16 weeks ~ 4 months & Gender reveal!! I'll give you a hint (Miss Toot)

I feel like I can now officially say I that I'm over the first trimester hump.  I have felt great, less tired, and my headaches are not a constant all day headache...just hear and there and not even as intense!  Praise God!  I'm still getting up most nights to pee and have not been the best sleeper due to tight muscles in my shoulders and other discomforts.  Still able to sleep on my belly though.  I am PRETTY positive I've felt little toot move!!!  I sneezed really hard the other day and felt a POP.  And this week I'm pretty sure I've felt some flutters and pops, but it's hard to decipher that from my heart pounding in my stomach.  I've been able to feel my heart in my stomach since early pregnancy. 

We visited friends and family in Knoxville this past weekend.  It was a long trip in little time, but it was worth it!  We didn't get into Knoxville until 3:30 EST and stayed Dallas & Courtney's  (Dal is Luke's brother).  Saturday we woke up and went to the farmer's market downtown, ate at Oodles (yummy mac n' cheese - my staple), kayaked in the clinch area, played a few games of corn-hole (it made Luke giddy), and then grilled back at their place (while Luke and Dal tortured poor moths to feed to the big spider).  Court and I stayed out of the spider business ;)  SADLY, we didn't get one picture of the whole day.  Oh well!!  Good times.

Sunday we went and visit our good friend Cecile Gray and Benton Pitkanen.  They used to live on our street here in Memphis, but moved to Knoxville this past May for Benton's anesthesiology residency.  We were sad to see them leave with their baby girl, Merri Ryan, but it was soooo good to see them settled in their cute home in Knoxville!  It was good to catch up with CG on a walk and Luke and Benton took B's jeep (aka Bubba) to his family farm.  She blogged about our day here.

And here's a picture of us :)

Little girls melt Luke's heart ;)

And mine ;)

 

AND Pippet's!

 

Back to my Little toot...now the size of an avocado...4 1/2 inches long (head to rump) and 3 1/2 ounces.

So...this is what I, in turn, look like - 16 weeks, 3 days!

I went to the doctor today for my 16 week checkup today and....

Miss Toot is a GIRL!!  I wasn't going to find out the gender at first and then to even find out 2 weeks before I thought I would was even more of a surprise...even to myself!  But, when on the phone with my Dr. yesterday I just asked in curiousity if I could find out the gender tomorrow since I could announce it at my HUGE family reunion to Gulf Shores this weekend...and she agreed!  My ultrasound technician was different this time and was actually the Rachel (I thought the last girl was Rachel, but she was just a Friday fill-in).  Rachel couldnt' have been any cuter and sweeter and was very patient with Little Toot.  She had her legs crossed and we kept nudging her until she was unladylike ;)  And there it was...the little hamburger!!  A GIRL...Luke was right!  A little girl is just gonna melt his heart!!  Most of my family and friends have announced boys so far, so it was a delightful surprise to break the mold.  Her heart rate was 155, she weighs 6 oz., everything looked very healthy, and she was very active!!  I drank a diet coke beforehand just to be sure she would move around some so we could have a better chance of finding out the gender - glad I did!  My blood pressure is still looking great (120 over 68 this time I think) and I've gained 4 lbs., which the Dr. approved, so I'm not worried...but still not feeling awesome about the weight gain.  But again, I am SO blessed to have a so far healthy baby girl growing in my belly hopefully for about 24 more weeks!


For now, I am going to thoroughly enjoy our only vacation for the summer...going to Gulf Shores for my family reunion!!  I look forward to it EVERY year.  I have to admit I'm sad to leave Pippet to a kennel, but looking forward to some good family and beach time :)  I've already been watching her on the web-cam at Brown Dog Lodge luxury pet hotel - ha!!  She seems to be having sooo much fun.  I hope that doesn't mean I'm going to be "that" mom...we'll work on that ;)  Here she is at the daycare (she is the white one with the black head on the right side of the fence):

And here is her little cot that she'll sleep in: