growing family

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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#Lucky

Note: These photos are two weeks old…. Hope to post newer ones soon!

Besides the obvious reason why I’m feeling lucky these days, the particular subject of this post is why I’m feeling lucky fashion-wise this past year… throughout my pregnancy, loose dresses and over the knee boots were the norm in fashion and right now there is a new trend arising: the mom fit jeans! I can’t emphasize how much I love this cut right now! They are way more comfortable than super skinny jeans – which were my basic – and they are very forgiving with my post-pregnancy body shape! I totally love them and I think I already have 4 pairs in my closet. I seriously wear them all the time. Now these pics were taken two weeks ago – yeah, it takes me this much time to actually edit them and put together a post – so, right now I can say that they fit a whole lot better since my tummy has gotten smaller, my hips are starting to get back to their original shape (lots of walking and baby-handling, but no real workouts yet). I see the light shape-wise!

Since I am writing these post while actively watching baby-Leia, not much text will be found here as she is quite a handful, more active than most babies, but she still sleeps well throughout the night, from around 23:00 until 9:00 most days so we are quite happy with that as we get a lot done during the early mornings. Other than that, she is quite a happy kiddo, with episodes of colics from 19:00 until 21:00, but they have gotten a lot better these past few weeks, which actually means that we can enjoy our evenings more and more… True, she still has her wild moments from time to time, but nothing too notable or too often for us to not be able to happily handle. Right now, despite the sleep deprivation, we can’t imagine how we ever felt complete without her in our lives.
Our dog also fully-feels the effects of a small baby in the house as she seems very tired and snores all the time when she actually gets to sleep, but when baby-Leia is awake, she is always in the room with her and always watches her every move. I think that our girls will be best friends as soon as baby-Leia starts walking!

On me:

Jeans – ZARA; Sweater – Mango; Shoes – Vans; Sunglasses – Dior; Bag – Furla; Bling – Tous (ring and bracelet); Watch – Apple

Thus far I can’t say that I feel the effects of the baby-blues, nor do I feel or ever felt depressed in the past two months. I did have two or three days when I felt a bit anxious, but that passes quickly as soon as I lay my eyes on Leia’s face. As time passes, it appears that she resembles D more and more, but she definitely took my blue eyes. Naturally, we take pics of her almost every day and soon we will post them – like I said, time is a luxury we do not have right now.

On D:

Jeans – ZARA; Jacket – SuperDry; Shoes – Converse x John Varvatos; Bling – Tous; Watch – Apple

Back to the fashion bit… obviously I love the Mom Fit jeans and I hope it stays fashionable until I am fully back in shape and beyond because these jeans are so, so comfortable! I found this particular pair at ZARA (and three other pairs as well) and for someone that loved Replay and Diesel jeans, I have to say that lately ZARA seriously upped their game in the denim department. I ventured in buying quite a few pairs mainly because my pre-pregnancy size fits and I just know that I will wear them for a long time to come. Since they are high-waisted jeans, I found the courage to actually wear a cropped sweater and proudly show you my (still) expanded belly. This lovely sweater is from Mango from last year’s winter collection, but there are quite a few options online right now. I went full-mom and wore my Vans white sneakers to complete the comfy outfit. The lovely bag I am wearing all the time right now was a gift from D for my birthday, and you can find it at Furla. I just love how versatile it is thanks to the brown-black-white combo that just goes with everything. The sunnies are my beloved Dior and the big ring you’ve been seeing lately on my finger is a push-present from my parents. My mom got one from my grandmother when she gave birth to me (or so she says) that has rubies and the one my parents gave me has sapphires and diamonds. I will keep this tradition alive and when Leia decides to give us our first granchild we’ll probably choose emeralds. The lovely bangle and ring set that I am also wearing is from Tous (just love them!) and I can’t seem to be able to part with my Apple Watch these days.

D also decided to go for casual jeans and chose a pair of ZARA ripped jeans (told you they upped their denim game a lot lately) and his leather Superdry jacket. As you will see soon (don’t really know how soon) this was probably the last time he got to wear long sleeved anything as he almost finished his full-arm tattoo sleeve and I can’t wait to show you just how amazing it looks. He wore my favorite Converse x John Vavatos sneakers and even though you can’t see it, he also opted for his Apple Watch and the Tous bracelet I gave him a while ago.

As you can see, we are surviving this new-baby period and, to be completely honest, despite it being very hard, we simply love taking care of our little bundle of joy. She really fills our hearts with happiness every single minute.
L.

March 17, 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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Holiday Series: Christmas Sweater Card 2016!

Another Holiday Series post, this time we introduce you our official 2016 Christmas Family Card – yup, the one featured at the top and bottom of this post. All our close friends and family received one alongside their Christmas present and we can’t be more excited to shoot next year with out bundle of joy in it as well. Yes, I know Christmas sweaters are considered to be a fashion faux-pas, but hey, they are fun, they keep you warm and this is the only time of the year when you can actually wear them and not feel completely stupid. Plus, call me hormonal/emotional/whatever, but I love, love, love mine! D got it for me as a surprise for no actual reason and it perfectly depicts how I feel these days: like a fluffy polar bear, but I guess that is normal considering that in approximately 2 and a half weeks I will be delivering the very important cupcake that has been baking inside my belly for almost 9 months now.

That said, we hope you had a lovely time yesterday because we know we had with all our family. Let me tell you a bit about our traditional Christmas lunch-turned-dinner… Usually we get together at noon (1-ish) and eat for about 7 hours non-stop. One might say that Christmas dinner is a marathon for us and that would be very true. Sadly though, being so close to term, we could not spend more than 2 hours with our family mainly because I constantly feel the need to lay on my couch and relax these days.

On me:

Sweater – Pull and Bear; Jeans – H&M; Boots – Ugg; Bling – Swarovski; Watch – Apple Watch

On D:

Sweater – Pull and Bear; Jeans – Review; Socks – Happy Socks; Watch – Apple

On Nauca:

Sweater – Camon

Anyways, we hope you like our Christmas Sweaters and promise that we will post annually silly pics for the Holiday Series posts with our expanding family!

December 26, 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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Blue Velvet!!!

Well this is becoming a repetitive post this autumn… D already sees a pattern: it’s either over the knee boots or UGGs, but what can I do? I just love them both and I am trying to take advantage of the still ‘not snow-y’ weather and wear velvet over the knee boots as often as possible. Truth be told, they are very comfortable with their chunky heel and I feel like I need a bit of hight these days just to balance to my proportions (read: big, big belly). And, did I mention how much I simply adore velvet??? I think I did a couple of times, but I can’t help myself, I am over-the-top happy that this amazing fabric is trendy again.

Another repetitive item is the chunky knit sweater/dress and that has nothing to do with my belly – though it helps to minimise it – as I enjoyed wearing chunky knits even before being pregnant. It’s just something that looks so amazing in the cold-weather-big-knits combo don’t you agree? Obviously, the best combo for short knitted items is those amazing long boots with a heel to match thus making your legs seem supermodel-long. I do have to confess that as autumn progresses and the temps keep lowering it is harder and harder to wear only a sweater and long boots and I will have to get creative with my coats, or at least the ones that still cover my belly, as despite the heat-waves that pregnant women get, let’s be honest, we had a few days of one digit temps and it was COLD!

On me:

Knit – ZARA; Boots – Public Desire; Bag – Michael Kors; Bling – Swarovski (ring and bracelet); Watch – Apple

No, this is not D‘s sweater that I am wearing – I still fit into my own clothes, thank you very much! This is a size S (the smallest size) oversized sweater that I got from ZARA a few weeks back and that is currently sold out, but they do have lots of similar items online. Really, I just love this deep blue and what better match for it than my velvet Public Desire Annie boots? Yes, we are a bit blue in this post, but we are loving it, plus it’s a nice change from our usual black and grey. Obviously, since I could not ruin the whole-blue theme I opted for my navy Michael Kors mini Hamilton bag and an old-school velvet blue hair scrunchie (yes, I was amazed to find it in my 90s accessories box).

On D:

Sweater – Massimo Dutti; Jeans – Tommy Hilfiger; Shoes – Condor; Bling – Tous; Watch – Longines

D just wore his office outfit as he came home late (someone has to earn the $$$ in this household), but luckily we matched in the colour theme department. Plus, I strongly feel that he is always better dressed for the office than for our photoshoots. I’m annoyed that you can not see the lovely Massimo Dutti shirt he had underneath his sweater, but it was way to cold to even attempt at trying to convince him to get the sweater off for a few shots… Maybe next time… Anyway, his lovely blue sweater is also from Massimo Dutti (despite it being from this autumn, you can only find an alternative online) and his jeans are a classic slim fit dark blue pair from Tommy Hilfiger. His shoes are custom made by Condor Shoes and that is a great place to get your office-shoes from as they are affordable, great quality and you can make them in hundreds of leather combos.

Since we were really trying to catch the last minutes of light, we did not bother much with accessorising our outfits. I do however want to thank the gene-goddess as I am two moths and a week away from giving birth and all my rings still fit – keeping my fingers crossed to be able to wear them for Christmas and New Years. So, I opted for my Crystaldust bracelet and Nirvana ring both from Swarovski, while D wore his new gift from your truly – the black leather bracelet from Tous – told you they are my new favourite jewellery brand! I, as per usual, wore my Apple Watch while D payed more attention to details and wore his lovely Longines Hydroconquest watch (also from yours truly).

Despite the blue ensemble, we are still expecting a baby girl, but that has nothing to do with our choice of clothes. As a matter of fact, I must confess that we haven’t yet bought one single pink thing for our little bundle of joy and by the way she kicks and moves all day long, she will probably prefer less-feminine colours. I am really excited to show you all the stuff we chose for her, but I want to show you the complete nursery first and thus far the furniture hasn’t arrived. Keeping our fingers crossed that we will have it by next week when we will have a small baby-shower.

November 18, 2016

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Autumn Carpet!

Yup, the belly is growing, the leaves are falling and soon our home will be filled with diapers and rash cream… but until then we are determined to enjoy every single moment we have with each other and concentrate on our life as a family of two. Remember how I recently told you that due to the hormonal storm happening inside me I actually enjoy this autumn and all the lovely colours it comes along with? Well, a few days ago I spotted this lovely trail in the woods near our home and desperately called D to let him know that we must take some pics there as there is a lovely brownish-yellow leaf carpet covering the path and that is something that cannot be missed!

At first I was (very) tempted to go for fall-hues on our outfits but quickly realised that we will get lost in the scenery, hence yet again, we have opted for black and grey – we are starting to be really boring colour-wise, unlike spring and summer when we usually can’t get enough of different vibrant colours. But bear with us, as I can’t comfortably shop for clothes right now as you never know how I will transform during these last weeks of pregnancy and therefore we have to work with what I already have and still covers my expanding belly. Yes, the expanding belly is an issue due to the fact that most of the tops I own stop right under my belly button hence leaving me exposed, so long stuff I already own is a must!

On me:

Sweater – H&M; Jeans – H&M; Boots – UGG; Bag – ZARA; Hat – ZARA; Bling – Swarovski (bracelet and ring); Watch – Apple

Another aspect about November that I love is the fact that officially one can wear UGGs. Yes, I know, I’ve heard it all – they’re ugly, they’re out of style, they’re not age appropriate, etc – and honestly, I do not give a f*#k! I just love them and think that they are the most comfortable late autumn/winter boots out there. Like seriously, nothing compares to the feeling you have when you wear UGGs! On that note, prepare for an entire UGG-feast this winter as throughout the years I did invest quite a lot of money in a wide variety of UGGs and they do tend to stand the test of time, plus, it’s not like o-t-k boots are ok when there is either ice or snow or both on the pavements.

On D:

T-shirt – Review; Jeans – ZARA; Vest – Bershka; Shoes – Converse x John Varvatos; Bling – Fossil; Watch – Ingersoll

Finally getting to today’s outfit, I decided on wearing the very comfortable H&M maternity black jeans and honestly I think I will get quite a few wears out of this pair even after I give birth as they are extremely comfortable and look quite nice as well. As stated earlier, since we did not want to get lost in the scenery, I opted for an old H&M grey sweater that at some point I used to wear as a long tunic but right now it just about covers all my belly. I love the way this sweater feels as I love angora wool but I hate, hate, hate the rampage it leaves behind (read: my jeans looked like I just cuddled a cat). To balance the whole thing out I wore my most loved grey Cardy boots which I think were actually my first UGGs and a black classic hat from ZARA. The bag is also from ZARA and I think it is 10-12 years old and at some point I am going to have to part with it but I just couldn’t do it – I get extremely attached to most of my clothes/accessories and do not even get me started on my shoes!

D is aways happy to wear grey and black so the choice was quite easy for him. We were lucky enough thus far to not have freezing temps and actually have a lovely warm day when we shot these photos so all he really needed was a t-shirt from Review and a vest from Bershka to keep him warm. The black ZARA jeans are actually a new and unlikely addition to his closet as they are very slim on the lower leg, but I love the way he styled them with his hi-top black Converse x John Varvatos sneaks. When it came to accessorising our outfits, D went for his Fossil bracelet and his brown Ingersoll watch, while I opted for my Swarovski bracelet and ring and my never-absent Apple Watch.

Since shopping for clothes is futile for me right now, I am concentrating on boots and actually have a few on the way that I can not wait to shoot so more and more pics of us are coming, naturally taking into consideration the fact that the weather and the little bundle of joy will allow us to move freely and take many snaps.

November 8, 2016

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Not so scary second trimester!

We just came home from the doctor this morning and I am happy to officially tell you that the second trimester is under wraps and everything is going smoothly and perfect with our little bundle of joy. I really do not want to turn this blog/diary into a pregnancy page, so I am trying to keep everything about babies to a minimum, but now the time has come to talk a bit about the bittersweet second trimester.As you know by now, I have been really fortunate in the ‘baking baby’ department and did not really feel sick for one day during the first trimester (see here), and the overall great feeling stayed throughout my second trimester as well. I was fortunate enough to not have any medical complications and apart from my prenatal pill I do not take any other medication. Now that we sorted all that out, there are a few things and feelings that deserve a bit of attention and I plan on discussing them here.

First of all, remember how I said that I felt tired during the first trimester? Well that feeling magically vanished from the 14th week and I was lucky enough to feel as energetic as I used to in my pre-pregnancy days. This does not mean that I slept less or exercised more, but I did put that energy to good use where the baby-stuff is concerned. These are the three months of big decisions in my opinion, as, to be frank about the whole situation, there is no guarantee that you’ll feel 100% during the last trimester and it is better to make all the baby decisions when you are feeling great both about yourself as well as about the pregnancy. This meant that we went in full-renovation mode despite only wanting to do the nursery at first. I must confess that we had not done a proper renovation of our house for the past 7 years and I do not regret for one moment the decision to feel horrible in our home for two weeks. While the work is not done yet, all the construction work is over and from this point on it is up to us to finish everything – we are currently waiting on some furniture pieces.

This was the period when we decided on the furniture for our little princess, the decor, most of the miscellaneous (baby bottles, stroller, baby bath, etc) and I am very glad we did that as I have to say this is no easy task. It took us about 3 weeks to decide on the stroller as there seem to be so many different options out there and I have a feeling that first-time parents tend to be over-thinkers – I know we are overthinking every single thing. At some point, being the rational adults that we are, we decided to divide the stuff between us but still making the ultimate decisions together. Therefore D got to choose the stroller and all the electrical hi-tech equipment (nanny cam, baby monitor, sleep monitor) while I was left with the rest of the stuff (baby furniture and decorations, baby bottles, steriliser etc). When each of us got down to two or three choices we involved the other, but not before and so far it went smoothly for us. All of these choices are incredibly hard to make (2 weeks on the crib alone) so I feel that the second trimester is the best time to make them mainly because that is when you start feeling human again and naturally we had to think about the winter ahead and what if we did not feel/ could not get out of the house to buy all these things because of the snow.

Those are about all the big decisions we made during this period, now a bit about the feelings and sensations that come in this second trimester… First of all, in my opinion, this is the time where a pregnant woman blooms, literally, she expands on all spatial axes. Or at least that was what happened to me. But make no mistake, this is a good thing! True, I had two days (not in a row) of panic attacks while looking at my closet as I felt like I looked like crap in everything I owned, but both of those moments where right at the beginning of the forth month and I blamed that on the last ‘first trimester hormones’. After my belly started to really look pregnant as opposed to full of beer and pizza, I immediately started feeling a lot (A LOT!) better about myself. The fact that I went shopping and discovered that I did not go up a size did help a lot (A LOT!) and made me less nervous about my monthly weight-in at the doctors’.

A bit about the weight gain… It does tend to be nerve-wrecking, but healthily gaining weight is the best thing for you and your baby right now. I would like to emphasise a bit on the HEALTHY part of the matter and I want to be honest with you. Thus far, I have gained 10 kg (got weighted this morning) and I’ve got another two months and three weeks to go. While I did not gain any weight during the last three weeks I am still in the healthy-range for my age and height. The fact that my weight gain stopped for a bit must be due to the fact that I have started taking long walks with our dog every evening while not adding extra-calories to my diet. I am however listening very carefully to what my body desires and do not plan on depriving it of anything. Thus far, I always had certain weird cravings at the beginning of each trimester, when I gained a lot of weight but that weight gain usually stops by the last month of the trimester. I assume this will happen in the third trimester as well though, by now, I did not have any huger moments in this third trimester. Hopefully I will not gain too much weight, but honestly, that is my last concern right now. My major concern is being healthy and getting all the nutrients my baby needs daily.

Also, my skin cleared up a bit more and I am now able to put on make-up and feel great without worrying about zits and greasy patches (though that might be thanks to my new beauty routine – here). So far I did not experience any swelling in my legs nor in my hands, no cramps, to be honest, I did not experience anything nasty. I did have a few (3) days of heartburn in the evening but that sorted itself out after about an hour and I was told that is totally normal and it usually lasts way more that that. I also had two episodes of cramping but as my doctor reassured me, that was due to gas and again, after a bit of walking around the house and taking two pills that was over. Other than that, on most days I did not feel like I was pregnant, I do not feel like I am pregnant now and the big belly growing is there to remind me of how lucky I am thus far.

The most important feeling of the second trimester in my opinion is the first baby kick. I felt my bundle of joy at about week 20 and it was the best feeling in the world. I aways thought that this had to be the weirdest, most alien-like feeling ever and was very scared of that moment, but when it happened it felt like the most natural and normal thing out there. If at the beginning I was feeling her once or twice per day, now I feel her all the time and from time to time she even wakes me up at 5 in the morning just to let me know she is up. So far I have not experienced any painful kicks, only some nice soothing ones that feel lovely, but I will keep you updated. But, I am telling you, there is nothing more amazing than feeling you own little baby kick and D has to agree as he felt her through my belly and loved it.

Also, during the second trimester it is best to think of a birth plan, just to get that sorted especially if you are leaning toward the private sector (like we did) as there is quite a consistent discount for ‘early booking’. So far, I have not decided on wether I’d like a natural birth or a C-section, though I am leaning toward the latter, but ultimately it is up to the little lady inside because if she decides she can come out naturally without a big fuss that’s the way I am going to go, otherwise C-section it is!

This is also the time to start buying pregnancy adjuvants (as I call them). As you know, I found it hard to wear normal pants so I felt the need to go for maternity ones and the best and most comfortable I could find are the ones from H&M. They totally changed my mood when it came to dressing daily. I love these four pairs here for the comfort and the way they hug your curves: 1, 2, 3, 4. Another big help during the second trimester are the Belly Bandit products, specifically the thighs disguise and the flawless belly. Whenever I wear a dress, I wear one of those miracle makers and I instantly feel and look better. They both offer great support for your back and belly and they keep the stretch mark oil off of my clothes. Obviously I am going to opt for their post-pregnancy stuff as well as I love these two items.

I’d say that is about it on the second trimester. I am very glad that I did not have any incidents thus far and I hope that everything will go smoothly from now on as well and we will welcome our healthy princess in January. As far as this post goes, I hope that it will help mamas-to-be both morally and with planning their decisions. Naturally, at some point, we will show you everything we deemed worthy of our princess terms of baby-stuff, but I really want to get the products first so we can avoid the internet-perfected-photos and use our own. Hope this post was helpful!

October 31, 2016

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The second trimester – in pictures

This is the picture-post that sums up the last three months of carrying a very special load in my belly. As you know, a ‘feelings’ post is right around the corner, so I’m not going to write anything about how I’ve felt this second trimester here. Also, as opposed to the last similar post (click here for the first trimester), I’ve also selected some photos of only myself, as I feel that my fattening needs a bit of pic-detailing just to help you really see the evolution. Hope you’ll love this post as much as you like the first trimester one.

The Forth Month