..ECHOES OF MY LIFE..

As I grow older, the more clearly I perceive the essence of being a woman… The winning beauty of motherhood.. the beauty of having a child to call on my own, that is I believe the realization of aside from having a supportive husband even if not that perfect, it is indeed a different feeling to have a child, came out from my being, and gave so much joy to the whole family.

     I will never forget how I felt during those moments when I gave birth to my first baby girl last September 8, 2007 and we named her HARUKA which means ‘light and kind”. Though I had a long labor and of course every mom will agree on me that it was painful indeed, all the hardships was vanished as the doctor gave my precious baby at my side.. I am now a proud mom to a 7 pounds beautiful creation and she completely filled my life with so much contentment that no one could ever replaced.

     Becoming a parent, especially the first time, is no easy endeavor. As much as you want parenting advice, you also need good ideas for nurturing your own grown-up relationships, dealing with sleep deprivations and any other thing concerning motherhood.

My precious Haruka is now 7 month old. My baby at this age turns towards sounds and voices; she at the same time recognizes her own name. She also plays with her both hand and feet and coos when I talked to her and started to jabber or combines syllables. She also loves turn-taking games, especially ones that involve sounds and language. I let my baby be the leader sometimes, and mimic her vocalizations. When it’s my turn to lead, a good way to teach — and amuse — my baby is to make animal noises ("quack-quack," "bow-wow").  One upside of these kinds of games is that they can be played anywhere. My baby will delight in the sounds of water splashing in the bathtub or blocks hitting the floor. I show my baby how to make these fun (if sometimes annoying) noises and then let her have a turn.

    One thing that disturbed me most was her sleeping habit that seems needs an expert help.  What I mean is that getting my baby sleep all through the night is the ultimate quest of every mom like me. It’s hard to be a good cheerful parent when you are awake up all night, right? Good thing, with the help of the internet through baby center I was able to battle my baby’s sleeping habits. It helped how to make my baby sleep calmly, peacefully and of course stress free. I learned that I should teach my baby Haruka to sleep in the crib of her own, that it is ok to sleep alone sometimes without being in my arms. I put my baby in her crib wide awake and put my hands on her chest until she falls into a deep sleep, only then I slowly broke physical contact into her and when she backfires I start the procedure all over again. Within 4 days my baby went down for naps without issue, and slept 9 consecutive hours on the 5th night. I also learned that its okay to leave my baby to cry, typically these approaches suggest putting my baby to bed when she’s still awake and allowing short periods of crying punctuated by comforting (but not picking her up).  Teaching my baby to soothe herself may involve leaving her alone to cry for prescribed periods of time. It takes a lot of patient and determination to overcome my baby’s sleeping problems but in the long run, she is able to adopt the routine. 

    At this stage I also introduce her to solid food as she gave me cue to move beyond liquid only nourishment. As I browsed the site on the internet I learned that showing the following signs would simply mean introducing her to solid foods. My baby begin eyeing my bowl of rice and even reaching for a forkful of pasta as it travels from my plate to my mouth. Haha, I love it seeing her doing those gestures!  She also doubled her birth weight and she seems hungry even with eight to ten feedings of formula a day. I started with a good rule of the thumb, the rice cereal which is gluten-free and less allergenic than other foods. First, I bottle feed my baby. Then I gave her one or two teaspoons of dry cereal mixed with enough formula to make a semi-liquid using a rubber-tipped spoon, to avoid injuring his gums. I am so happy seeing her eating the solids as it made me realize she’s now growing…

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    Time is indeed fast, same with the development of my baby.  Just  two weeks ago I observed that she was fond of eating his fist aggressively like is gums are bothering her , I was surprised then recently upon seeing two pairs of teeth on the lower part of her gums. Funny isn’t it seeing those cute little thing on her gums. I must be ready for the bite, for sure… ouch, good thing I’m not into breastfeed. Lol!

    Now I finally felt that the essence of my being is finally achieved.  One thing I know for sure, I am now a certified mother blessed with a beautiful baby girl.  That’s all about it, being a woman, is having a child and loving her unconditionally and will teach her to grow in a manly and Godly way…

This entry was posted on Thursday, April 24th, 2008 at 8:11 pm and is filed under MOTHERHOOD. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.