Sixteen weeks

I'm almost halfway there!

Lately I've been experiencing something I never thought would happen... I am beginning to really hate eating. It's such a chore! I am constantly hungry and I have a hard time finding anything I want to eat more than once. It makes grocery shopping terrible. I'm hoping it won't stay like this and that I will find some healthy foods that both taste and sound good to me more than one time per week. We'll see!

As of right now:

• How far along? 16 weeks!
• Weight - down 7 pounds from pre-pregnancy weight
• Current cravings & aversions - nothing in particular - NO tomatoes!
• Symptoms - head aches - lower back pain - round ligament pains - bursts of energy!
• I'm looking forward to - finding out baby's gender - getting a "baby bump"
• Milestones - I felt our little one's movement last week! The "quickening" I felt was baby bouncing around like crazy. It felt like butterflies or like our baby was doing somersaults and back flips! I loved it!
• Gender - we find out in 3 weeks!!!
• About Baby - about 4.5 inches from head to rump - about 3.5 ounces - in the next few weeks, Baby will almost double in size! - heart rate was 149 bpm at Dr. appointment yesterday and measuring perfectly on schedule! - Baby's ears are almost completely developed and should be able to hear sounds made by Mom or Dad (hey, that's us!) - eyebrows, lashes, and hair are starting to fill in and taste buds are forming.

It's been so amazing to learn about our little one. There are times when I have an overwhelming feeling of gratitude to God for sending this little one our way. Every little step in the baby-developing process is beautiful and fascinating to me and I can't wait to meet our sweet baby.

OH! I had appointment yesterday and got to hear our baby's heart beat again. This time it was much clearer and very strong. 149 beats per minute! Any interference that came through while we listened was our little tumbler practicing gymnastics.

After the appointment, Drew and I couldn't stop smiling and talked a lot about how real it's becoming. Still so surreal though. We, Drew and Carissa, are going to be "Daddy and Mommy" in less than 5 months.