babbles

I'm really am too tired to do anything.. what's with the Terry Fox run hubby and myself had in the morning with Zahra tagging along as additional "dumbbell" strapped to our body, and also taking care of her after we got back. Right now she babbles a lot, refuses to be left for more than 1 minute on her own and already showing tantrums. Hahah.. well, I need to learn to be patient and not encourage her tantrums by following the advise below:

http://www.huggies.com.my/BeingAParent/SocialAndEmotional/WhenShoudYouStart.aspx

8 to 12 Months

When your baby starts to crawl, around the 8-month mark, it's time to think about setting limits. Suddenly everything -- from the knickknacks on your side table to those rolls of toilet paper under the bathroom sink -- are big no-nos.

A child this age only wants to explore (he has no concept of what he should or shouldn't do), so if you don't want him to touch something, place it out of his reach through childproofing and let child-friendly items take center stage. Experts say this is the best way to help your child stay out of trouble and makes it a lot easier to follow the rules.

Of course, many of us merely say no when we catch our little ones getting into mischief. Unfortunately, it's not a reliable discipline method for kids this age. Your child can comprehend by the tone of your voice that "no" means something different from "I love you," but she doesn't understand the real meaning of the word. Furthermore, she doesn't have the self-control to heed your request.

Use other techniques to reinforce the lesson that some things are off-limits, as Cristina Soto of New York City does. "Starting at around 8 or 9 months, every time my daughter Sonia got near an outlet, I'd say 'Aah aaah!' in a playfully scary voice so she'd stop and look at me," says Soto. "I kept doing it. After a while she'd cruise over to an outlet, point, and say, 'Aah aaah!' to me."



And let's see if I can get Zahra's milestones correctly...

Month 6 - 9

There are two very distinct strands to your six-to-nine month old's personality. On one hand, she's an explorer, equipped with most of the skills she needs to investigate her surroundings. On the other, she's a timid soul who clings to the people she knows and loves, and often shies away from strangers.
{Yep.. Zahra does this... keen to explore everything that she can see.. all the while clinging to Mama}

With her better powers of memory she's getting to know the difference between things that are familiar and safe, and those that are new and un-tested. You can see just how much her memory is improving by watching her reaction to a toy that she has dropped. Up until now she would have forgotten it and moved on. By nine months, she looks in the right direction to see where the toy has gone.
{Yep.. Zahra already looking for those "toys" that she dopped or threw away}

Mover…

• At six months your baby will put her hands and feet into her mouth. She has learnt she can control her body{Checked}
• At seven months she may sit unaided, using her arms to balance her {Checked}
• At eight to nine months she can sit and play with a toy but may still lose balance if she turns around {Checked}
• At seven to nine months she may start to crawl properly. At first, her arms tend to do most of the work as they're still stronger than her legs, so she may go backwards or in circles. She may also bottom shuffle. {Checked.. Hahah.. now I know what her "tonggeng" act is called.."bottum shuffle"}

… and shaker

• At seven to nine months your baby finally masters the art of grasping things with her thumb and forefinger {Checked}
• At eight months she may show a left or right-hand preference {Not so sure about this}
• At nine months she can hold a mug with both hands and may try to grasp a feeding spoon. {Checked}

Not bad at all....

She is off the chart!

It amazes me how big my baby is now.. at 7 and 1/2 months, she is already about 75cm (plus minus 1 cm) and most probably weigh around 9kg if I follow the trend in her growth chart. Since I haven't been to the paed after her 5 months shot, I don't really know her weight anyway but she sure feels like 9kg or more! Lugging her around the house is already a full scale weight-bearing exercise as it is!! Hahah..

My not going to the paed is not because I'm a bad mother.. It's because she has been pretty healthy 99% off the time that she really don't need to go to the paed at all to get additional checkup. What even amazes me more is the fact that growth chart that most local paediatrics use are actually based on the growth chart of bottle fed caucasians. Even then my baby girl length is still at the highest possible graph line! That put her at about 1-5th percentile from the population of the world. Goshh.. was it the gene, or the breast milk that I had lovingly give her since day 1. Alhamdulillah I have managed to exclusively breastfed Zahra for the first 6.5 months and only started solid recently.. Hmm, maybe if I count the few times (ever) that she was given some plain water to drink as not exclusively breastfed. Sigh... but that was when she's not with me.. But that's ok.. it's probably count to about a tablespoon or so in a week.

Many Malay or is it Asian parents especially those who gives formula to their babies. Lo and behold, it turns out, this is the wrong thing to do. There was a radio talk on this topic reveals that the first 6 months, babies stomach is so small and to grow properly, they need to be able to absorb nutrients from every feed. Since water has very little or most aptly no nutrients at all, filling up the small stomach with water would mean that we deprive the little body from the nutrients they need. Water functions to clean the body from excess minerals and salt. Since breastmilk contains less of these than formula, there's little reason why breastfed babies need to be given water at least for the first 6 months. This is the wonder of breastmilk that many people don't realize. Apart from the fact that it contains enzyme and antibody that formula milk have NEVER manage to emulate despite all the hoopla onit's superiority what's with additional DHA or supplements in the milk.

Mother's Instinct

I was pretty good at keeping the first 2 months of pregnancy under wrapped. I was pretty scared about miscarriage so I made husband promise that he won't say anything about the good news until I finished my first trimester. But there were people who had enough experience (and perhaps skills?) to guess that I was pregnant. Not because my body was any different mind you.. I looked pretty much the same prepregnancy. Maybe due to my built and the fact I always loose clothes so any changes would go unnoticed anyway. But my mom seems to have a sixth sense about this. After I missed my first period, she asked if I was pregnant and when I said I wasn't sure (this is before hubby went out to buy the pregnancy kit!), she said Insya Allah, God's willing I would be. How true that was.. And when we went back to my husband's kampung(or not so kampung) in Singapore, his beloved grandma actually noticed that fact when other people did not. I tell you.. these people sure have a sixth sense about all this. I wonder if I would have the same instinct when it's my turn to wait for little grandchildren of my own.. hahah..

Pregnancy route month1

[June 2007]
Let me see.. Zahra was conceived somewhere in May 2007. I didn't know whether I was ready or not to have responsibility of being a mother but what I do know was I wanted a baby so much so learning how to do it would come second.. I might have been clueless about having a baby but if I can learn about anything else, this part would just be another challenge I had to take. I might have been ready to have another person in the house but hubby sure didn't! As usual he's being paranoid about how difficult it was to have a baby. He's been on and off agreeing to the idea of us starting a family in addition to us two. But he sure can keep track of my ovulation cycle. Since I have a pretty regular menstrual cycle, despite me taking it easy, he couldn't get over the fact that I was overdue by a week and after two weeks or so overdue period, he himself went to buy pregnancy test kit. I purposely tortured him further by waiting for another week before taking the test. Imagine his horror when it's positive! Hahahaha.. so Zahra, there you go.. a quick overview on the first few weeks of your life in mummy's tummy. Btw, Mama was still actively doing taekwondo and going to the gym for this first month.. but once I knew you're in Mama's tummy, of course I stopped going to taekwondo. There goes the green belt I worked hard for! But I couldn't take the chance of losing you with all those chopping and kicking and hard work out, could I?