206.

I got Lileeva one of these today. I just had to. They didn't have pink in Boots so I bought the luminous lime green. (Will go nicely with the matching avocado puke.)
It's a really soft rubber bib, easy to wipe and catches the dropped food. So far she loves holding on to it as well. Might as well consider to use it when bottle feeding her too, since she usually throws some back up when winding her.

Also got her a tiny toothbrush, same option of colours but she preferred the pink I think. Trying to make her choose already, I always hold things up so she sees them and able to decide. Well... Whichever she stares with more interest, that's what I buy. (People surely look at me like I'm nuts, but couldn't care less, really.)
I mean, she does have an opinion on things already, another story that she's not yet able to tell us what it is, right?!

205.

Lately Lileeva became very good in grabbing things, therefor enjoying her baby gym even more.
She loves her Peppa Pig teddy too, always having it close to her face when napping during the day and befriended the orange rubber duck too.
She sometimes laughs now without tickling her and also blows raspberries.
Not to mention the 'talking' which is more likely shouting but still, good try. She tells us off all the time now haha! Such a big girl!
Only have trouble with getting her dressed nowadays. She is at that age when it's normal I reckon. Funny for example how much she hated coming out of the bath when she was 2 months old, screaming from the cold but shut up as soon as I got her dressed. Now it's the opposite, bare happy with laying around naked but when I start to put them grows on! Doesn't help that she became quite sicky lately and have to get her changed a few times daily.
Ah well, will grow out of this too, in fact before I'd even realise, all what she will want to do is dress-ups.

We just had a calculation with Lee and it looks like I don't necessarily have to go back to work just yet. I'm planning on staying home with her until she can attend a free nursery (Age of 3? Have to look into it.). Not like we are going to live on benefits, we won't. We are entitled to get shit, but will still be able to manage we think.
As soon as we decide to have another baby though, I will go back to work for about a year or so. That way we can save up and might be able to get Maternity Allowance again.
This, might be sooner than we first planned... Well... Lee said he will think about it. After all the less is the age gap between, is the better for them, and if we were started trying for another one when Lileeva is around a year and a half, she'd be over 2 years old when we had her little brother or sister. Ideal in my opinion.
And, to be honest, with all the joy ahead of us with her, I reckon Lee as well would miss bottle feeding and nappy changing once Lileeva will be old enough to walk, talk, play and kind of take care of herself. (But of course, he'll never admit this haha.)

204.

I'm still feeding Lileeva with single component food.
I know she's ready for more, but since I got hold of some stage 1 vegetables thought I let her try and taste them as they are, before mixing. I did give her ready made mixed purees when were on the move (Strawberry-apple, apple-banana, apple-prune and butternut squash-prune-apple-carrot.) but not sure which option she prefers.
So far she tried:
- Apple
- Banana
- Pear
- Sweet potato
- Carrot
- Tomato
- Strawberry
- Pea
- Avocado
- Butternut squash
She likes some more than others, but I think it's normal, after all she's allowed to have favourites already. We had a hard time with avocado only, she didn't just pull faces or start to moan like usually does when she doesn't like something, she actually threw up from it. Twice.
She's also eying my toast lately! Lileeva thinks she's some kind of super hero after having her first tooth growing out of her gums. That's O.K. I started her on solids at 3+ months but no way I'm starting her on baby biscuits before 6 months! (That's a month earlier than recommended anyway.) Especially that she was chocking on the pea puree which contained little bits of pea skins.
She has dropped a bottle (Having 4 x 210 ml a day.) so doesn't have much milk, nor a lot of solids so I began to worry about her nutrition, but it clearly says on the follow on milk box that it's not suitable for babies under 6 months.
Just have to keep an eye on her in the next month I reckon. After all she looks happy and healthy so technically no reason to worry about.

203.

Breaking news! Literally. Lileeva's first tooth has finally appeared last Wednesday, on the 5th of May. It's the lower right, and by the look of it the lower left will emerge soon too. She ain't even 5 months yet!

202.

I love Cow & Gate. Lee signed me up for promotions for many sites while I was pregnant and they seem to be the best, keep sending me up to date information.
For example this 5 step weaning plan booklet with lots of money off coupons. (Which I mainly already used in Boots as I mentioned previously.) It's really helpful, going through from to first spoonful to having 3 set pureed meals a day. Have recipes included too so I don't have to come online all the time I'm making Lileeva food.
Anyways, since she's eating solids for quite some time now at regular times (Lunch.) I'm trying to establish another routine; Breakfast. See if she's happy with having more milk for one go but dropping a bottle, having a porridge breakfast (Properly, sitting in her high chair, with some water in the sippy cup.) skipping the usual lunch puree and have dinner instead.
I tried her on all kind of foods already, mainly fruits, and no allergic reaction so far. So it's time for mixing them, like apple-pear, strawberry-banana. I'm still on the wait for introducing her more variety of foods cause she's still young and for example pureed peas chocked her cause of the bits of skins in it. That's to come after our holiday in May aka after her 6 months birthday.
Then by she's 9 months I'm trying to have her having 3 meals a day, hopefully home made ones.
We have jarred food as well, but will be taking them to Budapest so there I won't have to mess about processing food for her. By then she'll be eating mixed fruits/food anyway.
Also, I bought follow on milk, will be feeding her with it as soon as she steps over the 6 month mark. More iron and vitamins, better when you are weaning them.

201.

So here, Lileeva's room.

Before

During

After

The guitar still go on the wall but apart from that it's all done. I just hope she is going to like it cause it was hell of a work! I to be honest would love to spend every minute there with her, only put off that the room is not on the sunny side of the building, like our living room.

(Thanks Lee for helping me in painting and outlining.)

200.

200 posts and I'm blogging for over a year now, keeping it up to date. Chuffed with myself.
On Thursday me and Lee took Lileeva out to Highbury Fields just to chill on the grass and meet with Kali, Loki and Isla. Isla, Kali's 4 year old daughter called Lee weird; Cracked me up much! You just have to love kids honesty.
On Friday morning we went to Boots to try and get rid off all my vouchers. Arrived home with 3 heavy bags of mainly baby stuff and £85 lighter. (That's with the £10-15 discount already.) Then, since the weather was very nice and had a few more hours til Lee's mum were picking Lileeva up, we went over London Fields with her.
I like taking her out, bit of a sun and fresh air doesn't harm no one, in fact tires both of us out and makes us sleep better.

Then nanny took her and we had a free weekend. We went out on Friday, which was really nice since haven't been out the bunch of us for literally over a year! I came home earlier though, didn't want to get wrecked and hanging the next day, even though we didn't have Lileeva until Saturday evening.
Instead, I fumigated the flat (Fucking silverfishes!) and finished off her room. We moved her in that night, but I slept on the couch, just to have my mind in peace.
I eventually let her sleep alone for the first time yesterday. Reckon she enjoyed it, we had to wake her the morning with a bottle.
As of today, I went to get her ear pierced at last. Well happy about being able to choose a simply silver coated stud over the bling bling gold and colourful crystal ones. It was a reasonable (Haha, more likely bargain!) £10 and by we were leaving the chemist her tears have already dried.

199.

Met with Nicol last night to pass the little baby girl clothes to her. Bye-bye cute pink grows! She said she can't wait to get where I am now, having to hold her baby, but she still has a couple of months to go. I told her I can't wait to be pregnant again...
We had a long baby chat, it was well good. She was also asking about giving birth itself so I told her the story. I probably shouldn't have, she looked frightened, then admitted she was already scared of it anyway but now! Then I realised how was I at her stage. I wasn't at all scared, in fact positive, looking up online, searching for other bloggers' stories, then again I was well unsure too. It's all about going into something life changing, and no matter what others say you just can't imagine it. Forgot about all these things, since my life has already changed, 4 months ago, and I got perfectly used to it now.
She said she doesn't really understand after I went through (And how painful it sounds.) how can I think about wanting to be pregnant again. Well... She will understand, in a few months.

I'm having a day off today! Lee got up early (We can't sleep with each other. Fact.), waited for Lileeva to wake up, took her for a walk over the park, then to baby massage, then to his grandad. Since his cousins are down, he'll stay out for longer and come back with her some point tonight, before her bed time.
As of me, I went back to bed to have a cheeky nap and woke up at 02pm! Must've needed it. Now to have a bit of  'me time' and a mini spa day. Ah yeah!

198.

I'm feeling guilty.
As I said many times before, I'm a shit sleeper. Even though I put Lileeva down, I can't go to sleep at 10pm but around 01am. Then so it takes me another hour or so to fall asleep, wake up throughout the night about 3-4 times, wake up for Lee getting home at 0730am then for Lileeva at 08am. Bad enough that my selfish self got used to waking up for her at 09am (That precious hour!) nowadays I'm having these crazy nightmares too, every night.
For some reason Lileeva woke up at 04am this morning. Tried to calm her but she just wouldn't stop so at the end had to give her a bottle. She clearly just woke up for something (Might be something to do with her jabs.), then realised she's actually hungry and since I was up too she didn't let me until I fed her.
I was beyond tired and messaging with Lee made me venting, using the words 'I hate my life at the moment.' now it's awful! Some mums would be well happy if their babies slept as much as Lileeva does!
Anyways, I think all new mums go through the 'Hate my life. Why the fuck did I actually want this?!' stage, if they say they don't, they are clearly lying.
I just feel guilty of getting pissed off so easily with her, when it's obviously not her fault that I can't sleep.
I'm thinking of cutting her down on solids, not cause of what the nurse said, but cause lately she's not finishing her last bottle and that might makes her waking earlier. So I'll be trying to feed her once, during the day, and not giving her another dose of puree before the last bottle.

I took this picture yesterday, she's smiling at herself in the mirror. I wonder whether she knows it's herself (After all I'm holding her and she can clearly see me there too.) or thinks it's a different baby, cause what would she know about mirrors yet?!

197.

Kali and Loki came around yesterday. The babies were smiling at each other while we were having a cuppa and a chat, it was beyond cute!
Then we went to get Lileeva's last lot of jabs done. She wasn't too happy obviously, but as soon as we left the GP she stopped crying. The nurse said I shouldn't feed her solids until 6 months cause of the many fat babies and obese people in the UK lately. My ass. She weight her and she's average with her 6.34 kg ~ 13.9 lbs. At 4 months girls weight supposed to be between 13 and 15 lbs and she's bang on the middle, so I'm not too worried.
Babies supposed to be chubby anyway, and lose most of their fat when start crawling.
She's not there yet by the way, hates tummy time too so it's hard to get her to even roll, but is definitely on the move. The other day found her on the floor crying (Mainly in surprise than pain.) cause wiggled her way down from the sofa. Nowadays when I have her sitting/laying on me she pulls herself up and drops herself face first on the sofa. Doesn't yet know how to use her hands or push herself up so usually starts to moan for help, but hey, that's how she learns.

Her room is done now, only the ceiling which we are having trouble with but that will be finished next week as well.
The Disney lot has downloaded finally, after 5 months of waiting, so I'm watching one cartoon every night with her. She's not really interested yet, but I'm enjoying myself and that's still better than to watch some violent action movie in front of her.
We ended up having Sky as well. Not too bothered, in fact quite happy about it. Cbeebies done my head in (Crap children shows all day long.) while Boomerang shows all the oldschool goodies, like Dexter's Laboratory, The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy, Tom and Jerry and so on.