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103

Note: The pics are taken from week six until yesterday. For the first six weeks of the potato- looking princess click here.

103 days since our lives changed… 103 days since our priority list got an overhaul… 103 days since we started a new chapter… 103 days since our lives got meaning – it feels now that before baby Leia entered our lives we were living without a purpose… 103 days since everything got better! Way better!

No we are not celebrating her anniversary every day, but we are celebrating this new and amazing new life every single day AND I have an app on my phone that lets me know how much time has passed since Leia came into our lives (thank God for smartphones!). Truth be told, I missed the 3 months mark on posting this because a) I was lazy and b) I wanted to relax for a bit… Yes, when we passed the six weeks mark, everything started to be absolutely amazing… Leia got a break from those nasty colics and our household got a break from her inconsolable cries from 7-9 p.m. Once that episode was over, she turned into this amazingly happy and eager to learn child so we needed to up our game a bit. The good thing about her passing to the next stage (non-colic era, as we call it) is the fact that she started sleeping the entire night from 10 p.m. until 9 a.m. with only a short and sleepy feeding at 6 a.m. Now this was the best change we got so far from her as we are currently getting about 6 full hour of sleep every night. Sure, there are some nights when she fusses around in bed and we do need to go to her, but usually this gets resolved in about 2 minutes thanks to the wonderful invention called a pacifier. Seriously, pacifiers are LIFE! The person that invented it deserves a statue!

So, the current situation with Leia is:

She sleeps all night long
She eats every four hours during the day
She naps twice per day in the morning and in the evening (40 minute naps)
She sleeps for 2 hours during lunch
She plays a lot
She smiles almost all day long
She started trying to turn around on her belly
She can hold her own head
She grown according to plan (height and weight)
She swims every day
She started grabbing toys on her own
She poops every day at the same time – once you become a parent, pooping becomes very important

The current situation with us is:

We sleep every night
We play every day
We are back to our habit of drinking a glass of wine every evening (YES, there is life after having a baby and this usually starts after two months)
We take long walks every day which ultimately helps our health a bit
We realistically plan for future vacations

Overall, we are back to normal living, the only things that I have to start doing more often are posting on the blog and restarting my gym membership.

What I’ve learned so far:

There is no way in hell I can be on a diet while breastfeeding (pumping) which is at times frustrating because I still have about 5 kg to shed, but that’s not too dramatic…
Dr. Google is something to avoid at all costs because a) every baby is different and b) dr. Google does not have a medical degree and virtually any retard can write shit online
The award for the most stupid advice I’ve received/read is ‘Sleep when the baby sleeps’. I mean, am I supposed to eat when the baby eats, do laundry when the baby does her laundry, walk the dog when Leia walks the dog? I am telling you, that is the shittiest advice ever! Mainly because Leia is not big enough to do the laundry! (We are planning on teaching her that asap!) Like I said, the internet is full of crap!
If you are new parents (up until one month old baby) than let me tell you something: Hold on because the best times are soon coming! Yes, the first month is very hard, but as soon as that passes, your baby will start sleeping during the night, you will be able to enjoy a two-hour movie, you will start to relax while drinking a glass of wine knowing that the little one will not wake up and overall, your life will start to get back to normal, a more beautiful and satisfying normal than ever!
You will experience new levels of love for someone every single day! Just when you thought that you can’t love your kid more, a new day comes and you discover that you can… this is one of the best feeling ever!
Always, and I mean ALWAYS listen to the one in the house that managed to get more rest! I can’t tell you how many bad decisions one can make when they are tired. Just make sure that one of you is rested at all times as your baby needs you rested – after about two and a half months, you will both be rested all the time as life gets back to normal!
There is this rumor that if you eat certain types of food your breastmilk will not give your baby colics and also it will increase the amount of milk you have… for me, that was a pile of crap as Leia was colicky while I was on this crazy diet that involved me eating everything fully coocked, with no sugar or salt and basically tasteless… both me and Leia were feeling horrible, so, for me, that advice goes under the ‘stupid advice’ column!

Obviously, I wanted to post this at ‘100 days of baby Leia’, since I missed the 3-months mark, but as it turnes out, in the past seven weeks we took more than 1000 pics of her and choosing the best ones took me two days, not to mention writing this, which took me three more days… so here you finally have it, an update on how parenthood is going for us, as well as more than 100 pics of our little princess. Notice how she turned from potato to an actually cute baby?

We are still way behind on all the reviews I have in mind for baby stuff, but what I can say right now is that Huggies diapers rule! So there you have it, an update as well as a review on baby stuff! This motherhood phase makes me so good at multitasking (NOT!).

April 26, 2017

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A year ago…

A year ago, today, we started this blog with a review on one of our travel experiences in Romania. That was the first blog post and our first attempt at putting together a blog/diary of our life. This blog has become so much more than that for us in this past year, it is our go-to place when we want to look back on our experiences, on the way we (gracefully) age and it is a good reminder that life is wonderful, especially in those ‘down’ moments – everyone has those. It also motivates us to stay in shape, eat healthy and it forces us to actively review places and write down memories from our trips while also pinpointing some of our best experiences both abroad as well as in Romania.

Nowadays, looking back on our old posts, I realized that if we did not have this blog, there was no chance in hell we would’ve took so many photos throughout the pregnancy, nor would I have written down in such detail my personal feelings that I experienced during this amazing time.
Today we decided to celebrate by not putting together a slideshow of our past year, but by sharing with you (and also marking on our calendar) the first swimming experience (in our bath tub) baby-Leia had this Friday (the 17th of March). Since I am on active mommy watch, I will not spend more time writing about it but I will just let you enjoy our home-made video of Leia.

Yes, life changes a lot during one year, this blog helped us fully appreciate just how much, and we have come to the conclusion that our lives really evolved for the better and there is only going up from this point on. I truly hope that you enjoyed this past year with us and we hope that there will be many more years to come for our little blog!
Happy Birthday evenlymatched.eu!!!
L.

March 19, 2017

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The first six weeks…

Note : I tried to post the photos in chronological order so that you can notice Leia’s transformation over time…

We made it! We survived the first six weeks on our own! But boy, were they hard… Nobody really prepares you for this first few weeks with a newborn and no matter what everyone tells you, you can not imagine the amount of work, sleep deprivation and worrying you will experience. I honestly have a feeling that we will not sleep soundly again for the next 18 years at least… Baby Leia is the most important being in the house right now, this meaning that we are both very tired, because a baby needs constant attention and care and for the first part, we both wanted to be 100% involved in all the duper changes, feedings and everything else, but this is NOT the way to go!

Starting from the beginning…when we first got home with baby Leia we had our first shock – she just would not stop crying and we even thought that we got the wrong baby from the maternity as she seemed quite the little angel in her first four days of life, but now she was slowly changing into a small devil. We had no idea if she was hungry (but she had just eaten right before we left the hospital), if she needed her diaper changed (no) or what was bordering her. After desperate calls to our friends with kids (it is extremely important to have a support system consisting of friends that had recently gone through what you are going through now) we concluded that her fussiness was due to the fact that she changed the scenery once again in only a few days. Needless to say that we were clueless when it came to using the steriliser for the bottles and to actually making a bottle of formula milk – there was no way of nursing her in the amount of distress she was in. Quite frankly, for the first time in our lives we were both completely clueless and desperate which did not help baby Leia at all, as a matter of fact it made her more and more fussy as time went by. At some point, when we were at the edge of our patience, she just fell asleep on a big pillow and apparently that was the only thing that calmed her. Because I was just released from the hospital and needed to heal, D sent me to bed while he decided to sleep on the floor fearing that the little princess will suffocate on the big pillow, but not really wanting to take our chances and move her. This in short was the first day and night at home with the little one.

From that point on, things only got better, we got better at doing stuff for her, we did get a visit form a maternity consultant in the next few days that eased our worries and helped us learn how to care for her needs – this was included in the birth plan – that helped us tremendously, but things weren’t just right yet as our schedule was chaotic both when it came to feeding as well as sleeping. As I said earlier, we both wanted to be 100% involved in everything which meant that a week later we were both so sleep deprived that we couldn’t walk straight. Things had to change at that point otherwise we both would’ve grown extremely frustrated extremely quick. D decided that we should take turns, especially at night so that we both got at least 4 hours of sleep straight. This was a very hard and frustrating decision to make as the meant that each night one of us would sleep on the couch so that the other could get a sound sleep without any worries or baby monitors in the bedroom. This lasted for about two weeks and for me that was very hard as I was so used to sleeping next to him and I honestly missed him and at some point I was thinking that this is exactly how couples grow apart after having a baby. There was no way I was letting that happen!

This got resolved during the third week, when our paediatrician suggested we get her on a schedule of feeding her every three hours, no sooner nor later. Did I mention that baby Leia suffers from a condition called tongue-tie which prevents her from latching to my breast thus making it impossible for me to nurse her. At first I was affected by this, but later on I realised that this was a blessing in disguise, because it meant that I knew exactly how much milk she was getting and this allowed us to really put her on a feeding schedule and most importantly, it allowed D to feed her and really connect with her while I got some time to myself. So yes, I am pumping and I am loving it (I am using the Philips Avent pump and thus far I had no problems and as a matter of fact I love it but that is to be discussed in another post) and no, I do not think that I am missing out on anything!
There have been some adjustments needed because apparently baby Leia needs to be fed at four hours instead of three and with a larger quantity of milk, but that only means that we have more time between feeding and that our nights are much more manageable – she has a meal at 1 a.m and another one at 6 a.m. and thus far it worked wonderfully, but I have to say that I can’t wait for that moment when she will not need to be fed at night. Other than that, another issue that I can’t wait for her to outgrow it are colics. It is heartbreaking when we see her little face in so much pain and there is literally not much we can do about it. We were lucky enough thus far to not have such episodes during the night, apparently she prefers to have them between 6 p.m. and 9 p.m. and that is ok-ish or at least as ok-ish as colics can be.

D stayed at home for most of the first five weeks and that helped a lot and right now we have found the most amazing nanny, which allowed us to go about our lives (hence this blog post) and really focus on the important things about having a baby – education, learning through play, talking to her, taking care of ourselves etc. I am telling you – help is extremely important with a newborn it’s like we actually have a life again since we found her. She was recommended to us by the nanny agency called Synchronize Family. They are amazing as the managed to find her for us from the first try – she was our first interview!
Other than that, things have really been going perfectly and we couldn’t be happier despite the sleep deprivation (our nanny is not here 24 hours per day thus we still have to get up at night) and the fact that we still haven’t gone out with our friends yet, but I have a feeling that soon we will get there as well, it is just a matter of time. Being a parent is the hardest and the most beautiful job in the world and I think that we have never been happier in our lives. Baby Leia simply completes our little family and I have to be honest, I didn’t really understand the energy that children give us until I had one. She just fills our heart with joy and love every single second of every single day, despite the non-stop hard work we have to do.
L.

P.S: Even our dog gets involved as often as she can (she even woke me up one night because baby Leia was having a tantrum and we both were soundly sleeping) and yes, she is also sleep deprived and snores every time she gets the chance to take a nap!

February 28, 2017

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Friday the 13th…

Note: Sorry for the long break, but being parents feels like running a never-ending marathon at a sprint-speed, and it took me quite a while to put this post together… Also, all the pics are from the 13th, the 14th, the 15th and the 16th of January from those amazing days spent in the hospital.

This was the day that everything changed for us! I woke up that day more scared and anxious than I have ever been in my entire life! This was the day we were going to meet the little princess. There were loads of questions all popping up in my head at once: will we like her? Will she like us? Will it all go smoothly in the operating room? Will she be ok? Mainly the one question that kept popping up was whether she will be ok during the operation. That morning a switch popped inside me and all of a sudden I did not care much if I was going to be ok, if the scar will be big or even if the recuperating period will be long…no, all I cared about was her, the little human being that kept growing inside me for the past nine months. This was one of the most awkward feelings I have ever felt considering the fact that I am one of the most selfish people I know, but on that day, it was all about her!

This little bundle of joy along with D were waiting for me when I got out of the operation.

Going back to that morning… I woke up a bit confused and constantly feeling that the storks should get their business back on track as I was extremely scared of the c-section I was about to undergo. I mean, really, why can’t babies be delivered by storks (or dhl)? I am mentioning again that we opted for a c-section because the bundle of joy managed o get the cord around her neck and, as we found out a few days before the operation, my hips weren’t wide enough for her to be able to pass through. Once we got to the hospital, some of my fears were eased thanks to the wonderful team of doctors. I was very lucky to have a calm, collected and experienced doctor throughout my pregnancy that on top of his amazing skills had a good sense of humour. Another important and very easing person was my anaesthesiologist which is a good friend so I was blessed with not only one, but two familiar and friendly faces during the op. As it turns out, that was very important going in as it eased my nerves a bit (just a tiny bit, but it helped). After all the medical procedures were done it was time for the biggest challenge of my life, the actual operation. I admit that once the anaesthesia settled in, I did experience a minor anxiety attack, but the skilled anaesthesiologist managed to get me out of it. What I clearly remember from the whole thing is that I waited to hear and see the little princess before I thought to myself ‘well, my job here is done’ and immediately dozed off into a quick snooze. Before I knew it, it was all over and I was moved to the post-op room where the amazing nurses took such good care of me that I actually felt spoiled and not as if I had just went through the biggest test of my life. About 20 minutes later D and the little princess were there to see me and the moment I held her tears of joy invaded both my eyes as well as D‘s. That was the highest form of joy I had experienced in my life and I knew right there that life will only get better from that moment onward. And it did!

We spent three blissful nights in the hospital where we were cared for impeccably. The second day after the operation I was able to get on my own two feet and move a bit and from that point on, there was nothing stopping me. We spent amazing moments with our girl in the hospital with nurses coming every few hours to teach us how to take care of our baby and making sure that when we left the hospital we felt confident enough to be the best version of new parents we could be. We got the special-food-treatment, well at least D got it while I was still on a post-op diet. That was a bit hard as I was hungry, but for the first two days I mostly ate toast, cottage cheese and soup while he ate prawn soup, grilled beef, fruit salads and other seafood and meat specialities with gourmet desserts, but, all in all everything was ok. The best part about the whole special post-op care that I received was the fact that I was never in any pain at all and by the time I left the hospital, my uterus was back to its initial pre-pregnancy size thanks to some great massages I received from the nurses. To top the experience, right before we left the hospital I received a full body medical massage that left me feeling like I was on cloud number nine.

Of course D got her tiny Tous diamond earrings…

A bit about the princess… she was born on the 13th of January at 11:03 a.m. and we decided to name her Leia. Yup, as in the Rebel Princess Leia from Star Wars. We chose that name for a numerous number of reasons, for one, we are both huge Star Wars fans – that is the first movie I ever remember seeing as a child, another reason being that even when she was still in my tummy she was a rebel child moving all the time and making sure we both felt her presence while not really making me feel any discomfort or sickness and another reason for choosing this name was the fact that we both decided early on that if we have a girl her name will start with the letter L while if we had a boy, his name will start with the letter T. Apart from that, medically speaking she received a grade 9 out of 10 on the APGAR scale because she was born via a c-section as opposed to a natural birth. She weighted 3120 gr and had quite a full head of hair at birth (I suspect from all the heartburn I got in the last month). While she obviously looked like a potato at birth, in the next few days she actually started looking like the most beautiful baby either of us has ever seen, but I guess that is what all parents say. We bonded immensely with her while in the hospital and I am so glad that D got to stay with us all the time as he spent a lot of quality time with her during those very important first days.

Going home…

I feel very emotional writing this (in the best way possible) and I confess that it took me three days to write this post as I have to say, parenting in the hospital versus parenting at home is totally different. Just to give you a small hint of posts to come, when we got home with Leia we were under the impression that the trial-version we got in the hospital was of a different kid as for the past three weeks we have both been struggling with sleep deprivation (now we kinda found a solution to that, but this is something that happened in the last few days), colic and at the same time we have never had a more satisfying time ever in our lives. That said, we still can’t wait for these first few weeks to be over, for her to be a bit stronger and to be able to actually go out with her and play and take pics. A few more posts will slowly come based on our experience as first-time parents and how we managed to survive, but right now the rebel princess is waking up and we need to go on diaper and feeding duty.

P.S. : Three weeks post delivery I managed to fit into my pre-pregnancy size 23 jeans. True, they are Hyperflex from Replay (quite elastic, see them here), but hey, that was a major morale boost. More on what waist trainers I used post pregnancy in an upcoming post!

February 8, 2017

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The last month – 24 hours still to go!

This is the last pregnancy post as, by this time tomorrow I will be in the operating room meeting the little princess while D will be pacing in the waiting room. This is also the last day of the cute baby bump meaning that from tomorrow on I will just be fat and trying to get back into shape. This is a bitter-sweet post for me as I am well aware of the fact that our household will never be as quiet as it is today, but I am also aware of the fact that there is no happier stage than the one that will shortly start. I am also extremely afraid of what is about to happen tomorrow as this is my first surgery and I have no idea what exactly to expect. That being said, it is too late to call in the ‘Stork-service’ and I have a feeling that it is too late to ask DHL to deliver our baby as well, so I am going to have to suck it up and just plunge in without much thought in advance.

Today, being the last pregnancy post, I would like to touch-up on a few things: the last month – its ups and downs; why I opted for a C-section and my fears for the following period. Like I mentioned in the last post, we will take a break from actually publishing real-posts on the blog, but we will try and post as many short updates as we can on how things are going, how a C-section feels like, what our bundle of joy is like, how parenthood is for us as well as some short reviews on products that we bought for the baby and wether or not they are any good. We decided to leave the product reviews for after the baby is here as truth be told, no matter how much thinking we put into selecting them, if the baby doesn’t like them, they are not good, so we’ll keep you updated on that too.

Let’s get on to the last month of pregnancy and how I felt. Overall, it was ok meaning that I can’t complain although this was by far the toughest month of the entire pregnancy. As opposed to the eighth month, this one was harder on all aspects. The first thing that really bugged me about it was the fact that I went from having mild shortness of breath from walking up one storey to actually having real shortness of breath just from walking for five minutes through the house. This did not make me give up on the evening walks with our dog, it only meant that the walks were slower and a bit shorter but that was ok especially since it has been really cold and it snowed a lot in Bucharest. Another issue that progressed in this last month was the fact that I went from having reflux and heartburn once a week in the previous month, to having it daily in this last months. I swear to God that last night I was this close to actually spitting fire – yes it was that bad, especially since I did not experience these symptoms during the first seven months of pregnancy. Another thing that annoys me is the backaches. True, I only have something to complain about if I spend a lot of time standing throughout the day so that is rather manageable. That is due to that fact that the bump has grown quite a lot in these last few weeks and it is getting harder and harder to actually be independent. D has to help lift me up from bed constantly, he has to always put on my socks and shoes and so on, but luckily for me he did not complain once. I did experience a mild swelling of my hands and feet, but it is so mild, that I can’t really complain about it – I can still wear my wedding band but it only comes off easily with soap and water. Now for the more touch-y subject of weight gain… Throughout the entire pregnancy I have gained a total of 18 kgs, with the last 5 kgs being gained in these last four-five weeks. That might be due to the baby growing at a rapid pace, water retention as well as the fact that I did not take such good care of my diet lately because I promised myself that I will indulge in the last month of pregnancy. For some reason, I thought that this weight gain will get me in a more depressed state than I am in right now, but to be honest I feel really confident that once we will get a grip on the parenting stuff, I will be able to get back into shape, but there is no pressure on that right now. Another annoying symptom that I have developed during this last month is an everyday growing tiredness, especially in the evening. Like seriously, if it is passed 4 p.m. I am DONE! I literally can’t concentrate on much passed that hour.

A bit about the baby during these passed four weeks… She is more and more active every day, not for such extended periods of time as last month but more feisty when she is up. She still doesn’t hurt me, but I have to stop what I am doing when she has her active minutes because I feel like she can put me to the ground with her stomping. Again, this does not hurt, but it is hard to concentrate on anything else. We can’t complain, as from the beginning we were well aware of the fact that she is one active baby. She is also down enough now to let me breath normally, but her actual position does give me some pelvic discomfort from time to time, again when I spend a lot of time standing throughout the day. Still, at this stage, I have not experienced any contractions – I either do not know how they feel or I am literally senseless. In the recent non-stress test there have been some contractions recorded that I yet again failed to feel and my doctor tells me that everything is ok, so I do not worry about that at all. Because of how big she has gotten, I have lately spent most of the day in bed as that is the most comfortable place to be and I suspect that is the reality for most pregnant mamas-to-be.

A bit on why I opted to have a C-section… First of all, I do not feel any less of a woman because I opted for this method, as from what I have heard it still hurts like hell, especially afterwards. At the last scan, the little bundle of joy managed to have the umbilical cord half-wrapped around her neck. While this did not threaten or stress her in any way, that might have posed some problems with natural birth. Another reason for my choice was the fact that the due-date is in January and January is very unpredictable weather-wise in Bucharest meaning that you might not be able to use the roads for a day or two. Having a C-section means that usually the baby is born on week 39 instead of actually waiting for natural labor to start which gave us a week of actually getting to the hospital before it became too late. Being at peace with this decision gave us the time to actually select the birth date and the hour. We opted for Friday the 13th because I feel that is a very lucky day and a good family friend informed me that from an astrological point of view this is a very good choice. Also, I opted to have the surgery in the morning because that way, I do not have to starve myself for 8 hours as I will be sleeping. Also having a planned C-section helps me stay calm and feel good as I am the type of person that plans everything, even brushing my teeth.

As for the fears we both have for the following period, I have to tell you that as time passes and we come closer and closer to holding our baby, those seem to fade. I am very lucky as D is very calm, claiming that this can’t be such hard work as most people we know have had a baby and both them and the baby survived, so having him be so calm really helps me ease my fears. On top of all that we do have a good support system, with both sets of parents being eager to help us in any way possible, we have not found a nanny yet, but the search continues and therefore I am hoping that by the end of February to have that sorted out as well and, most importantly, we have lots of friends that have babies or toddlers around us that can help ease our fears, so we are very lucky in that department. Right now, most of my fears revolve around the surgery, the baby being healthy and happy and our dog befriending her quickly after we arrive home. But all that is out of our hands and therefore worrying about it does not help or resolve the issues.

That is about it! This is the last pregnancy post, but more on being parents will come soon, in the meantime I will try and update you from the hospital bed as frequent as possible. I am keeping my fingers crossed that everything will be ok tomorrow and we will be able to introduce to you our princess as well as reveal the name we have chosen for her.

January 12, 2017

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…Hello 2017 – 1 week to go!

Well, hello 2017! Yes, I know it’s been a week since we started 2017, but I have been a)tired and b)busy because we have some big plans for 2017 and only a week until our baby comes. This is basically our (short) list of resolutions for 2017:

All we really want is a healthy, happy baby and an easy delivery!

That’s it! That is our one and only wish for 2017 because I think that the rest is just background music and hopefully it will be some calm and not-too-loud background music – new parents will know where I am going with this one. Naturally we want to be able to tick lots more things in 2017, but truth be told, by comparison to having a kid, everything else tends to fade. Obviously we did not go out much in the last week and therefore we have no new photos, but that is mainly due to that fact that lately I have been feeling very pregnant and lazy, but that is something that I will discuss in one last pregnancy-post next week as I really want to get as close to the finish line as possible to give you the best insight on the ninth month of pregnancy.

Yes, this time next week we will be holding our baby, if everything goes according to plan – and it has to! Well, actually, this time next week I will probably be in post-op while D will probably fall in love with another girl (aside from me) throughout a big window in the maternity. Yes, I have opted for a c-section because of some complications that might occur as well as because of the weather. Speaking of the weather, remember when I said that I really wanted to do a snow photoshoot this winter? Well it has only started to snow last night and now everything is white and perfect, but I do not have the energy in me to actually go out and take pics, so, unless this snow-y heaven lasts until February, we will probably have to tick that wish off our list in 2018.

A bit about the featured pic… That is exactly how we spent the night between 2016 and 2017 – Kids champagne and Netflix! And I have to tell you that it wasn’t as bad as it sounds, in fact it was actually lovely taking into consideration the fact that this was our first last New Year’s Eve spent in two – three if you take into consideration our dog. We also have big and quiet plans for this last weekend in two as we are well aware that for the next 18 years we will not have one single peaceful moment, so no posting throughout the weekend. I will, however post a list of things to-do before going to the hospital, as well as a detailed description of what the last month of pregnancy felt like before we will go on a bit of a vacation from writing as I have a feeling that between smelly diapers and puke we will have little to no time to actually put together blog materials. I do plan to keep you updated on everything but that literally means very short posts with little to none photos – just short updates to keep you interested.

January 6, 2017

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Goodbye 2016…

This was a full year for us… A very good one, but a very full one. I know that most people view 2016 as a bad year because of all the atrocities that happened all around the world and all the amazing people we lost, but I honestly think that it is more a matter of how we view everything surrounding us. Bad things happen all the time, people kill other people for the most ridiculous reasons all the time and this is happening ever since we have decided that we are the supreme species on this planet. The only difference right now is that fact that it is way easier to come into contact with news, information on what is happening in the world than it was before. Also, unfortunately, death is a natural thing and people should understand that is part of the cycle of life. We all lost loved ones throughout the years, and yes, a lot of great people passed this year, but maybe that is only due to the fact that we all knew those great people tanks to the fact that information started circulating easier from one point in history onward, and, honestly, we should be grateful that we all got to know and admire those great people that passed in 2016. People, famous people, died in 2015 as well, but maybe they were not as famous as the ones that passed in 2016. Do not get me wrong, I was saddened by each and every obituary that I read this year, but I was just as saddened by the innocent unknown people that died this year due to politics or religion just as I was also heartbroken about the close people that I lost this year. Again, death is a natural part of life and we should all accept it and stop blaming 2016 for all the people that we lost. I just needed to get this out there as I am so sick and tired of everyone just whining about 2016.

Moving along… 2016 was a good year for us. Most of last years resolutions were achieved and the ones that we did not achieve will probably be on the 2017 list and there is nothing wrong with that. At the beginning of every year, there is one thing that I always wish for just as the clock strikes midnight: that no matter what, everything will be ok in the end! This is my one constant wish for the new year ever since I can remember and by the time the year finishes it always is because you know what, this is what evolving is all about: learning from every experience and making sure that we do not make the same mistakes again! Eventually everything turns out to be ok in the end.

That said, I am not going to be a hypocrite and not acknowledge that this year was a very good one for the two of us despite what happened throughout the world. We got to safely travel (London, Madrid, Milano, Paris) quite a lot, we got to finally start this blog and most important of it all we managed to have a bundle of joy on the way. All of these things were on our list last year and we managed to tick all of them thus making us very happy. We also managed to evolve as a couple and right now I feel closer to D than ever and happier and I finally understood what evolving in a relationship means. This, on the long term means the most to me as I feel that we will be a very good team in raising our daughter which gives me a sense of peace and calm inside that I so need right now, this close to the delivery date.

Like I said, this was an amazing year for us and I am sure that 2017 will be a great one as well. The featured image of this post is a collage of the best 9 pics (most liked) on my Instagram, but it does not depict my favourite moments of 2016 therefore I felt the need to show a few of my favourite moments from this year at the end of the post. As you have probably guessed it, the next post will be about our 2017 resolutions!

we started evenlymatched.eu on the 19th of March 2016

London

Madrid – where our bundle of joy was conceived

my new ink

D turned 32

28th of May – the day we found out about our bundle of joy

31st of May – our Wedding Anniversary

Milan

13th of July – Celebrating 7 years together and 3 years of marriage

Paris

First Pic

UNTOLD Festival

Her little angel face at 22 weeks

D‘s new finished half sleeve

32 weeks pregnant – Baby Shower – 27th of November

the nursery

Enchanted Forest Christmas Tree

Our 2016 Christmas Family Card!

December 31, 2016December 31, 2016

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Christmas Tree Series – 2016: Enchanted Forest!

Just imagine walking through an enchanted forest this winter. All you see are green pine branches and white, glittery creatures that constantly amaze you with their beauty. Nothing makes sense but somehow everything seems to be natural: white pearly butterflies in the winter air, big, glittery white flowers in almost every pine tree you encounter and a white hat that seems to have been lost for ages. Just imagine walking through a such a forest and being surrounded by white rabbits, owls and glistening branches all around. It makes absolutely no sense whatsoever but it seems to work so well together and feels so natural.

Well this was the back-story of this year’s Christmas Tree: all-white! Despite this year being the only Christmas that I really enjoy as I did not have to deal with the annoying Bucharest traffic (about three hours daily spent in the car each December), each year I try and think of a back-story for my Christmas Tree because I just love to decorate it. As a matter of fact I already know what theme I will chose next year as well as what colour. Naturally, every year I try and match my present wrapping and present boxes to the theme hence the reindeer on this year’s boxes. This year, almost everything had to be white and evoke so sort of enchanted forest feeling into the house. I enjoy decorating the tree each year with D – no, this is not a one-person activity in our household – while listening to Disney carols and having some sort of sweet treat in the oven.

Our Christmas tradition ever since we had our first Christmas together is to buy one special tree decoration each year and hang it in the tree. This is quite tricky as not all our special decoration match the chosen theme and even though I hate doing this, we do have to hide some of our old special decorations at the back of the tree so that it doesn’t totally ruin the theme. This year, our special tree decoration came from Disneyland Paris. Yes we bough out Christmas decoration in July! That is because mainly we like to get the special decoration from a place we visit each year and we usually take an Autumn trip, but this year we knew by July that we were not going to take anymore Autumn trips this year (9 months preggo, over here!) thus having to buy our Christmas decoration in July from Disneyland Paris.

Next year we will have to do something really special as it will be our daughter’s first Christmas.I cannot wait to buy that special decoration with her name and date engraved on it so that we will remember it forever. But until then, we really hope you like our first episode of the Christmas Tree Series, as well as the theme we chose this year. Have a lovely Christmas Day tomorrow and stay close as we are going to post some more Holiday Series posts soon!

December 24, 2016

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5 Weeks to go…

Here we are…only five more weeks of pregnancy to go if everything goes according to plan. I kinda feel anxious, scared and happy at the same time, so I decided to give you an update on how everything is going right before we enter the last month of pregnancy and right before the holidays. To celebrate this landmark, D (thoughtful as ever – I am so lucky!) surprised me with a bouquet of my favourite flowers: pink peonies! Not the small type, but the big and fragranced ones! In December! Of course there are 5 flowers in the bouquet for each week he has to help and care for me until he will have to divide his attention between me, our bundle of joy and our little doggie. Tough times await him…maybe I should have bought him flowers… I am writing this post before our third scan so no new photos of the little one as well as no news on how everything is going in my belly, but I can tell you that thus far, I feel that everything is going according to plan and the little one is doing well inside. Lots of things have happened during these last two months of pregnancy-wise: lots of activity going on and this time some real kicks, the belly is growing unexpectedly fast, getting out from bed is becoming more and more difficult every day, eating has become a love-hate relationship and so on…

Now, let me detail on all those things for a bit. First of all, during the seventh month, I really, actually felt kicks and fists and actually saw my belly change shape while the little one was playing inside and I have to say that it does not hurt at all, but rather feels like ‘home’ – I mean I get all warm and fuzzy inside and feel like this is the most natural and beautiful feeling in the world. This is a lot coming from someone that thought this must be the most alien-like feeling in the world, and when I say ‘alien’ I mean Sigourney Weaver’s Alien, but as it turned out this actually feels so, so nice. If in the seventh month there was mild activity going on, nowadays it really feels like she is one strong lady. The feeling is so satisfying and makes both of us so happy that I can’t really describe it in words.

The growing belly is becoming more and more uncomfortable to carry around and seriously impends lots of movement on my part and thus I have become even more addicted to D. Getting out of the bed, or up from a low-couch has become nearly impossible without help, not to mention that putting on socks or shoes with laces is a real struggle. Luckily we laugh a lot about the entire situation and he helps me with most of the stuff when he is at home. To be honest I have really felt the adding of weight in the middle section and right now after going one storey up the stairs I usually struggle to get my breath back. Kinda like Kung-Fu Panda when he declared his greatest enemy the stairs. Putting on body lotion is a workout in itself, so I getting my daily cardio twice. I am now very happy that we did all the shopping for the nursery and for the little one in the second trimester because right now, only thinking about going shopping gives me blurred vision. Honestly, until this week I have never noticed how close together all the stuff in shops are. I literally have a hard time going from one side of a shop to another simply because I have a hard time fitting in through all the racks.

A bit on the eating in the last trimester, actually in the eight month as the seventh month has been very comfortable. First of all, because the bundle of joy is growing fast, I do feel the need for more fuel a.k.a. food these days. You might think that this is not such a big deal, or not really worth mentioning here, but honestly, in the past few weeks eating has become difficult because of the growing baby and the limited space inside me. If I eat my usual serving (or at least the amount I used to eat last month) in a sitting I immediately feel intestinal reflux, therefore I am always hungry as I have to eat minimal amounts of food at a time. This is tricky as you tend to eat more frequent and more of the shitty junky foods because let’s face it, you can’t always have healthy food servings with you all day long and thus getting fatter faster. As far as weight goes, thus far I have gained 13 kgs throughout the entire pregnancy, but considering the fact that fatty, sweet foods are coming this Christmas, and I am craving more sugary things than ever, I will probably gain a lot more weight by the time I give birth.

Thus far I have been lucky enough to not have swollen hands or feet and was able to still wear my wedding band and beloved cocktail rings on a regular day basis. I hope that everything will continue to go this way until the end, but I am well aware that there is a 90% chance that this might not happen and I am ready for that (I think). Also thus far, I have not had a single stretch mark in sight, but I must confess that I have been using litres of Bio-Oil twice per day throughout the entire period and I think that might have helped with that. I seriously hope that no stretch marks will appear until the end of the pregnancy as I am not morally ready for that whatsoever and will get very upset. I did however get a weird no-irritation itchiness throughout my entire body for the last two-three days that seriously annoys me, but I am trying not to panic (read about it on the internet) too much about it, as my following appointment with my doctor is on Tuesday and I do not trust Dr. Google at all as I think it really messes with your head. So keep your fingers crossed that it is nothing too serious and rather an allergy or something that does not affect the little one.

Also, this past month I have been experiencing a lowering in the quality of my brain cells. What does that mean? It means that I have gone full-pregnancy-brain and that is one serious condition as I forget stuff two seconds after I make my brain promise that it will not forget something, I have zero space orientation with a map in my hand – to be honest, I was not good at that before the pregnancy, but now I feel that I am holding some sort of alien object in my hands instead of a map. This is no biggie if you’ve got an understanding husband but I must confess that being honest with him from the moment I took notice of my failing brain did help a lot as he now knows where this is coming from.

That is about it for the seventh and eighth month. I did not experience anything out of the ordinary or uncomfortable thus far and I really hope that everything will proceed the same from now on. As far as maternity clothes go, if you have been following this blog, you’ll have noticed by now that I did not buy anything more than a few pairs of maternity jeans and I advise all future mothers to not splurge on maternity pieces but rather on different cuts. I also urge future moms to try and buy all the stuff needed for a new baby in the second trimester as the energy levels in the third trimester go down a lot. I will keep you updated on everything as much as I can considering Christmas is coming and I also promise to start a Christmas-Tree Series and choose different themes each year from now on. I can’t wait to show you this year’s theme, but I will reveal it on the 24th!

December 18, 2016

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Nursery…

Finally we have arrived to the nursery-reveal post! I couldn’t wait to share these photos with you as we have put our heart and soul into making this room perfect for our little princess. FYI – the name tag on the door – handmade by Atelier Funky Fresh – is not the little bundle’s name but the way we are referring to her and probably will for a long time to come. I am not one for stamping the name of our baby everywhere in the room as that might influence her into being very selfish with her stuff and we do not want that. So no name revealing thus far, but we promise we will have a special name-revealing post in the near future. We need to do a lot of baby-oriented posts in the near future as she is actually coming in about 6-7 weeks from now, and lots of things need to be covered here (stroller of choice, baby monitor, baby bath sleeping snuggles and other clothing pieces we bought for her etc) as there is no telling when we will have the time to actually post stuff once she is here.

First things first, obviously, like the rest of the house, this room is decorated in yellow and grey as despite us knowing that we were having a little girl, I hate pink as a main colour theme for a room. I would’ve gone for turquoise but I thought that was too boyish and yellow seemed to be the right choice especially since I do love a colour-coordinated home. Grey was the next obvious choice as nothing looks better with yellow than grey, especially where home-decor is involved. I must confess that once we set our colour-themes there is no flexibility around it and we absolutely need to find everything in those colours – note the bedding. Well actually I’m more of a nazi than D but he likes to play along.

Door-decor : Handmade by Atelier Funky Fresh

Furniture : Pinio I’Ga sold by fleximo.ro

A bit on the actual room…The bed and the changing table along with the three-drawer chest are produced by Pinio and sold in Romania by Fleximo. The furniture line is called I’ga and it’s their newest one, hence the long waiting time to actually get it – about two months. We loved the quality of the materials, especially the fact that we could opt for grey-dotted textile elements and the fact that the bed can be used quite a while form now since it is 140 cm long and has three stages of transformation. Yes, it is a bit on the pricier side, but the fact that we can add different pieces of furniture as the little one grows and therefore we will not need to change the entire bedroom is something that made us splurge. Obviously I needed a bedding that perfectly matched the furniture and therefore we had to custom make it at MC Ana Concept. The quality of the cotton is fantastic and you get everything you need – two bed bumpers, a bed sheet, infant-pillow, comforter, nursery pillow, changing mattress and a very useful bed-pocket for about 100E. If you are like me and need to have everything colour co-ordinated and high-quality cotton this is the best I could find.

Bedding : MC Ana Concept

For the nursery chair, we chose the one from Tutti Bambini which you can find at bebebrands.ro. I honestly wanted a chair like this one ever since I was a teenager but since this is a classic nursery chair it is only now that I found the logic in actually buying one. Yes, it bugs me that this one doesn’t have a grey cover, but to be honest, the moment I sit in it everything just fades away. The reality is that I edit all the blog photos sitting in this chair and I just love, love, love it and was worth every cent (it was about 200 E). Naturally our little sweetheart (dog) needed a crib of her own in the nursery as she usually follows me around everywhere and we really wanted her to be comfortable so we just had to find the perfect grey one for her. Now, before yo start objecting on her coming into contact with a newborn, let me tell you that she is well bathed and vaccinated and all her blood-work is to date, not to mention that animal-viruses do not pass on to humans. The most important aspect is that I really want our little girls to get along and love each other.

Nursery chair : Tutti Bambini sold by bebebrands.ro

Carpet : vivre.ro

3-D Butterflies and Changing Mat both from vivre.ro

We bought the toy-box, basket, laundry-basket and wall pocket from bonami.ro as we just could not resist. They are produced by 3sprouts and you can find lots of colour combos online. They are exceptional quality and we think that our bundle of joy will use them for a long time. If I recall correctly we got them all for about 120 E because bonami.ro has lots of discounts every single day. Or changing mat is from NafNaf and we got it for about 15 E on vivre.ro. Also from vivre.ro we bought the lovely butterflies that completely changed the way the entire room looks as well as the carpet which is so fluffy that we literally just want to sit on it all day long. The moonlight and melody projections mobile is from Skip Hop and we just loved the fact the it works well with the animal theme as well as the fact that it is remote controlled. All the blankets and the cloths are from Jollein but we will shortly stack up on other brands as well as we heard that we will need loads of cloths if we do not want to do laundry every single day. As a diper garbage bin, the best option I could find in Romania is the Angelcare Captiva Deluxe which I honestly hope is efficient but I will keep you updated on that.

Laundry bag, toy box, toy basket, wall storage : 3Sprouts sold by bonami.ro

Baby cloths: Jollein sold by fleximo.ro

Moonlight and melody projections mobile : Skip Hop sold by fleximo.ro

We are extremely proud of our nursery and we actually do spend quite a lot of time there and I think that by the time the bundle of joy will enter our lives we will be sick and tired of this room, but love it none-the-less. As you can see, the little one has already started to receive toys and I have a feeling that soon the whole room will be filled with lovely plush toys. But let’s be clear, the huge penguin is mine and D won it for me at a fair in Dubai almost two years ago. Scratee is also mine and D bought it for me for St. Nicholas exactly 6 years ago. If the little one will not take good care of those toys, I will have to take them away from her as I really love them.