Syifaa at 5 months

My baby girl is 5 months already.... alhamdulillah her sleeping pattern has improved a lot although once in a while i still have to review the book again to check if im doing it alright.

Syifaa loves sucking her thumb now, i have been thinking if i should stop her from doing that but most online reading i did says that thumb sucking is good at this age as it is a sign that the child can calm herself and it is also not a major concern until the permanent teeth comes out.

So baby girl, ill let you suck your thumb and if the need arises we will put braces on your teeth : ).

Most Infants Self-Pacify

Most experts agree that a thumb-sucker younger than 5 shouldn't be pressured to stop. Most children will give up the habit on their own before they enter kindergarten.

"Thumb-sucking is an appropriate and useful behavior for very young children," says Linda Goldstein, MD, a Washington pediatrician. "It allows them to comfort and entertain themselves."

In fact, more than three-quarters of infants suck their thumbs or fingers through the first year of life. A child usually turns to the thumb when bored, tired, or upset. It is not uncommon to see a thumb-sucker simultaneously engage in other behaviors, such as twirling a strand of hair, holding onto an ear, or rubbing a blankie.

"Even when the habit lingers past infancy, thumb-sucking is rarely something to be concerned about. It doesn't indicate that a child has emotional problems or that he will still be sucking his finger when he's a teenager," says Sabine Hack, MD, assistant professor of psychiatry at New York University School of Medicine.

-taken from http://www.webmd.com/baby/features/breaking-thumb-sucking-habit

Milk Supply

When Syifaa was 3 months++ my milk supply went really low, that one night she was just unsatisfied so i took some EBM from the freezer but baby girl refuses the bottle i had at home which led me to plan B and called my sister for help. She brought different teats that she thought my baby would be ok with but still baby girl refuses milk form the bottle 

which in the end led us to plan C , since my  nephew who was 1yr 10mnth at that time was still being breastfeed, Syifaa had a share of the milk. she actually drank for a few minutes and had a good sleep

So i searched online and found out this website really helpful

http://kellymom.com/bf/got-milk/supply-worries/low-supply/

Now my supply has been good and i hope it stays that way till baby girl is 2yrs old. Basically what i did was :

1) Drank warm water about 3L a day

Minum air banyak akan increase milk supply tapi warm water, bukan room temperature tapi warm. Sebelum ni susu banyak so i ingat alah sehari dua tak minum banyak tak apa... but NO air memang sangat penting untuk banyakkan susu.

2) Drank warm milk and ate oats in the morning

Untuk yang tak allergic susu, minumlah susu and makan oats, it helped me. 

3) Frequent pumping

Sebelum ni ada pump sikit sebab tu ada stock EBM, lepas tu ingat tak payah lah sebab milk selalu ada. tapi pump tu sangat penting untuk tambah susu. The idea is i quote from kellymom.com is "To speed milk production and increase overall milk supply, the key is to remove more milk from the breast and to do this frequently, so that less milk accumulates in the breast between feedings"

lepas baby habis minum i would pump one breast, walaupun susu tak keluar tapi i pump additional 3-5 minutes. The key to remember is bila breast empty dia akan produce more milk. 

4) Eat dates 

I makan kurma, tak sure ini membantu tak tapi alhamdulillah milk increase. sampai sekarang i makan kurma selang sehari. 

5) Think positive, dont stress and have enough rest

Memang masa susu sikit stress sangat , rumah bersepah rehat tak cukup sebab baby girl susah nak tido masa tu. Jadi agak penat lah.

Syifaa's monthly update

So this monthly update is just for me to review and remember Syifaa.

3 months
she could already lift her head up and i got really excited ahahah, Syifaa on the other hand didn't show any excitement...oh well.. In general she is such an easy baby, she normally wakes up happy, smiling and she rarely cries and If she does cry the only possible reason could be that she has not been sleeping well.

Thats a picture of my baby girl on her first day of lifting her head up high : )

Milk supply went down sometime around 3 months++, ill write on another post on my milk supply next time.

4 months

Syifaa's weight is 7.6kg, she could turn and has been drinking a lot more now. Sleep wise she has been sleeping at 12midnight most of the time sometimes at 10 or 11 at night and will wake up at 10 in the morning, roughly  In between she has about 2 feedings. In total daily she gets about 14 hours of sleep which is not enough for her age.

Her nap time varies, sometimes its just 20 minutes sometimes its 2 hours

At 4 months she should be getting around 15 hours, so im working on a sleep routine for her and i really do hope it works. My friend suggested a book and ill write a review of the book next time when this sleep issue has resolved.