3 Months Today

This is Sofea @ 3 months old.. sigh, how time flies! She was once a little precious baby.. look at her now! So chubby and healthy. All thanks to dear Allah for providing her with the best food and nutrition in the world... mommy's milk!

Talking about breastfeeding... aah this is one totally new experience full of ups and downs. Im planing to exclusively breastfeed for 6 months afterwhich will try to continue till she's 1.5 years, InsyaAllah. But sometimes i feel so down and discouraged coz there's no support except for Wan. Wan is the only one who has been encouraging and even installs curtains in his car so that i could have some privacy to breastfeed. in other people's eyes however, they see breastfeeding as something SO troublesome and in my mother's opinion im not giving enuf nutrition to the baby.

Like come on! Do you think i would starve my own child?? In fact, there are 100 more nutrients in breastmilk than formula milk. And the facts are all laid out there. They are less prone to illnesses and even if they do they recover very fast. They are smarter kids and most importantly they develop a close relationship with moms which sadly I dun get to experience. 6 months breastfeeding can prevent illnesses like cold, ear infections, allergies etc. A year breastfeeding can prevent likelihood of diabetes, obesity, luekemia and cancer for the mom.. which unfortunately are in my family genetics. And being a formula fed baby, I fall sick VERY easily and takes a LONG time to recover. It gets on my nerve when I fall sick at the slightest change in weather or when i stand near a sick person. Yes, I'm THAT weak. So yeah, if breastmilk is proven (i even interviewed a couple of old time breastfed mommies) good I'll go thru all the trouble of providing it for her. Even islam encourages breastfeeing for up to 2 years. And in Islam the status of a nursing mother is so great that should she die while nursing during the 2 year period, she'll die a martyr (mati shahid). But more importantly I enjoy breastfeeding and so does Sofea. She looks so satisfied and at ease during nursing. Then she will stare me in the eyes and smile and chuckle as if to say she loves me and knows she's being loved :)

Anyway look at Sofea now. She's of healthy weight range (5.5kg now) and look so round and chubby compared to her formula fed cousins. She's one tough kid. I've fallen sick numerous times while nursing her but she had only caught the bug 2x. The 1st time took her a week to recover, the 2nd one only took 2 days. I believe her immune system is still building up and getting stronger by the day.

Anyway it gets on my nerves when mom kept saying i should start sofea on formula EVERYTIME we meet. URGH!!! MIL is another case. She asked me SEVERAL times who would look after SOfea when i go back to work.. seriously?? Do u think i'm going to leave my baby home alone when i go to work?? I'm planning to work from home tho still pending confirmation from my boss. Don't want to be a weekend mom and miss all Sofea's firsts.

Speaking of which..
- just a few days we brought her home from hospital, she could lift her head but she can't control so kept headbutting my chest
- slightly over a month she could respond and smile when i talk to her
- by the time she's 2 months she could chuckle when we talk to her and oh, she loves mirrors esp the ones behind our sofa. So whenever we stand her up on our chest, she would staightened her legs and walked up towards the mirrors.. like not left, left. But a left, right, left right steps!
- by 9 weeks, she "talked" back to us with all these cute little sounds coming out from her mouth! And her eyesight suddenly improves so we've been putting her in the playgym and she'd wander away staring at the toys for a good 30 mins. No more I-WANT-Mommy screams every 10 mins. And she also loves the tv (very bad!) She would concentrate and looked as if she could understnad what's going on! At this time too, she discovered her hands. We took off her mittens and she kept staring at her hands with much curiousity and confusion! haha so cute.
- by 2.5 months, we took Sofea on her 1st holiday to KL and Cherating with my brother and his wife. And by this time, she finally managed to put her fingers in her mouth. Finger licking good! Ouh and not forgetting she could laugh.. like a real laugh with her head thrown back and all!
- JUST 1 day before Soefa turned 3 months, she could flip to her side all on her own, bravo!