Let’s Plan and work for a productive Living- December Month Goal

I really don’t like to be organised. In fact you can hear from my family that I am a lazy b(m)um! I don’t really plan things well but being a new mother I really can’t say I don’t plan ahead and work with the flow. Even when I was a lecturer I hated the lesson plan but to survive in the field I had to. And in fact my mom was proud then that I took that much effort. Then planning wasn’t my thing but the moment babyA came into our life I started planning everything as I didn’t want to miss anything to be done in her life which the Almighty had blessed me with. Starting from the breast-crawling till now everything goes as per my research and my plans. Only then I realized how a planned life gives a less chaotic life. Even now my home is messy but we do some productive work as planned the previous night al hamdulilah. From this month i have planned to write up my monthly goals so that i will be able to be a more productive mom for my sweet kiddo in shaa Allah

Being a first time mommy in a nuclear setup handling things all alone though with the support from my husband i felt planning would help me to reduce my stress. So when i plan my day the previous night i feel relaxed and our journey is smooth al hamdulilah. Even alizeh gets a structured input of what she is doing. You might ask whats there of being structured and unstructured at the age of 17 months? People do things based on their capacity and available resources and my motive is to reduce her screentime infact no screentime at all as much as possible. This can happen only when i plan and organize my tasks and complete them as per schedule so that i can concentrate more on her. Planning the schedule previous day helps me accomplish stuffs.

Take steps to be healthy and fit both physically and mentally. Being away from my family back in India and concentrating on babyA all alone myself, I really forget to concentrate on my health and my husband’s health. We both are growing sideways and we have realised we should stop the growth sideways. In shaa allah  will spend atleast 45 minutes for our fitness. In fact babyA and I go for a walk but its a jolly kind rather than an actual fitness walk where i can shed some of my pounds.

Build a strong relationship with the Almighty

I really want to build a strong relationship with the Almighty. In shaa allah my goal is to pray on time as per the ruling and pray with full concentration and be a role model for my daughter in being pure and pious. In shaa allah have plans to read Quran with meaning and read atleast one juz a day. This practice will give my family peace and happiness.

    Now your question will be how you will check if this is done regularly. I have placed a board in my kitchen and i do write my plan on the right hand side and follow if i am working based on my plan. Once the tasks are completed for the day I write them in my diary. In shaa allah will be getting a journal in a short span and will record on them regularly so i can work on it in the near future. This will help me when I am going to homeschool for my daughter in shaa Allah.

Have plans to write my monthly goals on my blog so that it will be productive and can look back to compare if i am going forward or not.

Please do encourage me and if you really wish you can join our journey too by sharing your plan for the month December ! Come let’s begin a well planned fun filled festive December package!

Welcome to the Monthly Goals Blog Hop! Do you plan your month ahead? Have you anything in particular that your looking forward to this month? Is there anything in your life that needs focus? Kids, family, self… what is your motivation?

This blog hop and link up is to help you make new friends and find a partner to stay accountable to. Every month, a group of us get together to write our monthly goals. This helps us stay connected, accountable as well as inspire other moms to know how we do it all.

This month the participating blogs are:

Jeddah Mom – Confident Parenting | Deliberate Motherhood 
Multicultural Motherhood
Alizeh My Soul

Advertisement

Does my baby need all the toys in the world??

It’s the month of November and we are going to complete 17 months soon in shaa Allah! Earlier Shopping was a difficult task as we will have to go to a shop research about the product and then analyse if we need them and then buy it but now the scenario is completely different. Sitting in front of a gadget shopping is just a click away ! With the social media mode ON we get lot of choices and we tend to forget if we have that particular product in our home and buy them again?? So this post is about people who z think our babies need to be given the best and buy stuffs without understanding if the child is interested in that particular product or not. In this era, parents feel that they shouldn’t compare and fall in the trap. If a particular mom sees a product even without analysing they get it for their kid.

I am just saying before buying stuffs for the kids please do think if it’s really needed? Not every single product in the market is necessary for our baby.

Before thinking about a product answer these simple questions

1. Is it just a toy? Does it have any value?

2. Is it age appropriate?

3.Is it for me or my child?

4. Is it relating to my child’s interest?

5. Do I have any stuff similar to this kind at home?

6. Will my child really understand the importance of money?

If the answer is satisfying then go for it else we will skip it.

For e.g. One of my friends got a magnatile for her kid from xyz vendor and she got the same product from the another vendor too. So here the product is replica. Is it really necessary for the kiddo?? I don’t think so it’s important. Let’s encourage mompreuners but within our limits too as we need loads of money for the future ventures.

With the Thanks giving offers going on I was tempted to get the indoor slide for my daughter. I even convinced my husband to make the payment as he strongly believes that I won’t spend money in useless stuff but before hitting the Pay NOW button I stopped and asked Is it a luxury one?? Yes it’s a Luxury stuff for sure. If we own the Slide at home then for sure going to park will be a question mark in the future! If we don’t go out how will she make friends? How will she  socialize? So made up our mind to not get it. If a ball pit, slide, swing, etc is accessible at home for them then when and how will they explore nature?

Being a mommy of a One year Old I really feel it’s not necessary to spend in toys. It’s with my experience. We got her rattles and rattles that’s it as that’s the main thing she would like in that age. Anything with music is what they like in that age. I invested in few books too as I  was brought up in that way.

Even too much of books is a kind of pressure i would say. Let kids be taken to the library and let them use the public library for usage of books.

Please don’t fall for the peer mommy pressure and get the stuff for your kid. Analyse and do a research if your kid will be happy with the particular product or learn with it.

A one year old will like to play with empty boxes, bottles, shoes, broom and dustpan than the costly stuffs you get for your kid. When they like to use them allow them so that they will be happy. If you feel it’s wrong use positive statements and chance the habit.

Experience and time is important for the kid than the money you spend on the product. More than indoors take them outdoors and let them enjoy the nature in their own way. Let them get dirty as it’s good. The West is researching and now says Attachment parenting is best, cosleeping is best, carrying the baby is best which our forefathers said years ago. So instead of following the Western culture let’s chin up with pride our own old traditional ways to  make the kids enjoy the nature and get them maximum joy with just minimal toys.

If you feel if I am right share the message happily!! Happy thanksgiving 

Colour Themed Sensory Basket

When babyA was around 5 months she had an urge to pull the stuffs around her. That is the phase where I felt to collect the stuffs she will be interested in and put it in one place like basket or a tub or box so that she can explore and I can get some ME time when she does that. So I started searching and found the treasure basket series from the imaginationtree and I really enjoyed collecting stuffs for her and even I do play at times; being a mommy I behave like a kiddo part 2.
So now I’m in the phase of introducing colours so I took up the Colour pink now.

The baskets can be done quick and it’s very simple to create with the stuffs we have around home. Not only with colours we can create the treasure basket to teach the shapes, texture, sizes, rhymes, stories, etc. Now let’s see what all We have collected in the Pink Basket

Pink Saturn ribbon
Hot box cover
Pink spoon
Plates
Baby high chair support
Teddy

Baby shoe

Blue Basket

Foam Letter 2

Cylinder shaped

Her playset cups

Saucepans

You can also use the coloured rice filled in a bottle.

It’s really fun to sit back and see how the kids explore depending on the age. They touch, feel and explore each and every stuff in the basket.  Their imagination grows based on how to work on this. They can take it out and put it back into the bin. They may even use the property without teaching them. They may even discover a new method to use them. They will chew too as that’s their routine. So with the basic basket the baby/toddler is getting an opportunity to learn the colour, explore the stuffs and knows about the methodology to use a particular product.

Did you like this? Please do let me know about your experience with the sensory bin if you had made earlier and if not make it and share your experience

ALIHUDA REVIEW- NETFLIX FOR MUSLIM MUNCHKINS- I MEAN IT

PEACE OF MIND FOR BOTH PARENTS AND KIDS

When babyA was born I was sure that she should have NO SCREEN TIME and with almighty’s grace I was able to stick to that rule till she reached 15 months but she wasn’t able to be free from screen time as she started looking at kids of her age watching videos – smiling, laughing and giggling around. Her curiosity and exploration behaviour in her wanted to know what’s going around. So she asked her papa to show his mobile and then she was stuck to Chuchu TV. I didn’t have issues as ChuchuTV shows rhymes and she is happy with it. But then I felt what if my kid happens to see age inappropriate content where the YOUTUBE shows at times. She can even see stuffs in the AD breaks and seriously I can’t be behind her during her screen time what she sees? I can do check her history though which I don’t think I’l have time and patience to see all the contents so to be free from these tensions I wanted to find out a space for being happy as well as enjoy our screen time too. So when I heard about ALI HUDA, Netflix for Muslim Kids I was sure I can give her screen time without me worrying about the content.

HOW TO WATCH THEM:

            The first few days I spent thinking on how am I going to have babyA watch as I don’t like to handover my phone or Tablet to her as she throws them at times to know how far does it go when she drops them from top or slides them down #Mommylife. After reading FAQs on their website I found out watching in TV with ROKU is possible and it made me happy, YAY!!. Now we are glued to it when we think about the screen time. So we are happy that we can watch it through an app, or online with their website, or TV. The best part is we can save it for later use too.

Learning with a Fun mode ON:

            Netflix is a space where all the age group starting from kids to adult to enjoy watch and have fun. Similar to  Netflix, ALI HUDA is a place where kids of all age can enjoy watching stuffs starting from learning shahada to memorising QURAN everything in a playful way. Everything happens in the form of stories, songs, nasheeds, cartoons, rhymes, crafts, etc. BabyA is 16 months old and she loves to watch ALIF & SOFIA’s TWINKLE TWINKLE SHAHADAH. Maa shaa allah her ears are sharp, when her dad or her mumma switches on the TV , if she gets to hear SOFIA, SOFIA- babyA runs from any part of the home to the living area. This is to say how the basic pillar of Islam, Shahadah for any ummah can be taught in a playful way. Quran 4 Kids is another show which both her mumma and babyA loves to watch. Brainy bunch, Misri bunch and Scrapbook Island are the other shows which we love to watch.

EASY TO NAVIGATE and Content Safe:

            The approximate time of an episode is around 1.5 to 3 minutes which is better is few ways. No ads and safe content for age appropriate so I don’t have to babysit the T.V in future too. After a few episodes it asks the viewer if we would like to continue watching them. So it gives us an alarm if we need to watch them or switch it off as we have crossed the time limit which is good for the parents to work on  limiting the screen time. This is how it works in TV, Iphone, android phone and Android Tab. Hope so it’s same in IPAD too.

It’s easy to navigate as they have grouped them into age-wise and also categorizes them into TV, ARABIC, QURAN, NASHEED, TRAVEL, CRAFTS etc. Even the elders are able to learn from this ALI HUDA. Many parents would like to learn Arabic as a language and they would like to concentrate on the Phonics part which can be learnt through this.

Does it Only Concentrate on Islam?

            They mainly concentrate on ISLAM and its core principles but basic stuffs needed for a child to know is also available like the ABC song and how to greet, how to speak, etc. The content is growing and it keeps evolving and they mainly concentrate on 4 conditions which parents requested during their pilot study -Quantity, Quality, No ads and affordable price.

Irrespective of ethnicity and practices, they have framed the teachings based on the core values of ISLAM which is accepted by all. Each family can speak up based on their experiences to their kids and this can be a conversation too. Even at this age I speak to my mom who is in India regarding the ALI HUDA.

How to sign up to Netflix:

            Users can sign up for a free trial for a week/7 days and then you will have to pay $7.95/Rs.514.40 for a month. You can even cancel it anytime you want but I don’t think a need will arise for sure.

You will get 50% off your 1^st month if you use “alizeh” i.e. $3.98/Rs.257.52/- for the first month.

So it works like this get the trial of 7 days and then use my code “alizeh” for the first month to be $3.98 and then $7.95 per month thereafter.

To sign up click here and scroll to the bottom to sign up for the trial and enter my code “ALIZEH”

Would you recommend this?

   I am really happy and I will recommend this for all for sure. This will work worldwide the same way. So even my Desimoms can go for it.

ALI HUDA can also be found on Social media

Facebook: www.facebook.com/alihudatv/

Instagram: www.instagram.com/alihudatv/

Twitter: www.twitter.com/alihudatv/

–

Discalimer: I was given a free trial of 1 month for purposes of writing this review. All opinions in this review is honest and we (babyA and I) really love this product. I wouldn’t recommend anything which we don’t like/love and don’t use. I may get a commission if you use my code to sign up for trial but it doesn’t cost you anything but only enables me to bring many contents which are useful for the society.

 

 

 

 

 

Help- I doubt if my baby is happy with Breastmilk!!

Many ladies assume they do have a low supply and switch to formula or cow’s milk without having an actual proof. When asked they say we don’t know why there is a low supply!

Many have a huge list why do they believe they  have a low supply and now we are going to answer them that their supply isn’t low with few facts

 

1.My baby is always hungry and cries

Babies breastfeed not only to fulfil their tiny stomach but also to get a bond with her/his mom; a sort of relaxation; warmth. Usually elders tend to forget what they did during their new mommy days and say her daughter or daughter-in-law that there is no milk supply and force them to believe their milk supply is less and move towards formula feed.

 

2. I used to leak and now I don’t

A mom who thinks/says like this is a person who doesn’t know about the anatomy and science of breastfeeding. It’s one of the miracles of almighty. It’s everything with the demand and supply. Once the body knows how much the baby needs it will regulate based on the needs of the baby. Being a mommy of 16 month old I haven’t leaked even a single time and it doesn’t mean my baby is underweight. Al hamdulilah and thanks to almighty for a healthy living.

 

3. My baby doesn’t wait till I try to offer

Usually parents associate crying to hunger. It’s not of that sort. There are many cues which babies give for what they are crying. They may cry for many reasons like having gas, being colic, sleepy, tired, there might be a growth spurt and so on!! So please do follow the cues and know the reason why they cry and attend based on that.

Credits: Thanks to

4. My baby stays awake all night

Night waking doesn’t only mean to hunger it might also be due to the growth spurt, teething, fever, rashes, cold or reverse cycling where the babies get confused between day and night and do the process opposite.

 

5. My breasts feel softer than earlier

Once the flow is regulated based on the baby’s need there will be a change in the size of the breast and it doesn’t have any relation to the milk supply.

 

These are few reasons to know that your milk supply isn’t really low. To know if your milk supply is low check for two stuffs which are important

 

1. Baby’s Weight

Only best measure is to check the weight of the baby.

 

2. Diaper output

We can figure out with the output based on how much the input is. A normal baby’s output will be 3 poops approximately and 5 to 6 wet diapers. And if the baby is active apart from the nap hours then your supply is perfect

 

3. Do check if there is a good latch and hear the swallowing/gulp sound.

 

4. Follow your instinct

 

If you really feel your supply is low please do visit the lactation consultant for further help