.  We now have curtains, and will soon put up wall decorations.  We also put up a railing on her bed so she doesn't fall out.  It mostly just serves to keep her millions of toys in bed.

I'm so relieved that so far she seems OK with giving up her old room for her new one.  I think it helps that we let her have a huge say in decorating.  Because you know I didn't want a pink room!  The next step is to paint Artoo's room a nice pale green.  I'm not sure when Brian plans on getting that started, but time is getting short!

We've had some good times this past month.  We went to the California State Fair with the Berrys and the Frasers, and had a fantastic time together.

Between this shot and the one above, I have no idea where my baby went, and who left this little girl in her place!

4 of the girls.  Do you know how hard it is to get 4 girls 5 and under to all look the same direction??

Cheesing with Mommy

Girl #5 enjoying her sippy cup in the stroller.  She wanted to join in!

 Gabby got to go on her very first pony ride.  She gave it 2 thumbs way up!

Excited because she got the white horse!

She actually gave the horse a pet!  I was surprised.

And we're off!

Despite her serious face, she was in love, and said "again?" when we were done!

She's cute, even from behind!

 The 4 bigger girls got to go on some rides together too!

Riding the boat.

Phoebe never once stopped ringing the bell.

Gabby and Phoebe riding the kangaroo.

Finally Daddy and Gabby on the Jumbo ride (think Dumbo at Disney).  All rides said no pregnant women!

We also went camping last weekend at Yosemite.  We try to get up there every 2 years or so, since it's fairly close and really fun.  Joining us were half of the Berrys, half of the Frasers, the Frickey-Lins, and the Bischoff-Schuylers (plus a friend of theirs).  The weekend started out great.

Brian's sole reason for planning the trip this weekend was the new moon, so he could play with his lenses and get some star pictures.  He succeeded.

A perfectly clear night would have been much better!

Those of us with kids went on a simple hike--2.5 miles round trip with a 500 vertical ft elevation change.  We were starting at altitude, though (I think somewhere around 8000 ft), so it was more challenging than it would have been at sea level!

We all started out together...

But moving at toddler/pregnant woman speed meant that the Berrys and Frasers left us in the dust!

Gabby actually walked about 25% of the way, even making it up some of the rocky terrain on her own.  Brian and I were very impressed!

Some food motivation was necessary, of course!

We were headed for the foot of that mountain.

Gabby got appropriately filthy.

Taking on that rock!  She always tried to find the hardest route, because it's the most fun!

Finally making it to the lake!

It was worth the hike!

Eating lunch with the rest of the group

The Frickey-Lins made it too!

Ellie hiked in style.

Lunchtime!

You can see me in the back trying to hoist myself up.  I made it on my own!

Checking out the scenery

After our hike, we went back to the campsite and hung out for the rest of the afternoon.  Brian took a nap (Gabby and I took one in the car--Gabby actually zonked out on the way back down in Brian's arms), while the other adults kept an eye on the kids.

Now the not-so-fun part.  While we were driving to the hike, we noticed some controlled burns to clear out the brush.  No big deal, and actually quite common in Yosemite this time of year (particularly with the drought).  So at first, when we saw the dark clouds heading towards our camp, we thought that's what it was.  Turns out, it was from an actual fire that had started about 3.5 miles from our campsite!  Information was really spotty because the phone lines were down.  At first, we were told that we had to pack up and leave right away (being in the path of the smoke means you're also in the path of the fire, after all).  So everyone stopped dinner prep, and started packing up their campsites as fast as they could.  I did my best to entertain the girls while everyone was busy, and mostly just stayed out of the way.  As we were leaving, we found out that it wasn't a mandatory evacuation ("yet" was the implied word), but we were encouraged to leave.  Even if we had known that at first, our group had 4 children age 5 and under, plus Artoo--we were definitely leaving when the ash started to fall!  To compound matters, our childless friends had gone on a long hike and weren't back yet.  So we ended up packing up their things and taking them with us, just in case they were unable to get back to the campsite.

It was a bright and sunny day.  This was taken around 5:30.

That's a helicopter with fire retardant or water underneath.

And heading back to refill.

In the blue sky area, the sun was shining brilliantly.  All of that "cloud cover" is smoke and ash.

It was very surreal being under the smoke cloud with the ash drifting down like snow.

We managed to get out of there around 7:00, and headed to a nearby town for dinner.  We were able to meet up with our friends and give them their stuff back, and then we all started the long journey home.  It's about a 3 hour trip from Yosemite to Sacramento, so we made it back around 11:30, took showers (wipey bath for Gabby), and crashed.  Gabby was an angel.  She had some listening issues at the camp while we were packing up (she loved digging in the dirt, but I didn't want her to get too dirty right before we left), but she loved dinner, and almost immediately fell asleep in the car on the way home.  So the ending to our camping trip was not as fun as the beginning.  And if you're thinking this sounds a bit familiar, it's pretty much the same thing that happened to us while we were in Flagstaff--we were there 1 night, then a fire broke out 20 miles away, and we cut our vacation short to get away from the smoke and ash!  Brian and I have come to terms with the fact that we may have fire powers.

Lastly, my summer class ended yesterday, and I couldn't be happier to be done.  I had a great teaching partner doing the lecture portion of the class, and I really enjoyed the semester as a whole, but it's so nice to know that I don't have to work until 9:20 three nights a week anymore!  We have a trip to St. Louis planned (hopefully nothing catches on fire, although LA was fine while we were there), and then my fall class starts on August 25.  I'm also going to start a University of Phoenix class on September 9.  It'll be a busy fall, but it should occupy me nicely while I wait for Artoo to come.  In the meantime, I intend to enjoy my time off as much as possible this month :)