House update & Damia starting on solid food!

Yeszaa..our house is almost ready to be occupied. Today we had help from Sarah, an Indonesian lady with her friend to clean up the house. Oh we should take the “before” and “after” pictures but we didn’t bring our camera. Phone batteries were out, so nothing can be captured. The hall was full of stuffs we brought from Selayang and also groceries that we bought the night before. I think most of them are groceries and kitchen things. Tell you what, my hubby is very fond of the kitchen, it’s his favorite above all place in the house. As if he cooks! Haha. Well then, he told me there is no excuse not to cook now. Not that I dislike cooking, but mama cooks very well and I don’t want to ruin it. Aha, ok that’s what you call excuse.

Thrilled, once they are finished with the kitchen, we just can’t wait to put all the groceries and other things in place already. We are going to move in next week, InsyaAllah. I’m going with mixed feelings, excited to move to our own house (yeayy!) and can’t help feeling a little emotional leaving Ayah and Mama after living with them for…all my life J.

On another unrelated note, Damia is already on solid food now at 5 months old. I know I should wait until she’s 6 months but she has already shown signs that she’s ready for it. She stared at us eating and looked eagerly as if she wants a bite. She started on Farley-rusks mixed with breastmilk, then hubby bought few bottles of baby foods from Heinz. I am thinking of preparing the baby food myself, so I’m hunting for baby food recipes now. Please share with me if you have any good sites to refer to.

Something i found from the net-

Source : http://www.wholesomebabyfood.com/readyforsolids.htm

Here are a few "signs" that may indicate your baby is ready for Solid Foods:

1- Loss of tongue-thrust reflex - This allows baby to drink and swallow liquids with ease; with the tongue-thrust reflex still present, baby may simply drink in liquid purees or push the food back out. According to Dr. Jim Sears, in the first four months the tongue thrust reflex protects the infant against choking. When any unusual substance is placed on the tongue, it automatically protrudes outward rather than back. Between four and six months this reflex gradually diminishes, giving the glob of cereal a fighting chance of making it from the tongue to the tummy

2- Ability to let you know she is full from a "meal" with signs such as turning away from the bottle or breast. This is important so that baby is able to self-regulate the amount of food being eaten. This helps stop baby from accidentally overeating as parents may continue to feed baby thinking that she is still hungry.

3- Ability to sit up and hold head up unassisted

4- Interest in your food (we tend to disagree with this one as when a baby reaches the age of 4-6 months, he is interested in putting everything in his mouth.)

5- Doubling of birth weight

6- Frequently waking in the middle of the night when a solid sleeping pattern had been established. This may not be the best indicator that your baby is ready for solids. Please keep in mind that a growth spurt will occur between 3-4 months of age, 6-7 months of age and also 9-10 months of age. Baby may also be waking due to an illness or teething.

Raya Raya

I hope it is not too late to wish Selamat Hari Raya to my relatives and friends. Bet you can guys had a great weekend.

We celebrated Hari Raya at my hubby's side at Jitra/Jerlun, Kedah this year. It is baby mia's first hari raya celebration and we were really excited. Mak bought few clothes for mia so we didn't have to buy any raya clothes for her. Can't wait for next year when she can walk, i want to buy baju kurung that matches with me and hubby.

So i started packing on tuesday, 3 days before raya.Since we have a new member to the family we didn't want to leave anything behind especially baby stuffs. On wednesday night we started our journey at almost 12am. Mia slept all the way and woke up just in time for sahur.We reached Juru at about 4.30am and had our sahur at Subaidah- favourite mamak restaurant to stop by everytime we go back to Kedah. Amazingly we managed to catch up with mak and makcik Salina's family who went in separate cars and started off earlier than us.Can't remember what time we reached Jitra- maybe around 6-7 am. Hubby dozed off immediately.Hehe

We checked-in to Holiday Villa Hotel, Alor Setar in the afternoon as mia got cranky. Apparently she could not stand the heat. No surprise here i guess coz she's used to sleep in an air-conditioned room. Huhu. So she slept for several hours. We had to break fast with Mc D-GCB ( oOohh delicious) as we didn't want to go out and wake her. At night we went back to Jitra, continue with dinner and had little nice chat with the family on the eve of raya :)

Yeay, its finally raya the next day. Mia got her first collection of raya money from Wan, Ayu and makcik Salina. Mak Ngah came to the house too and mia collected rm50! yuhoo. Then we headed to Jerlun (arwah bapak's side) to visit Paksu's family. They were so excited to see mia who's already 5 months old. I think the last time i came i was 2-3 months pregnant.

On second hari raya, we just hung around at Wan's house and went to visit Mak Ngah's family at Kepala Batas in the afternoon. Didn't go to many places as mia needs her beauty sleep. Most of the time spent in the hotel though.

3rd day of hari raya we went back to Jerlun again, this time to visit Abg Ad's family which is hubby's cousin. Abg Ad just came back from JB. This time Teh is around too, with Mak teh heavily pregnant it seemed. She looked radiant and just glowing! Then Tam came shortly after. We went back at 2pm and off to KL.

Ops the journey doesn't end there. The road were so jammed packed with cars that we decided to drop by at Ipoh- Mak Anjang's house.The original plan was to head back straight to KL but hubby was too tired after driving for 7 hours. By the time we reached Ipoh, it was already 8.45pm, just imagine!

We finally reached KL at almost 1 am. Ayah was surprised to see us in the morning because we told him the night before that we were going to spend the night at Ipoh. Haha. Hubby decided to go back anyway after few hours of rest.

Looking forward to our next plan- we are going to move in to our own house in 2 weeks time! Watch our for the next entry. (^_^)

Damia @ 5 months old

What can mia do now?

-Makes a new sound when she's not happy.Kinda like shrieking and babbling at the same time.Wish i could record and upload it here. Does this when she lies down.Huhu-mummy cant hold you all the time dear, you are almost 7 kg now!

-Grips at things better nowadays, like toys and her pillow..and they go straight to her mouth

-Don't wear mittens anymore, so i've to remember to keep her nails trimmed or she'll scratch herself

-Always trying to roll over it seems but still failed. Baby dear, u might as well just skip to walking.

-She has strong legs now, likes to stand on her feet (while i hold her of course)

-Gets fussy when its time to sleep. Doesn't like the spring cot anymore, but needs mummy or daddy to swing her in my arms.Manja! (^_^)

Can't believe it's almost 6 months to exclusive breastfeeding.Then she'll start solid food at 6 months! Hope to be able to breastfeed her until she is 2 years old. I remember i had difficulties breastfeeding due to lack of info and knowledge.It's not something that comes naturally, its a learning process. Poor Mia i had to supply her with formula milk for the first 2 months because i thought i didn't have enough milk. Finally i learned that feeding as often as i could and pumping helps. The more demand, the more supply you have. I took some supplements to help such as alfalfa, soy protein and some vitamins from Shaklee. I'm glad that she's healthy and never had any fever so far. Thanks to dearest hubby for supporting all along, even surprised me with the best breastpump as a gift. You certainly rock my world! Hehe.