pregnancy stages

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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Holiday Series : Red Check!

This is yet another Holiday Series post simply because what reeks of holiday season better than a red checked flannel dress and a matching sweater? Not much… Therefore here is a Holiday Series fashion post, not to be mistaken for New Year’s Party outfit post as this is not and nor will we have such a post this year because we are 2 and a half weeks away from delivery and we will spend New Year’s Eve on our couch, binge watching a TV show. Next year will be an entirely different story, but this year we will skip the party and the party-related posts.

I am honestly amazed that we were able to take pics this far along in the pregnancy as my contingency plan included a one-month vacation before the baby arrived as I had this fixed idea that in the ninth month it will be impossible to move around and quite frankly I’d be too tired to get out anymore. That did not happen thankfully and thus far we have been able to go to the Christmas Family dinner, tomorrow we will attend a very important event and I have a (positive) feeling that everything will go smoothly until the baby comes. Yes, I did not forget about the name-revealing post, nor did I forget about all the promised baby stuff posts that we bought, but I have a feeling that those posts will work better once we will actually use the stuff we bought and will be more review-posts that presentation-posts thus making them actually useful for future moms-to-be.

On me:

Dress – ZARA; Vest – H&M; Boots – Rachel Zoe; Bag – Atelier Lemnia; Bling – Swarovski and Tous; Watch – Apple

Getting back to today’s business… I am feeling more festive than ever this year and besides the fully-decorated house, I actually made it my scope to get holiday clothes as well – see the Christmas sweaters and the plaid dress posts. For some reason all my past Grinch-y-ness did not emerge this year and I strongly suspect that hormones had a big influence on that. This post is yet another Christmas-infused mainly because of the colour theme and the fabrics (but you can’t actually feel the fabrics so you are going to have to take my word for it). I am wearing yet another ZARA XS dress that I paired with my Rachel Zoe over the knee boots – this winter’s uniform – and the thing that I loved about this dress from the first moment I saw it, was the fabric – both texture and print. This is the perfect plaid, flannel shirtdress! I am telling you, ZARA really outdid themselves this AW collection!

On D:

Sweater – ZARA; Jeans – ZARA; Shoes – Converse x John Varvatos; Watch – Apple

Obviously being a black and red combo, my Atelier Lemnia red clutch worked perfectly with the entire outfit and I seem to be wearing it more and more these days, thus making it one of my best investments of 2016. Also, to keep me and my belly warm I’ve also worn a great investment that I made at the beginning of autumn, my black knitted H&M vest. This one really turned out to be a very versatile piece of clothing during my pregnancy and I have a feeling that it will get a lot of action after I give birth as well.

D also happily wore the black and red combo. His focus piece of the outfit is the red check sweater that he recently found at ZARA – yes, ZARA, again! Right after I saw his sweater I thought of my dress and thus I made it my goal to wear these exact outfits during the Holiday mini-vacation. He paired the sweater with his ZARA black jeans and decided on wearing the Converse x John Varvatos black sneaks. Accessory-wise we both kept things on the down-low, with D only opting for his Apple watch and I only choosing to wear my Crystaldust Swarovski bracelet and my Tous ring alongside my Apple watch.

All in all, I have no idea how long we will be able to post until the baby arrives but I hope to get two more weeks of normal, every-other-day posting until I will probably take a short vacation. I do hope to be able to show you what I will be wearing at a very special event tomorrow, but that really depends on the weather and on how tired I will be. Also, I would like to continue the Holiday Series a bit with another amazingly delicious recipe that we found and that we want to try out. All those post depend on how well I will be feeling and on how energetic the bundle of joy will be as I am telling you, she really is an active baby.

December 28, 2016

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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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Holiday Series: Christmas Feast!

Starting our Holiday Series late this year as we had tons of stuff to do these days, plus we found out that we do not have five more weeks until the little bundle of joy joins us, but only about three so we had lots to do and lots to panic about. That said, we did do a lot of stuff for the blog as well, a Christmas feast included that will take you two days to make. I think this is actually the most elaborate thing we ever did in the kitchen and this all happened because of D. Because he just loves ribs!!!

To keep with the Romanian Christmas tradition, this time he chose pork ribs and we decided to make them in the oven with a wedge-potatoes side – that happened because I still crave potatoes like crazy! As well as craving chocolate, sweet bread and other fattening stuff, except for meat.That said, I do admit that those ribs were amazing eating them felt like heaven in my mouth. They were just the right amount of cooked, seasoned, moist and they simply fell off the bone. I am telling you D outdid himself with these ribs! Thus I am absolutely recommending his recipe! So this post will go two ways: the ribs and the side with a simple mayo dip.

Part 1: The Ribs!

What we used:

4 racks of pork ribs
1 bottle of Jack Daniels Barbecue Hot Chilli Sauce
4 tbsp honey
1 tsp ground pepper
1/2 tsp hot chilly powder
1 tsp ground cinnamon (you can skip the cinnamon if you do not like it)
10 g fresh basil
20 g fresh chives
20 g fresh rosemary

What we did:

We took a large amount of photos – as you can see this has to be the most photo-infused recipe post.
In a large bowl, mix the barbecue sauce, the chopped herbs, the honey and the spices.
Take each rack of ribs and generously cover them in the mixture.
Cover them with transparent foil and place them in the fridge overnight.
The next day, carefully line a tray with aluminium foil, place the ribs on it covering them with the barbecue mixture.
Pre-heat the oven at 160 degrees C.
Grind some Barbecue spices all over the ribs, cover the tray with foil and into the oven they go for about 3 hours making sure you flip them mid-way.
At the end of those 3 hours, take the covering aluminium foil off and leave them in the oven for another 30 minutes.
That’s it! Despite this one taking 24 hours to perfect, it is very easy to make.

Part 2: The baked potatoes and the dip!

What we used:

1 kg small potatoes
10 g fresh basil leaves
10 g fresh rosemary
10 g fresh chives
30 g butter
3 white onions
1 small pot of Hellman’s mayonnaise (we usually prefer fresh home made mayo but being pregnant, I am not allowed to eat anything unpasteurised)
2 garlic heads
1 tsp barbecue seasoning

What we did:

Again, we took lots of photos – did I mention how much I love food photography?
We roughly cut the potatoes into wedges (no, we did not remove the skin) and we cut the onions into rings.
Chop the greens, mix them together but keep about half of the chopped chives for the dip.
Heat the butter until it is liquified and smash the garlic.
Mix the butter with the greens, the seasoning and half of the garlic – this will be your potatoes seasoning.
In an oven-safe ceramic bowl carefully place the potatoes and paint them with the butter-herb mixture, add a layer of onion rings and then repeat with a layer of potatoes and butter mixture and off into the oven they go at 160 degrees C (yes, you can add them in the oven with the ribs) for about one hour.
For the dip you will need the mayo, the remaining garlic and the remaining chives and all you have to do is mix them together to end up with a perfectly balanced garlic dip.

That is about it! You will end up with an amazing dish for the holidays that is both filling and delicious. And it was all D‘s idea! Since this is a festive time, I will not, under any circumstance think about how healthy/unhealthy this dish is and thus I will not post any nutritional info as I feel this is a time to celebrate life and not count calories and fats.

Stay close by as the next post will be the first one from the Christmas Tree Series that we plan to do every year and we will reveal the theme we chose this year! Until then, just enjoy a full plate of ribs with your family!

December 22, 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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That Red Cup Of Happiness…

I have always been a coffee lover, well since I was 16 anyway… And to make matters even worse and cliche, I have always had a soft spot for Starbucks coffee, particularly the special edition blends. YES, I am well aware that there are some other coffee shops with waaaay better-tasting coffee, I will not deny that, but for some reason, I always come back to Starbucks. So you can understand my disappointment when I wasn’t able to take a sip of the amazing Pumpkin Spice Latte edition simply because I know that too much caffeine is not good during pregnancy and I cannot for the likes of me get out of the house without my morning coffee. I just can’t and that is final! So I am stuck to one coffee cup per day and right now I am not complaining as I just adore the Christmas blends that Nespresso released.

That said, as much as I love my daily Nespresso coffee I just can’t resist the annual red cups from Starbucks. I just can’t! So you can imagine the struggle I have been experiencing ever since they were released this year. That said, I have also been experiencing pregnancy brain on a whole other level lately and thus it only dawned on me a few days ago that I can have DECAF! Yes, DECAF! I know, it basically sucks, but that is the best I can get right now while still enjoying the Christmas blends and so I will go with that and have as many of the lovely, fattening and sugary red cups of happiness as I can this December, sans the whipped cream of course!

On me:

Dress – ZARA; Boots – Steve Madden; Bag – Atelier Lemnia; Sunglasses – Dior; Bling – Swarovski (bracelet1, bracelet2 and ring) and L’Art de Medeea necklace; Watch – Apple

Which brings us to today’s post! Ever since I realised that I can actually enjoy a red cup all I could think about was what type of outfit should one wear to fully show the appreciation of that DECAF lightbulb! And what better outfit than one that simply screams Christmas. Well, at least it screams Christmas to me. The deep tartan print of this dress is as Christmas-y as it gets. It is from ZARA (of course) and it will probably become a Christmas favourite, as, aside from the lovely print it also has enough room to fit a 34-week pregnant belly therefore it will have enough room from now on to fit the entire Christmas dinner. I felt the need to pair it with the khaki-green Steve Madden long boots because for some reason I felt they went well together.

On D:

Shirt – Replay; Jeans – ZARA; Shoes – Converse x John Varvatos; Sunglasses – Ray-Ban; Bling – Fossil and Constantin Nautics; Watch – Apple

Naturally a little red clutch could not miss the opportunity to match the red cup and my personal favourite right now is the one from Atelier Lemnia. Since it was a lovely sunny warm day outside I decided on skipping the coat as I have pregnancy heat waves anyway and also because the hot liquid I was so psyched about kept me all warm and happy throughout the photoshoot. I also wore my sunglasses because, as you can see from the photos, we had yet another day of perfectly clear skies. As per usual, I wore my favourite pair, the Dior SoReal.

D, despite being happy for my new found coffee independence, did not really feel like dressing festive and opted for a more comfortable but equally nice outfit and obviously for a full-caffeine drink. He decided to wear a classic denim shirt from Replay and his black skinny jeans from ZARA. I fully appreciated the fact that he knows not to match his denims as that, in my opinion is a big fashion faux-pas! He also wore his black Converse x John Varvatos sneaks as well as hie black Ray-Ban sunglasses. All in all, he kinda matched my outfit in a sense that his too was comfortable enough to bring to Christmas dinner – which to be honest starts at lunch and ends late in the evening.

As for the bling part, I did go a bit overboard because I chose not one, but two Swarovski bangles, a Swarovski multi-ring and a beaded necklace, which is from L’Art de Medeea. I decided on the beaded necklace because I liked the way its colours worked – not matched – with the colours of the dress and I did feel that the dress needed a bit of bling as it seriously lacks in that department and hey, it’s December, the month of bling. D was a bit more toned down than me and only opted for his Fossil and Constantin Nautics bracelets, while we both wore our Apple Watches.

Thus far, this December has been really good to us both temp-wise as well as precipitation-wise and despite the fact that I really wish to get a fully snowed-in photoshoot, I seriously hope we will not get much snow in Bucharest at least until we are home form the hospital with the little bundle of joy. Looking at the weather forecast, not much will change this week and that means that we will take more and more pics of the last weeks of pregnancy.

December 14, 2016December 14, 2016

evenlymatched1 Comment

Civic Duties: DONE!

Yesterday we voted! I do not want to spend more time on the subject as I think that politics is just like religion: everyone is entitled to their own opinion. We did however, use that as an excuse to snap some more pics of the 34th week of pregnancy and fully took advantage of the 14 degrees C and the perfectly clear skies – yes, apparently the weather is a bit nuts these days in Bucharest. Since both of us have our ID dress at our parents’ this called for a full Bucharest tour to be able to vote. First it was D who voted and right after that it was my turn. When all our civic duties were done we decided to snap some pics near my parents house thus changing the usual scenery a bit.

As you can see, D is wearing a t-shirt and I am wearing a dress with no coat on as it was just that warm outside and needless to say lovely. The dress is yet another XS find from ZARA that currently fits nicely but I have a feeling that in about two-three weeks I will have to wear it as a tunic over jeans because my belly is growing at a very fast rate and this dress is on the short side. But I love it anyway because it has a very fun print, it needs no ironing and it works with a lot of things in my closet, plus the lovely black and yellow combo. I just can’t wait to try it on when I am back to my old shape again and see how it fits. To be honest I can’t wait to try all my newly bought dresses once I loose all the baby weight. Maybe I will do a series called ‘Double Take: during and after pregnancy dresses’. I strongly urge all future mothers to not give into the temptation of buying maternity clothes, just be careful with your diet and you’ll fit in most of your usual sized dresses – the cut is the only thing that really changes but at least you’ll be left wth clothes that you can actually wear post-pregnancy.

On me:

Dress – ZARA; Boots – Rachel Zoe; Bag – Christhelen B by Musette; Hat – ZARA; Sunglasses – Dior; Bling – Swarovski (bracelet and ring); Watch – Apple

Whenever I have a dress that is a bit on the short side of the spectrum I like to pair it with over the knee boots, as you might have noticed, especially since these boots are current obsessions of mine mainly because they tend to make legs seem longer and slimmer than they actually are – trust me on that one. Plus they are super-sexy and comfortable provided you do accept the fact that every once in a while (often!) you gave to re-position them on your thighs as they do tend to run down as you walk (some double tape might help with that). Aside from the mini-dress-over-the-knee boots combo, I must point out that I found another black bag! This is not new, I’ve actually had it for 3 years but only recently found it and therefore I decided to switch from my usual Chloe black bag. Plus I just love the golden details that go perfectly with my Rachel Zoe boots as well as my ZARA hat. You can find lots of similar options at Musette.

On D:

T-shirt – Replay; Jeans – Review; Vest – ZARA; Shoes – Replay; Sunglasses – Ray-Ban; Bling – Fossil and Constantin Nautics; Watch – Apple

D didn’t really feel like wearing black, so he opted for the softer version of grey and dark khaki. He proudly wore his newly acquired ZARA vest that he first spotted a few years ago (different colour, though) and I suspect he prayed a lot to the ZARA Gods to remake that model. He is the type of shopper that sees something that he likes but only wants desperately to have it at least a year later. Well, this is one of those few things that he actually found two years later in store and thus had to have it. He also wore his lovely Review jeans and a Replay t-shirt that he bought especially as he wanted something to match his Replay orange-soled sneaks. All in all, everything he wore matched wonderfully: the dark khaki of the vest with the khaki t-shirt, the orange sole of his sneaks with the orange print on his t-shirt that also sort of matched the orange-brown part of the vest. I just love it when everything goes well together and not necessarily matches perfectly!

Bling-wise, we did not really put too much thought into it as we were only going out to vote, but we did however manage to look decent. I wore my Swarovski bracelet and ring while D wore his usual Fossil bracelet alongside a Constantin Nautics bracelet. We both wore out Apple Watches, as usual and it turns out we are both fans of these smartwatches despite not really thinking that might happen. Since it was really sunny out, we both wore sunglasses, I, my Dior SoReal while D wore his Ray-Ban black sunnies.

December 12, 2016

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Souping…

I confess, lately it has been one cheat day after the other (yes, I am passed the ‘cheat-meal’ concept) and I have been eating not-really-junk-food but not as healthy as before either… It must be the fact that I am six weeks away from having to start and loose the baby weight and I honestly think that my brain just wants to be able to hold the fact that I’ve eaten all I desired against me from January onward and thus helping me either a) loose my mind or b) loose the baby-weight or both. Either way, yesterday I felt the urge to eat something green and because I am lazy af (read: I did not put any make-up on and thus I was not legally safe to get out of the house) I decided to use whatever we had left in the fridge to make something that will appeal to my very pregnant body and very rational brain.

I did manage to make a green dish, that turned out delicious and that could’ve been even healthier than it turned out had I not decided to use crispy bacon right at the end. Damn you D for buying the food of the Devil and leaving it at my reach! To be completely honest, I think that the salty goodness and the crispy texture of the bacon made this soup irresistible so I decided to forgive D for the error in judgement. If you too are one of those people that love a good sweet-salty combo as well as (kinda) taking care of your figure than this soup is an absolute must-try. I would like to go ahead and say right from the beginning that this is a no-brainer soup and I am not trying to prove to you that I can cook through this recipe, this is just another chapter of the ‘cravings’ series and honestly, a three year old could make this easy, fast and healthy soup.

What I found in the fridge and managed to use for this hot goodness:

600 g of fine frozen peas (the small fine ones are sweeter than the regular sized ones)
about 50 g of leftover diced bacon (if I had more I would’ve used more)
1 tsp coconut butter (any oil will do but this one brought out the sweetness of the peas)
1 pot plain yoghurt
1 white onion
2 tsp vegetable cooking base (because I did not have any vegetable in the house)

The simplicity of making something delicious:

First of all, take pics of what you are about to cook and send to your spouse to make him come home earlier from work (if that does not work, send him naughty pics).
Heat the coconut butter in the pot you will use to make your soup and add the roughly chopped onion – do not try and finely chop the onion as everything will be blended anyway.
Cook the onion until it is golden and tender and then add 4 cups of water and bring to boil.
Add the vegetable base and the peas and let everything boil for about 6-7 minutes.
Take the pot away from the stove and blend everything really well and then add the yoghurt.
After another good blend, bring everything to boil for another 3-4 minutes and that’s it.
All you have to do now is fry the bacon until it is crispy, put it on top of your soup bowl and enjoy!

This is quite a healthy dish with or without the bacon and I think it is perfect for those cold days when you just need something that will make you feel good about yourself because hey, it is green and therefore healthy but also will satisfy your not so good cravings thanks to the crispy bacon. As usual, I have provided both the portion nutritional info as well as for the whole thing thanks to MyNetDiary and the app too says that this is quite a healthy meal. D can vouch for the fact that it did taste amazing despite it being vegetable based and him being the ultimate meat-lover!