delayed wordless wednesday 3

I know its thursday and I have been neglecting my blog, for which I feel really bad, but since I missed wordless wednesday I decided to post a pic today anyway.

Hey, how'd that cupboard get there?

I have been neglecting my blog for a few days now because I have been very very busy... enjoying the sun and sea in Cape Town. I am definately not complaining but all this baljaring can be very tiring. The other day we spent the whole day at the beach and you know when you return it's bath the kids, bath yourself, wet clothes in the wash, etc., etc. By the time I got into bed at 12 I was zonked! But So when Sumayah woke up at 2.30am I was less than pleased! In the pitch dark room I tried to settle her, with no idea what the time was only knowing that I felt like I had only slept 5 mimutes. Patting and shushing didn't help so I picked her up and proceeded to pace up and down with her hoping that this would lull her back to sleep. I am not totally certain how it happened, but the next thing I knew I just heard a bang and Sumayah crying! Somehow in my sleepy state I managed to close my eyes while pacing the room and walked slap bang into the cupboard... Sumayah and all! The poor child must have knocked her head lekker hard because she was crying so bitterly and I felt terrible! So I whipped out the dairies and all was forgiven... aah the beauty of breastfeeding. but the lesson to be learned - don't pace the room when you are half asleep!

Wordless Wednesday 2

Sleep, Oh Sleep! Wherefore art thou sleep?!

It's amazing how little sleep one can actually operate on. For the past 2 weeks Sumayah has been acting like a little insomniac. I don't know if its because she's teething, is she hungry, does she have cramps, bad dreams? What? I guess with parenting it's like you the parent are a scientist and the baby is the experiment of cause and effect. You have to experiment by trial and error on the little kid to figure out what the bloody hell is making her wake every hour in the night.

Just when Sumayah established a nice little textbook 'Baby Sense' routine of sleeping after her last feed at around 8 till about 4 am sometimes even 5 am for a feed... suddenly the 'witching hour' as I like to call it enters our lives. It started with her always crying in her sleep at 3 am, only settling with a feed. Whether I last fed her at 8 pm or 12, she always cried out at 3 am! Ok I could deal with that, but then all hell broke loose. Suddenly she only managed to sleep about an hour when the restlessness kicked in. She would cry in her sleep about every 15 to 30 minutes right up unitl the wretched witching hour - 3 am. Except she no longer just wanted to be fed, she now wants to be wide awake and playing - not on her own in her cot of course!So I find myself lying awake in bed at 3 am  with the little munchkin playing with my face and hair and trying to chew my chin. No amount of rocking or patting will get her to settle into sleep mode until about 4 am when some magical switch in her brain decides 'ok time to get some sleep'. This is when I finally get about 3 hours of shut eye, till she wakes at about 7 am.

I have tried panado, homeopathic drops, buscopan, teejel, telement drops... any other suggestions? There are some nights when something works and she has an OK night, but I try to repeat everything the same and lo and behold the result is not the same! If it is because she's teething,I really hope they break through soon! Bilaal's teeth all took very long to break through. Each tooth took about a month to come out! And come to think about it he was also a very poor sleeper at this age.

Well here's to hoping things will improve soon...

Wordless Wednesday

Smart Alec!

Bilaal can be a real smart alec sometimes, even if he doesn't mean to be. Last night Yaasier and Bilaal were looking through this amazing book of photographs of images taken around the world. They came across a picture of camels and their race jockeys resting after a race in Qatar. Bilaal asked his dad what the picture was about and Yaasier replied, "These men race with the camels". To which Bilaal responded, "but obviously the camels are gonna win!"
Yaasier laughed and said, "No man, the men ride the camels and race each other." And little smart alec said, "Then you had to say the men race ON the camels, daddy" 

What's in a name?

Friends of ours have just had a baby and we are so proud that they have decided to name their son Bilaal. But it got me thinking about names and how choosing one is the very first responsibilty we have as parents. People choose names for different reasons, some choose names that are fashionable or sound 'cool', others choose names in honour of someone or something significant to them like a relative or religion. And of course for many the meaning of a name is very important. Whatever your reasons, we all want to make sure the name will not cause your child any grief when they are older. For example if your surname is Bush you probably don't want to name your son Thorn or even Harry. Or let's take the name Dick or names shortened to that... on its own it already has potential for a little laugh but it is particularly ill-advised if your surname is Burns... or Hertz... or Small... or Little... you get the picture. Then of course you also have to consider we use our initials alot as adults so always test this out with your surname too. Like say if my husband had been a descendent of the Balls family, his initials would be M.Y Balls.

But seriously now, I think it really it a personal choice how much significance you place on name choice, after all as I think it was Shakespear's Juliet says, "would a rose not be a rose if by any other name called?" At least i think that's how it goes.

Personally, we opted for strong names from our religious history. Wherever you come across a mosque you will hear the call to prayer 5 times a day. Bilaal was on of the first muslims and the first person to make this call to prayer. He was the son of an African slave and a close companion of the Prophet. Bilaal means 'freshness' and 'moisture', and guess what, just after he was born, the sunny day gave way to the freshest light rain. Sumayah was also one of the first muslims and she was also the first martyr in Islam. She was the mother of Ammaar ibn Yaasier. I didn't know this when we named her, but it is significant because my husband's name is Yaasier! There are different beliefs about the meaning of her name; I have come across 'beautiful flower' and 'pure', but the most common meaning in most of the arabic name books is 'exalted' or 'high'.

So while they may still have been the same children had they had other names, I can only pray that they grow up to have the same strength of character and faith and belief as their namesakes. All I know is that Bilaal certainly brings freshness into my life and Sumayah will always be my beautiful pure flower...

Driving Backwards

Yaasier got us this really cool digital photo frame. so last night we were sifting through our photos choosing the ones we want to load for display. Then we came across this hilarious video clip taken in December 2008 when we were in CT on holiday. Its really short, but had agood chuckle I just had to share it. We couldn't believe our eyes when we saw this guy actually driving in reverse as though it was the most normal thing in the world to do... I ran out of space on the camera, but he actually continued to the traffic light, stopped like a law abiding citizen, then proceeded to turn into the next road when the light turned green. now bear in mind this road has speed bumps, but did this deter our stunt driver... of course not! i don't know where he was going but he continued this way for a long time until our route took us away from his. I wish I had all of it on camera, but this is all I have...

Good News Bad News

I am happy to report that Bilaal is no longer hurling vomit and has regained his usually ferocious apetite. As expected, it got worse before it got better, but when morning broke, so did his fever. He still didn't have much apetite, but he didn't dehydrate and I'm so glad he didn't develop diarrhea! In my last post I was on a guilt rant, but all you mothers out there, when it comes to our kids most of the time we really do know what's best. Trust your instincts, obey your thirst, Sprite! Anyway, so that's the good news.

The bad news is that today, 2 days later, Sumayah has started vomiting. This morning I heard her vomitting while in her cot, but she didn't cry or anything and up till now she hasn't developed a fever. In fact aside from the vomiting and what appears to be cramps after a feed, she seems pretty much her usual vrolike self. So I've got her sleeping on her changing mat in the cot in case she vomits in her sleep.

But, I'm a glass-half-full kinda gal... so you may be thinking where on earth do I see the bright side in the situation? Well look at it his way, it was inevitable that Sumayah would get the bug, but luckily for me she gave me a space to recover from Bilaal being sick, just long enough to to travel back to jhb, unpack and settle back home with 4 loads of washing. It could've been worse, they could've both had the bug at the same time, plus I coulda had it too! Always look on the bright side of life tada ta da...

Always be my baby...

My poor boy is really ill. Its been a long time he's been this ill and it breaks my heart. I always try not to show too much worry or fuss too much while at the same time giving extra tlc... a very delicate balance... just because I believe children pick up on their parents' anxieties and that does not send out good vibes for getting better. So anyway the truth of the matter is that as brave a face I put on, I am so worried about my baby. He may be turning 5 in just 2 months time and no longer my baby... but he will ALWAYS be my baby!

But it is so hard having a little Sumayah to care for as well. Like this afternoon I was breastfeeding Sumayah and Bilaal wanted me to hold him but I couldn't cos I had to finish with the feeding first. He started off this morning only vomiting but still acting his normal self and no fever. He couldnt even hold down plain water. So I went to the pharmacy and was told there's a tummy bug going around. I was given Nauzene and told he should be given fluids regularly and no diary. So anyway I gave him the medicine and some water, he vomited again, but worst still he started to develop a fever. So I gave him Panado. By now he started to get lethargic and slept for most of the day. So now the vomiting has stopped, he can hold down fluids but he still has a fever and is very lethargic. Now its night time so i will have to wait till morning to take him to the dr, but I am so worried and feel guilty that I didnt take him to the dr in the first place. Thing is if i had taken him this afternoon we would've sat there waiting and i just wanted to give him something for the nausea and he didn's have a fever. But hindsight is the best foresight and now i feel soo terribly guilty for not just taking him!

Plus not being home and having hubby is not good. It great to have in-laws support here, but now because Sumayah sleeping in the bed with me and Bilaal is in the other room with my sister-in-law, so I feel kinda helpless. I want him here with me where i can watch him and care for him. I probably won't sleep much and check on him every 15 mins.... this is so horrible! I really hope he will be better in the morning. Plus we supposed to fly back to jhb tomorrow nite. What do I do if he's not better by then. Can he fly? Is he contagious? Guess I will have to wait to get to the dr tomorrow and see!