Baby Leia's milestone: Milk cereal for the first time!

Leia's 5 months now and she has been displaying much interest in food! At our last PD visit, the doctor also recommended for us to start her with rice cereal once a day. We didn't start immediately though cause she was just 4 months old.

I know lots of people advocate starting solids when she's 6 months but she seems ready! And our PD said it's fine to start between 4-6 months. 

So today, we decided to let her try Friso's milk rice cereal! And I bought pigeon's baby spoon to feed her. She seemed to really like it! At first, she was trying to get used to the spoon so the cereal kept coming out. After a few tries, she mastered it and started taking it in. Whee! She was hungry so she kept opening her mouth, wanting more. Sooo adorable. 

I must say though, feeding solids is really a messy affair! Lol. Thank goodness for bibs. 

Here are a few screen shots of her first solids experience! 

(Couple time) Making waffles together!

G and I had so much fun together last night. We made some waffles using our new Tefal waffle maker! 

It's been some time since we did something new and spontaneous together. And it made us feel so excited and happy! I felt really close to him and there was just so much energy going on. Looking back, it tickles me that we were like lil kids, so eager to make the waffles and see how they turned out. 

When the waffles being cooked, we kept looking at the time to watch minutes go by. We couldn't wait for 3 minutes to pass so we could check on whether they were a success lol. And when G tasted them for the first time, he just had that look of wonder of yumminess. That was a look of bliss and it was priceless to me.

This experience makes me wanna try out more new things w my hubba! They always say couples should try new and novel things together to keep things interesting and exciting. I completely agree. I guess going through new experiences together really bonds you two. I really love creating fun memories w my hubba!

We actually made the waffles at night after Leia slept. I'm so thankful that my lil one slept early. Originally I was so afraid that all the waffle making would wake her up even though she was sleeping in the MBR. Then when I heard G's disappointed voice, I couldn't bear to let my over anxiety ruin his night and excitement. His happiness means alot to me. I'm so glad I made the choice to let things go and have fun! I mean, what was the worst that could happen? I just had to rock Leia back to sleep again.

Anyways, here are some pictures!

Baby Leia's milestones: 5 months old!

This week, our lil one turned 5 months on Wednesday! And she's 22 weeks today =)

I'm trying to remember all her recent changes without forgetting any. Sometimes, lil things slip my mind although I really want to remember them! 

Here we go!

1. Leia has been going to bed alot earlier now! I previously mentioned that we managed to get her to sleep at 7+pm once and since then, we've continued with this routine! Well she sleeps at around 7-8pm every night now. And we dream feed her at about 10-11pm so that she won't go hungry and sleeps longer.

2. Her sleep regression is getting a lil better! *crosses fingers* After my previous post about it, it actually become worse... I remember one night, she woke up every 30mins to 1 hour. It was driving G and me insane. But just 2 nights ago, she started sleeping better at night... Waking up 1-2 times and will usually go back to sleep with milk. Oh! And she managed to fall back asleep on her own a couple of times when we just left her on her cot when she was awake but not crying. 

3. At night, she moves about her cot alot! I think she uses her legs to propel her movement! I can put her down sleeping, facing the door and when I wake up, she's facing the opposite way lol. 

4. She's been smiling and laughing at the mirror now! She used to dislike looking at the mirror but now she seems to like her reflection. Her wide smiles and gummy grins are still the best!

5. I discovered something that really entertains her! Holding a tissue above her whilst the fan is blowing at it. She's always so tickled by it moving. 

(Me time) Pampering myself!

I'm so happy today! 

G's playing magic at home and my MIL's spending time with Leia so I get to go out whee! I met my mum and sis to hang out at AMK hehe. It's been so long since I came here. 

So far, I've done my eyebrows and pedicure! Gonna go cut my hair too. Feels totally awesome to have a break and some girly things. 

Baby Leia milestones: Happy 20 weeks baby!

Our cutie turned 20 weeks last week! So this post is a lil late hehe. 

Leia has been growing and changing so much lately. She's just constantly learning! That kinda explains her 4 month Sleep Regression. One website even termed this a 4 month Sleep progression since babies grow so much during this period. 

Basically, Leia has been waking up frequently at night... Like how she was as a newborn (but maybe not as bad?). And she has super short naps in the day lasting about 30 mins only! Honestly, it's really quite frustrating for G and me. Especially for me. I've been feeling exhausted by the multiple late night wakings. Lil Leia used to wake up only once a night at about 4am when she was 2 months on. Now she wakes up at least twice and sometimes won't even go back to bed unless you carry and rock her. -.- One night, she woke up at 2.30am and babbled for a loooong time before she slept at 3.30am. 2 nights ago, I felt like I was suffering from depression and kept asking Gerald why oh why Leia's like this.

Well, deep down I knew why. And my research confirmed my thoughts. Our little one is simply just growing and becoming very engaged with the world around her. She's beginning to realize that her actions affect others and she has control on her surroundings. And everything is just becoming more interesting for her! So I guess it's really quite a challenge for her to fall back asleep when she enters the active part of her sleep cycle. 

It's really true that she's growing. Leia's been doing a lot more these days! Here's some:

1. She's been turning to her sides alot more and actually does crunches! Lol the latter is really quite funny. It's as though she's exercising her abs. I suppose she's learning to get or sit up! 

2. Leia's been trying to flip over too! She lifts one side of her body off the ground and tries to turn to the other side. Without our help, she can't really succeed yet. But she's so adorable when she does it! Sometimes she even gets angry and frustrated when she can't succeed. 

3. She makes alot of noise now! She 'sings' when she's tired and also tries to talk all the time. Our lil one becomes sooo happy when we try to talk and mimic what she says. Gotta love her gummy grins. They are the best medicine in the world! Always makes me feel better.

4. Leia finally discovered her feet and toes! Now she keeps reaching for her toes and plays with them. She looks like she's doing sit and reach everytime she tries. Super flexible!

5. Nowadays, Leia tries to reach and touch our faces with her lil hands. She realized that she can actually feel our faces! My lil darling smiles when I put her hands on my face. Melts my heart. 

(Baby Leia) Bedtime at 7.45pm!

Last night, Leia went to bed at 7.45pm. It's much earlier than her usual bedtime at 10pm! 

It didn't happen naturally. G and I actually decided to do her night routine earlier because she's been fussing and 'singing' alot at around 7pm everyday. We figured that she's telling us she wants to sleep. I don't know why it took us so long to realize this because she has always been fussing and sleepy at this time for a while now. We have been delaying our poor lil girl's bedtime without realizing it! We always thought she could only sleep much later. It's no wonder that she always fights and struggles to sleep previously... Simply because of overtiredness. 

So yesterday we did this routine at 7pm:

- Bath

- Change diaper and into PJs

- Storytime in bedroom

- Milk

- Put leia in cot awake

After we put her in the cot, she cried as usual... Like how she would everynight before her sleep. I picked her up to comfort her but her crying grew worse. So I put her down and comforted her at increasing time intervals. Finally when I couldn't stand it anymore (it's just so so so hard to tolerate a baby's crying!) I gave her a bottle and she slept! I left the room to let her sleep for fear that I might wake her up during her light sleep cycle. I dream fed her at 10pm, 1.30am and 5.30am. And she slept till 7am! Earlier than usual but that's fine since she slept enough. 

We were so happy because she was getting the sleep she needed and we had time to do our own things! Whee. We ended up watching Game of thrones hehe. I checked on her a few times though just in case. 

I'm gonna continue with this routine and hopefully it gets easier! Hopefully she fights lesser and learns to sleep on her own. 

I'm planning to get rid of her bouncer habit too so that she can take naps in her cot as well. She's gonna outgrow the bouncer soon so we better help her transition before it happens! *sigh* there's gonna be crying involved. But I guess it's our responsibility to give her good sleep habits and get rid of bad ones that we are to blame for.

(Our Home) We've moved to Punggol!

Yes, we finally moved to punggol! *cheers* We moved exactly one week ago on the 30th of April. Still feels surreal that we now live in our very own cosy home. It feels so awesome. 

Our move was a very smooth one. We engaged Shalom movers who were very professional and efficient at moving our furniture and boxes. They started at 2pm and ended at around 5pm. We took about 2 days to unpack everything =D

Our first night went well! We slept and so did Leia! She transitioned to our new home without much trouble. I guess babies are good at adapting.

I love our lil space. Our scandi decor makes our home very bright, clean and homely. Every morning when I wake up, I love walking to my living room because there's so much light. I like looking out of my windows even though my view is of a half finished roof top garden hehe. 

Nothing beats having your very own space. You can do whatever you want in your own home. You can decorate it the way you like. You can use all the rooms since it's your own house. You can have your own privacy! It's just so wonderful. 

And we also have a new helper Josephine who is a godsend! *hopes she stays this way* She's very initiative, does housework well and cooks yummy food. And she's very good with leia! So far we think we're really lucky to have her.