I haven't been writing for so long on this blog, now that my daughter turns 1 year old today I feel obliged to do so.
First and foremost my greatest thanks goes to no other but Allah for granting me Wan Maryam Sophia, a wonderful addition to my life. She has become one of the reasons for me to become a better person, she is the one I very much look forward to cuddle and kiss that being at my workplace away from her feels like a forever torture. Not to forget endless thanks to Allah for giving me the chance to exclusively breastfeed my daughter so far up to her 1 year of age. InsyaAllah I shall continue in doing this at my best as long a time as I can.
Secondly I thank my husband for having been by my side for the past one year in our struggle to provide the best for our beloved daughter. Thank you for all your sacrifice and patience I feel so grateful having you as my better half.
I don't mean to brag but I just want to express my feelings and what I see in my child, in which you might also see in yours, in fact you might have seen better than what I am going to mention.
Allah has protected Maryam with good health. She was born at an astounding weight of 3.55kg, developed breastfeeding jaundice for about 10 days which did not require admission to the hospital or phototherapy. Alhamdulillah. She hardly falls sick, which I believe is largely reasoned by the fact that she is fully breastfed. So far she has developed just one period of URTI symptoms with blocked and runny nose, lasting for about a week. She tolerated vaccinations very well in which she sometimes developed fever post-vaccinations and sometimes she didn't. It just happened once that she got 2 furuncles on her scalp which fortunately disappeared on their own after oral antibiotics were given. Maryam never gets constipation alhamdulillah.
Allah has granted Maryam the ability and keenness to talk. She was so young when she started to produce sounds and she can now confidently shout and make noise. She has great sense of hearing she can repeat sounds that we make. I have a gut feeling that she is really going to be able to produce sensible and understandable speech anytime soon. She also has lots of facial expressions and is very good at making gestures with her lips and mouth, which often tickles our hearts with joy. She is so adorable she begins to shake her body and bend her knees when standing whenever she hears songs she likes. She points to things with her index finger, she waves bye bye and the thing that melts my heart so much is that when I laid down her praying mat or when she sees me performing sujood or rukuk, she begins to imitate them. Alhamdulillah.
Allah has given Maryam the ability to walk and run. At the outset she started mobilising herself by reverse-crawling for quite some time before she learnt to crawl forward. It didn't take long before she gained confidence to bear weight on just her legs. About 3 weeks ago she started to be able to walk independently and has shown inclination to mobilise by walking rather than by crawling.
Maryam loves to eat fruits. And she eats vegetables too. I prepare a few types of food for her to have everyday by freezing them in small cups. I prepare them on my free day. She enjoys them all, and interesting enough this bright lady wouldn't fancy other food once she is full with the main meal, no matter how hard you try to feed her.
Above all I thank Allah for this wonderful gift I pray that she will become a great muslimah for Islam.
Wan Maryam Sophia, Ummi loves you so so much.
