Luka Anya - 4 months old

I am in huge denial of how fast this year is going already.
How can it be that my wee babe is 4 months old already!

And this last month has brought plenty of milestones for her, I am so amazed and blessed to have such a 'go-getter' baby :-)
Last night she rolled over for the first time! I was so lucky to have seen and so lucky that Andrei was there to tell me she was about to roll over.
I literally left her on her tummy during her playtime so I could go and charge my phone, then I come back into the room and she's on her side about to roll!
Seriously the one time I didn't have my phone capturing everything, luckily I ran back to get my phone and caught her rolling over just in time :-)
We placed her back on her tummy and she did it again! AMAZING!
I honestly can't brag enough of how proud I am of her, you can view the short version of Luka rolling over on my Instagram account (@loveshaleya).

Luka's also smiling more and is slowly starting laugh which is so so cute, I can't wait to hear it in full blast. As well as laughing she's talking, a lot. She just babbles away to herself and to Andrei, my mum and I and talks herself to sleep most of the time which is great as that's her way I guess of 'self soothing'.

Daddy and daughter time. She's a big Daddy's girl :-)

It's honestly like looking at a mirror, she's so much like him.

Loves her play time

Dress// Pumpkin Patch // NZD$21.90 from $42.90

Baby Bloomers // Charlie & Me // Brought in early pregnancy, can't remember price

Cable Knit stockings (can't see them) // Pumpkin Patch // NZD$12.99

Lace cuff socks (two in a pack, pink and white) // Pumpkin Patch // NZD$4.49 from $8.99

Long Sleeve Top // Gift

Weight: Luka has grown tremendously in the last month and is now weighing in at 5..24kgs! Length is now 58.5cm and head circumference is the same at 38.8cm. She's still a tiny little bub and a lot of people think she's still a newborn!
she's now fitting size 000's to 00 clothing and is in infant nappies, we like to use the Huggies brand as they're a lot softer on her skin, I have reusable nappies on the way to me so that'll be good in regards to saving money.

Sleep: She has a good sleep pattern during the day, a wake period of an hour to two hours then a nap for 30-45mins. Night time she goes down about 7:30 and either wakes at around 9-10 or 1am for a feed then back to sleep. But she's waking more frequently now so after the 1am feed she'll wake again at 3am, then 5am then 6am.
I'm thinking this may be due to her teething (you heard right) and that she'll settle more as she gets older. Oh sleep, how I miss thee...

Diet: She's still on breast milk and we've slowly started introducing solids, we give her half to a full teaspoon of solids at a time. We're using Watties Stage 1 puréed baby food like rice and carrots, carrots and pumpkin, apple and prune juice. She's really enjoying it but I haven't been giving her as much lately as I'm getting her weaned back onto the bottle.
She's doing well, today is the 4th day and she is quite irritable, yesterday she took two ounces, she would've taken more but I didn't have my pump on me and we weren't home, it was awesome.
My routine with that is to start at 9 or 10am and give her the bottle for 5mins, then she plays and mucks about for an hour then another 5min feed then sleep; and when she wakes its the same thing then her next wake period she gets the breast for the rest of the day.
I'll increase the time and the amount of milk as she gets used to it, it's been hard and a lot of tough love but who said parentings easy right?

Routine: A normal daily routine for us is that she's up at or around 6am, I give a feed, cuddles a nappy change then she goes on her play mat for playtime, I use that time to get myself breakfast and when that's all over it's time for her first nap of the day, she then wakes 45mins later and it's the same thing really but without a nappy change and no breakfast and the rest of the goes on and by 4-5pm it's the dreaded 'witching hour' when Luka doesn't want to nap at all, she's just a crying whining grumpy mess so around that time, or by 6pm if I can help it, she either has a bath or a shower with me and then goes down for her nap.

Social: I'm hoping in the next month or so I can get Luka into daycare so she can start to socialize, at the moment it's only me, Andrei, my mum, Andrei's dad and his partner so I'm leaning on that plus getting out more so Luka gets used to being around people.

Likes: Luka loves her playtime and has started grabbing toys! She also likes it when it's time for her nappy change as I leave her half naked for a bit, she also loves going for walks and loves it when I tip her upside down (holding her head and body of course) and sucking at her chin, she giggles, it's adorable :-)

Milestones: Luka's doing so much and so quickly! She started teething after her 3rd month which I thought was a bit strange giving her age so I did my research (good ol' Google) and found out that babies can start teething from as early as 2 months and that teeth should start coming in at around 5 months onwards.
She's taking it quite well, not fussing too much, and we use Bonjela to help ease whatever she's feeling.
Of course her smiling a lot more and starting to laugh is another huge one as well as talking heaps :-)
She's grabbing her toys more too and taking plenty of interest in them, even taking them to her mouth! But I think that could be her teething.
She's bringing her hands together as well :-)
Rolling over has lately been the biggest and she's been doing great with getting herself to sleep.
My lovely mother-in-law also brought Luka a new pram as our other one was a bit rickety and uncomfortable for her. We upgraded from a Capella 4 wheeler to a Jolly Jumper Elite 3 wheeler. Luka, Andrei and I are really enjoying it, it's comfortable for Luka and the storage tray is so much easier to get to as the Capella stroller had this tray that was hooked under the pram and you had to unhook it to get to things, very impractical but it served it's purpose.

Postpartum: Since the stroller upgrade I've been out with Luka a lot more, she doesn't fuss too much in the stroller like she did in the old one so I find it better to go for walks with her and most importantly RUN!
I've been doing a lot of running with the Jolly Jumper and it has been fantastic. My fitness levels still aren't what they used to be but that's just something I have to work on.
I weighed myself for the first time in months the other day and clocked in at 68kgs, I've lost a total of 4kgs since giving birth which isn't bad and this will give me a good indicator of my goal of 58kgs which I'm giving myself a year to get to.
With weaning bub back onto the bottle it gives me hope that I'll be back at the gym again soon as well as work so I'm going to continue to focus on that.
It may sound a bit narcissistic but going to the gym is really makes me feel good about myself physically and mentally.
Just recently I created a stroller group for mothers with children on Facebook, I tried to look around online for groups like that but I didn't find anything so I created one called Mammaz and Strollaz!
It's a once a month get together group at the Auckland Domain (I made it there cause I have friends that live all around Auckland and made it kinda easy for us all to get to. I don't have a car just yet and catch the train there, so if I can do it anyone can!) and after, say an hour of walking, running and stretching we go get a healthy lunch and gossip. Sounds good eh?
Plus it's good to get out of the house, I start to get a bit of cabin fever after a while and need some 'adult' conversation. Don't get me wrong, I love baby babbling with Luk but you gotta do something for yourself too.

That's pretty much it at the moment, I can't wait to see what this next month will bring!

XOXOX