Baby gear!

It's getting closer! Time is flying and reality is hitting this little boy will join us  in the real world soon! We've had our stroller and car seats sitting in the boxes for weeks now, and I kept getting excited to get them out, and then I would get too tired... note to self, try to do all baby stuff in second trimester!!! We did finally go out to the garage and get it all out though, and here is the setup!

My mom got us our BOB stroller and Mark's mom got us the car seat. I love it! The BOB is so far to push around, it's a smooth ride and I can't wait to take Luke on walks when he is here!

We also finally finished the nursery, and once I take some pictures this week I'll dedicate a post to Luke's nursery! 

The rest of pregnancy...

So I left off at 18 weeks pregnant, man that feels like FOREVER ago! The second trimester was a breeze! I felt really good almost daily, enjoyed Luke moving around more often each day, and feeling good over all. We had another ultrasound at 20 weeks at my doctor to look at all of the anatomy and everything checked out well! I haven't seen him since 20 weeks and I can't wait to see what he looks like! Since then I've been going to the doctor monthly, until 28 weeks when I started going bi-weekly. NOW, in 2 weeks I'll already be going weekly to check for labor progress! We also get a final ultrasound in 2 weeks to measure his current size.

The third trimester kind of caught me off guard, it started with a few bad feeling days here and there. The return of first trimester exhaustion, and occasional nausea. At about 32 weeks things really took a turn and I live in a state of no sleep/bad feeling/exhaustion. I do have some good days, normally days where I just sit at home all day, I feel great! It's when I go into work, or am busy doing things I feel pretty terrible. My worst symptom so far now though is (what I consider) extreme swelling in my legs and feet! at 32 weeks it hit me like a ton of bricks, I woke up one morning and lost my ankles! My calves soon followed after, and now my feet are toast. I've had to go up a shoe size but only can fit comfortable into flip flops. Keeping my feet up doesn't do much to help, so I've resigned to the fact that this is the way it is until after delivery... Luke is SO worth it though! I'm hoping to just coast until delivery day, without adding any more major symptoms to the list (high five for my awesome blood pressure thus far!)

 I haven't been great about remembering to take belly pics each week, here are the weeks I remembered!

Week 23

Week 24

Week 25

Week 26

Week 29

Week 31

Week 34

Week 33

Showered with Love

A little over a month ago, I was blessed with a wonderful baby shower thrown by my BFF and my moms BFF! Ashley and Malinn threw me (and Luke) and incredible shower, it was such a fun day! There was a great turn out of friends and family, and we all had so much fun visiting and I had fun opening up all the goodies everyone brought for baby Luke and I!

18 Weeks

SO! 18 Weeks have FLOWN by, and my little man is the size of a mango and already .5 lbs! I seriously can't believe how fast time is going now. It seemed like the first 12 weeks when we weren't telling anyone was so slow, and now it's in super speed. Thank the Lord I've still been feeling really great, just getting bigger by the day it seems.

The snoogle seemed to have cured my insomnia, which is amazing. Now my battle is my hubs stealing the snoogle from me! Maybe I should get him one for Christmas :). 2 days ago I had a scare where I thought I was getting a "pregnancy bunion"... not sure why I put that in quotes but pregnancy induced bunion sounded weird... I started having foot pain (which I have learned is quite common in pregnancy even as early as 16 weeks when I started having it!) near where you would have a bunion 2 days ago, and freaked out! Bunions don't go away on their own and I'm only 27, how could I already have one! Well, after googling (don't do this, bunion pictures are gross) and talking with my mom about it, we decided it was maybe just inflamed from the shoes I wore Monday and thankfully it feels much better today!!!

18 weeks

Luke is much move active lately, or at least I can feel him a lot more now. I feel him throughout the day thumping around, but mainly when I lay down on the couch at night he starts to really roll around! I'm not sure if it's kicking, or him completely changing positions, it feels like he is doing flips! Mark has felt him a couple of times, which is so exciting! Most of the time I go to see if I can feel him from the outside and he stops! Stinker!

We carved a pumpkin Sunday with little mans name! Cute huh!

What's in a name?

So our little man has a name...

Luke William Segaloff

I've always loved the name Luke, and knew I'd love for my first little boy to be Luke. When Mark and I first talked baby names, he agreed he loved Luke too, and if we had a boy he already had a name! It was seriously that easy!

Luke: Latin meaning is light giving

I know this little guy is going to be the light of our lives, he really already is! and I hope we can raise him to be a light of Christ to those that surround him!

William: Honoring Mark's dad who passed when Mark was very young, and my grandfather who passed in 2010. Both Williams were wonderful men, and this little guy is going to grow up hearing how amazing they were!

We love to refer to him by his name now! Mark is always asking how his little Luke is doing, and has lovingly nicknamed him L-dub :)

16/17 weeks and the evolution of pregnancy insomnia

I'm actually almost 18 weeks, but I never posted 16/17 week pics (admission that I still haven't taken my 17 week pic, I will tomorrow and upload it then!)

16 weeks

I've been feeling really good lately, except a headache that I can't shake here and there. I'm definitely getting bigger, and actually feel uncomfortable sometimes already. BUT lately our little guy has been a busy body and I'm feeling more distinct movements! He tends to be more active in the evenings, and he thumps around for a second or two and then stops. He's a mover too, he doesn't stay in one spot for long! I thought he was always hanging out on the left side but last night I felt some distinct rolling movements on my right side. He was thumping away and I grabbed Mark's hand because I thought maybe he could feel it and he did! He was so excited, our friend Barry was in town and got to witness our excitement! I remember before I could feel him move, I was a little freaked out by it. Thinking of something you can't control moving around inside you just seemed strange. At first it was a bit weird, but now, I absolutely love feeling him move around. Sometimes I poke around just to try and get him to wiggle so I can feel him!

About a week ago I started having a hard time sleeping. I've always been a stomach sleeper, and now it's very uncomfortable to be on my stomach, so I've had to switch to my side. I didn't really think this would be a huge deal but I started waking up with terrible neck aches that turned into all day tension headaches! I was so bummed this started so early, and determined to find a solution. I love my sleep so much and couldn't go much longer without sleeping! I was trying to avoid the expensive pregnancy pillows they sell, so I started with a king size pillow from Target. That was quickly hijacked by my furry girl...

 So I tried the king size pillow, and I actually woke up without a sore neck one morning, BUT I had terrible low back pain because I had it positioned differently. So I went to my people, Facebook and various forums looking for HELP! I talked to my HS bff who recommended the Snoogle... that's the pillow I had heard of but was trying to avoid since it's kind of pricey for the short term use! But enough missed sleep and I was desperate, so I went to Buy Buy Baby and picked one up Monday. That nights sleep was the best I've had in some time, the Snoogle is a miracle in pillow form! Below is the Snoogle (image from google).

It's pretty huge, and maneuvering it to switch sides will take some work to perfect, but I really love my Snoogle :)

Completely unrelated but I was shopping (meaning putting adorable baby clothes in my online basket and then closing the website before I could buy) the other day and came across this adorable one piece!!! I haven't ordered it yet but I'm definitely going to, Lord know we love kitties in this house and I'm sure our little man will too! 

It's a.....

BOY! Woohoo! The little squirmer in my belly is a mini-Mark!

We actually found out the day I turned 16 weeks, almost 2 weeks ago. It was the weekend of our 1 year wedding anniversary, and I wanted to surprise Mark. We weren't sure due to his work schedule if he would be able to come to the 20 week ultrasound, so we had talked about doing an elective US early to find out. I called a few days before and found a "pregnancy spa" with an opening. On Saturday I fibbed and told Mark we had lunch plans with some friends, but really drove to the US place! He was pretty shocked but excited! We got a good look at our little guy, and I saw pretty early on before the tech announced it that we would be having a little dude :)

We were both so excited, although I'll admit it took about an hour for it to sink in with me. All I've known is little girls since I have two nieces, and my brother is 5 years older and wasn't a "typical boy" (he was always super nice growing up and pretty quiet). We called our parents that day and told them the good news, everyone seemed to guess boy to begin with :) After church the next day we went to babies r'us and bought a couple of boy outfits and the same weekend we ordered the crib (which arrived today)!

Little man already has a name, I'll do a separate post on that, but below enjoy some pics and our "gender reveal photo"!

ALL BOY!

Precious profile

little feet!

We took this on the alter where we said "I do" one year ago! 

It's a boy! 

My little goldfish

We got home from our trip to Maryland last night, and were pretty exhausted. We only had about 4 hours of sleep the night before due to an early flight. I tried to nap and couldn't so I went and took a bath (one of my favorite things to do now during this pregnancy)! If Mark is home, he will come in the bathroom and talk with me, I get lonely :) I was just laying there not moving, and felt something on my lower stomach. I thought something was floating around the water tickling me, and then it occurred to me that, IT COULD BE THE BABY! Sure enough, I lifted myself out of the water and it was still tickling me! It felt like a gold fish swimming around. It was amazing, and yet very very strange! It kept laughing and shrieking! It's such an odd, yet amazing feeling. Especially since the  baby is the size of an avocado  yet the movement is so delicate! I know soon enough he/she will be jabbing me awake in the night and moving non stop! My little fishy started moving again this morning, which is exciting since I thought maybe it would be awhile before I felt it again. It's so light, I have to lay still to feel it. Now I keep envisioning my uterus as a fishbowl, and a gold fish swimming around in there! We have our 16 week appointment next week, and are going to TRY to get the DR to tell us the gender early, exciting! :)

Maryland Wedding Weekend

One more of Mark's high school friends is officially off the market! We flew out to Maryland for the weekend to attend Mike and Jaclyn's wedding in Chesapeake City. We flew into Philadelphia late Friday night, after a few delays on both flights, and drove about an hour through Delaware (I still think it's so weird to drive through states within 20 minutes to get to another one!).

The town was sooo tiny! You can walk through it in about 5 minutes, but it was adorable and so quaint! All of the wedding festivities took place within the little town. We stayed at a cute little bed and breakfast called the Inn at the Canal. It was so weird staying in someone's house! But the breakfast was to die for!

Saturday we had pretty much all day to ourselves, so we decided to go apple picking! Mark grew up doing things like this, but I never have and it was so much fun! We drove about 20 minutes to Milburn Orchards. They had a huge fall festival going on for kids and families, a big farmers market, and then apple picking! The types of apples you can pick change depending on the week. I actually forget all of the ones we got because I had never heard of them, but they were delicious! We picked about 13 lbs, and I plan to make an apple pie for Mark next weekend :)

15 week belly pic

Mark and Justin

Mark, Marcello, and Brian

All in all it was a great weekend, and I'm glad we had the opportunity to make the trip up there. I'm also glad I won't be traveling anymore until after this baby comes! :)

Baby Segaloff

We're having a baby! We don't waste anytime here in the Segaloff household :) We're so excited to announce that we're expecting baby Segaloff March 2013! Mark and I are overjoyed to be on this amazing journey together. We are so ready and excited to be parents to this little baby!

We had our first appointment in August and got to see our little bean on the screen with the heart beat and all!

Baby Segaloff at 8 weeks

Baby Segaloff at 12 weeks

At 12 weeks we went in for the NT scan, and it was amazing to see what a transformation the baby had already made! It looked like a little person! We got to see the baby moving it's arms and legs around and moving it's jaw! Then the US tech switched on the audio and we heard the precious heartbeat, 158 bpm! I go back at 16 weeks for just a regular check up, and HB.