193.

Lileeva still not so keen on apple puree. She likes banana, sweet potato and pear though.

I can't wait to have her in her own room, mostly cause of her than cause of us. I usually put her down after a bath and bottle around 10pm, then I go and have a bath, maybe watch some telly or just geeking away, but since our door is quite noisy I usually disturb her when I go to bed myself.
Same with Lee coming home from work around 0730am. Not helping that I usually wake up for Lee anyway since being a light sleeper, and I'm ill nowadays so as soon as I wake up I start to cough (Horrible dry cough, the worst I must say, which you can't do fuck all with.) waking Lileeva up too.
We took her into her room already, just to introduce the colours and the new space and I think she likes it, having good old look arounds every time.

192.

The best ever thing is seeing your baby wake up happy like this every day.

Baby yoga was a bit weird yesterday, not sure whether or not Lileeva liked it. It was about doing stretches and balancing exercises, just as rolling her over, dancing with her and having her laying on her back, putting pressure on her feet and doing walking movements. Kind of like getting her ready for things she'll be doing soon. She got a bit cranky by the end, can tell she is daddy's girl, prefers to just lay there and get massaged than to actually do bits haha! (Pffh... Like I'm the active half of the family! Hah, no way!) Will give yoga another try next week but we might just be sticking to the massage if it doesn't go down well.

I have another productive day behind me, went to Argos to pick up the blinds and baby monitor for her room, then to Tesco, then to Lee's parents to chill a bit in company instead of on my own. We got given a bouncy chair, she was crying a little when put her in it but she does it every time something new comes in her way. Eventually she got used to it, so that's that, we have a new toy to keep her entertained vertical too.

191.

Lileeva has been really moany lately. No matter whether or not she slept through the night she's been crying for 4 days, pretty much all afternoon.
Might be cause she haven't done a poo for a couple of days, or she's teething or maybe both.
Put her amber crystal necklace on her the other day, it's supposed to be good especially for teething but had to take it off after a few hours cause it seems to be too long and knowing her wiggling activity I'm scared it'll choke her. Anyway, it's hanging on her cot now with the rest of her calming crystals. Will be buying a lidocaine based teething gel soon see if that helps cause she doesn't seem to be interested in the chewy gel based refrigerated toys. Either way, if it's not her teeth it still will come handy in the close future.

I took her to her first ever baby massage on Wednesday! I dragged Lee with myself since I'm crap meeting with new people but it was pretty much dead anyway... Least I had company! Should've taken photos of her really, while Lee was cracking on the massage. She seemed to like it, even though it tired her out to the max. She even done 3 (!) poos that day so it definitely works haha!
Hitting up the baby yoga today!
I supposed to have Kali and Loki coming over but they cancelled the last minute cause she's alone with both of her kids at the moment. Anyways, I think it's the first session of the yoga class (Held by the woman doing the massage.) so everyone's going to be 'new' not just me. Yay!
I also finished painting Lileeva's room yesterday. It's all done, the furniture to! Only bits to correct (An hour work tops.), do the outlines (Lee's job.) and order the baby monitors and put the blinds up (Matter of money.) then it's ready to move in!
By the looks of it Lileeva will have her very own room by next weekend!

190.

We got Lileeva's cot delivered on Tuesday. It's unbelievable how much she grew in the past 3 months. We started off with teddies in the Moses basket, then without teddies and by the end she hardly fit in it.
But the cot! She looks well tiny again. Aww!
She's using the space well, fidgeting while asleep. I usually put her down bang on the middle and wake up for her laying across, her head touching the teddies. By the way, since she's moving a lot she started to have a bald patch on the back of her head. Ah well, will grow back out.
We only bought this cot cause the mattress Lee ordered to the other one was too big, but I love it! The mattress can be placed in 3 different heights, highest when she is tiny like now, middle when she gets a bit bigger and crawls but can't yet stand, and the lowest when she's able to stand but unable to walk yet. Since it's massive and the sides can be taken off it can be used as a single bed up  to she's about 5 years old. (Or until she fits in it.) Good buy!

I started to put her down and leave the room for a bit just to get her used to that we won't be next to her all the time (Bit of a training for when we move her in to her own room.) but it doesn't always go down well.
We will have a single sofabed in her room anyway, so whenever we do move her either of us will sleep with her for the first few nights. When she settles I'm planning on having a night time routine, apart from the usual bath-food-good night, I will read for her too. She doesn't drop off straight away after her bottle lately so I think it will be ideal. After all I will be next to her, she will hear my voice, picks up my language a little and hopefully it calms her down/bores her to asleep. Plan!
Her room is coming together quite well, a month tops and it will be ready to move in I reckon.

189.

Since she is having solids, Lileeva tend to eat less milk and seems to be dropping a bottle too. I was pretty worried about it, cause she is only little and all you hear is that babies main intake should be milk for at least 6 but preferably 12 months.
Not knowing whether or not it was alright, I tried to call the Maternity Helpline (Which I got told I'm able to until she is 6 months old.) but they said cause of her age, I have to get in touch with the health visitors. Ehrm... How?
So I had a long and confusing research session on Google again.
Firstly to see if I started her too early. From the list below, don't think I did.

- She is at least 4 months old. (3 and a half.)
- She weighs twice as much as her birth weight. (Born with 2.7 kg, now 5.7 kg.)
- She weighs at least 13-15 pounds. (12+ lbs.)
- She can sit with support, allowing her to lean forward when she wants another spoonful and backward to refuse. (Oh yeah. Big girl!)
- She has control over her head and neck muscles and can turn her head to refuse food. (She's been doing it with bottles for over a month now.)
- She has stopped exhibiting the extrusion reflex when you put a spoon in her mouth. (Not precisely but she's trying and learning. Food goes down, not only spat back out, take it this way.)
- She is drinking at least 32-40 ounces of formula per 24-hours and still wants more. (Average of 35 oz daily.)
- She is breast feeding at least 8-10 times per 24-hours (after the first few weeks), empties both breasts at each feeding, and still wants more.
- The time between feedings becomes shorter and shorter over a period of several days. (Not really?)
- She can bring an object in her hand directly to her mouth. (That's mainly her own hand, my finger or her bib or blanket.)
- She shows interest in others eating around her. (That's the main reason we started her on solids so early!)
- She becomes fussy in the middle of the night, whereas before she slept through with no problem. Or her sleep periods are becoming shorter instead of longer. (Fussy around night time plus woken up earlier the past week or so.)

About how to do it right:
'Further, you should always introduce new foods after a nursing or bottle feeding. Your baby still receives his main source of nutrition from either breast milk or formula up to the one year old mark - do not let solids interfere with liquid intake.'
'4-6 Months:
Always offer solids after bottle or breast. Baby may eat anywhere from 1-3 tablespoons of food at 1 or 2 "meals".'
'Don't force foods on your baby. If your baby does not open his or her mouth for the food immediately, wait for baby to open his mouth when food is offered. Always let her eat at her own pace and on her own terms. When baby turns her head away or stops opening her mouth, this probably means she had had enough; respect that and stop offering the food. You don't want to continue to offer foods and run the risk of overriding her own appetite control system.'
I'm also doing the 4 day rule with her. Making the purees myself is fun and think is safer and healthier than feeding her with jarred food, after all at least I know what's in it.
So far she prefers baby porridge over the purees which I totally understand. It's thinner and has the milky taste that formula does. Either way, I'm going to reduce the amount of both "meals" and will feed her after a bottle, not before. Whenever we run out of porridge, I will replace that "meal" with a puree too. Hopefully by then she will get to like them a bit more.
So our planned food schedule:
09am - bottle
12pm - bottle
01pm - porridge
03pm - bottle
06pm - bottle
07pm - puree
09pm - bottle

188.

The doctor said her gums are fine, didn't even prescribe anything for the spots cause apparently they'll go away by themselves. Not too pleased with the decision, cause if it is thrush, it can spread even on to the tongue! (Which I think already happened, since she has one big one and two or more little ones on the other side. Nothing on the tongue yet though.) Either way, we are going for her third session of injections in a few weeks time, I'll ask the GP to take a look at it again, or if it does spread by then I won't leave until they give something for it.
Lee got Lileeva's passport photo done, he said she was a good girl and was done with the first take! I think it's kind of cute, especially knowing that we all look retarded on passport and ID photos haha!

Lee was also going to take her to a chemist to get her ears pierced but this time they said she has to be at least 4 months and have to have all her jabs first, so we are waiting another couple of weeks with it. He forgot to ask about the earrings though, I'm a bit worried that they will give her the standard screwback which they usually use with the gun and which won't be good for her. One thing that it has to be 14kt gold or surgical steel but I remember when I got mine done when I was 2 I had trouble with the screwback poking and hurting my head behind the ears. Ah well, we have to wait and see, and maybe order a different type of earring online.
(By the way I changed the background and layout again. Should've taken screenshots from the previous ones really, to keep track of them. Started off with one of the standard greens, then a hyper-personalised black-pink-blue Shpongle one, and now this, one of the standard oranges. By the way I'm not too pleased with this new blogger posting layout but reckon I will get used to it. Well, I have to anyways.)

187.

Lileeva has oral thrush! She's been dribbling a lot lately and shoving her little hands in her mouth constantly (Also has a red bum. It comes hand-in-hand with mouth 'problems' apparently.) so Lee's mum said she might be teething already. Well, she doesn't. Had a look and has white spots on her upper gums, above where her teeth should come. (Bottom teeth should grow first anyway.)
It doesn't really bother her, she doesn't seem to be in pain, but Lee is out, taking her to the GP just in case, getting drops prescriptioned for her. It's common for babies, especially bottle fed ones, easier to get infections and stuff.
He is also taking her to get her passport photos done, whoop! I dressed her all girly and stylish (Puma and Vans haha!) after all she has to live with this photo and ID for 5 years.

She is getting better with eating, seems to be getting the hang of swallowing. And yes, her poo became stinky and yuck! That's it for 'nice' smelling milky poos. Boo.
By the way, I can't get my head around this nappy rash question. So far, we didn't have a problem with it, and don't really understand how could anyone do? It's quite straight forward to change the baby often, and put cream on the bum bum every time. We do it before/after each feedings -that's every 3-4 hours- when at home in the reusable ones, and maximum every 5 to 6 hours if we out in the disposable ones.
Been looking up for reusable swimming nappies too, I don't quite get how does that work, doesn't seem too safe for me, but since she'll be more confident with solids and her poo won't be as runny we might give that a go too.
I ordered her first sippy cup, it came just now! I know we won't be using it for at least another 4-5 months but I needed to add my KiddyCare order above a certain amount so the delivery was free and that's what we chose.
Went out yesterday with her, to meet with my long time not seen friends in a pub. Wasn't the best idea, even though it's child friendly and lots of us had our kids there, Lileeva was well moody cause of the noise (Sunday roast madness.) and unfamiliar faces. The way back on the bus a woman came up to me, asking if she was a girl and how gorgeous she was! Well chuffed! After all it's an unknown person, she doesn't have to say anything if she didn't want to... (Not to mention that means Lileeva now has a girly baby face, noticeable to others too!)
Lileeva also started to grab things, mainly her bib, blanket or top, flashing her bits! Naughty naughty!

We decided to start and put her in bed an hour earlier from today. We usually bath and feed her at 10pm but she seems to be dropping off around 09pm lately so that's our new time now. I left her to sleep as long as she wanted this morning, she never woken until 1030am! That's bang on 12 hours sleep for the lazy git! Hope it stays like this from now on!

186.

So we started Lileeva on solids yesterday. I didn't want to do the weaning (Putting cooked food chunks in front of her, letting her explore it and do the eating by herself.) cause I would've had to wait another couple of months the least and didn't want to torture her any more.
The porridge went down alright, and I made apple puree for dinner but she hated it haha! What a failure! Bet it's the new taste and thickness. Won't be giving up though!

I also took her to check out the Children's Centre on the corner, registered as well, but not quite sure I liked it. Prefer the one by our old flat really, smaller and friendlier. We toured the park by our flat, had her first swing and slide experience and I discovered a pool as well, so I know now where will we be spending our summer noons!

Lee's dad have booked our holidays in September, we all are going away with the kids for 10 days to the Canary Islands. Can't wait really, haven't had a proper holiday for years! Then so Lileeva will have a chance to show off her newly learnt swimming skills as well!

185.

Since she is over 3 months now, Lileeva is mostly awake during the day and I'm trying to spend as much time with her as possible, that's why I'm not particularly up to date here.
She's grown so much! She's 61 cm ~ 24 inches and 5.74 kg ~ 12.6 lbs.
She is still a brave little pea, we had her second immunisation last Friday, she did scream when got poked with that massive needle but forgot about it straight away when we cuddled her. So far it looks like she won't be getting ill from this session, like she did from the first one. Then we left her for a couple of weeks, gave a chance to her little system to get it rid off by itself, but by the third week she got way too snotty and her coughs were painful to bare so we got her on to CalPol. Worked like magic.
She also sleeps well in the new place, must be the warmth and the darkness of our bedroom. Although she started waking up earlier in the past week, I reckon it has something to do with growing out the Moses basket and as well as getting hungrier.
We got to the point where she doesn't enjoy her bottle too much anymore but is eying our toast and spaghetti every time, making me feel guilty eating in front of her. So that's that, we are introducing solids to her this weekend, starting off with porridge then the tinned ones. Should look up on making purees myself as well. On this note we can say bye to the baby poo and welcome the adult poo soon. Not looking forward to that.
She's really aware of situations now, sitting up with a bit of help, and is trying to talk. Religiously stares at our mouths when we talk to her and she's trying to form words but usually gets upset when it's not happening. I keep making her sure it will happen sooner or later.
I popped her in the sling in a carrier position and her Manduca for the first time last week, just to see how she takes them, and have to admit, in my case that's the end for the pram sessions. Already took her out twice in the Manduca and she loves it! I love it too, unbelievable comfy and makes me feel on charge of things, not like with the pram. No fucking about with it on the curbs, on the buses...
I took Lileeva to Kali's on Tuesday, she's my used to be work mate and just had her second baby, Loki, a month later I had Lileeva. This was the first time I took her out on my own on public transports. I was shit scared, mainly cause I thought she'll start screaming in the middle of the journey, but she was a good girl. Had a good old look around, then fell asleep on the bus.
Kali suggested that I should go for baby massage and coffee mornings to a Children's Centre nearby, after all it's an opportunity to meet with new mums, just what I need really. I love my friends, but it's different now, they don't want to talk about babies all day long and I'm literally unable to talk about anything else, cause I'm a 'sitting home mum' and my life is around Lileeva now. So since I'm quite confident and mobile now, will have a look, see if there's anything close by. It would be good for Lileeva too, making friends early, have familiar faces in nursery and school.

184.

The broadband is up and running now as well, so that's me back, blog whoring.
We have kind of settled in by now, only little bits to do, like putting pictures and shelves up, get a mixer tap for the kitchen sink as well as to the bath. And a shower of course, which we don't yet have.
Lileeva's room is still under construction but I managed to draw it all up, so it's only the painting job to do. I'm going to start it the weekend, when Lee is off and can look after Lileeva and I'll be working with the paints we have left first, then we are going to have another trip to B&Q and get more colours.
Here's my finest before and after photo collection of the flat. Well chuffed!

 

Bathroom

Toilet

Bedroom

Living Room

Balcony

Kitchen

Will post pictures of Lileeva's room, once it's done.
We had troubles already, rule No. # 1 in a council flat whatever can, does break. Had the plumbers out twice in 2 weeks cause there's a blockage somewhere in the pipes, the boiler also had to be recommissioned which means we didn't have hot water or heating for a couple of days. The phone socket in the living room ain't connected and is just hanging off of the wall, so our modem is in the hallway at the moment, leaving us with shit signal in the living room (Xbox and laptop, hello!?) but brilliant in the toilet haha! Also, one of our windows in the bedroom isn't fitted in properly (?) and let's a little bit of breeze in, but it isn't too bad, especially that now the weather's getting better and by next winter Lileeva will be in her own room which is the warmest from all.
I asked the upstairs neighbours in a letter (Fuck knows when are they home. A few Shoreditch looking like girls.) to try and not to slam their gate all the time and stop wearing her heels indoors during the night cause all I hear is her walking up and down. Couldn't really care less whether or not she thinks I'm mad, after all it's not like I'll be moving out any time soon and I want to live in peace finally. She stopped though so it's all good.
Everything is good. Big thanks to both of our family of helping us pulling it together!