Her Routine

Baby Hana’s day is pretty much a routine these days. I know this might change anytime, especially during the growth spurts, but, at least for now, it’s more or less predictable. Just don’t interrupt her nap times, then she’ll be a little cranky. (I can see The Hubby smiling and say “sounds like someone I know…” :-p ).

02:30 Midnight Snack
02:45 Continue sleeping
04:30 Morning Feed
04:45 Continue sleeping
07:30 Breakfast
08:00 Bath
09:00 Morning nap
10:30 Snack time
10:45 Sleep
13:00 Lunch, change clothes
14:30 Afternoon nap
15:30 Snack time
16:00 Sleep
18:00 Dinner, bath
19:30 Nap
20:30 Supper
10:00 Sleep

Normally this schedule will have variations of 30 minutes to an hour. Baby Hana dictates it herself. And I accommodate her as long as her sleeping time at night is between 10pm to 11pm. If she sleeps at 11pm, she will skip the midnight snack at 2:30am. Even is she wakes up, it’s usually less than 5 minutes, feed a little and she just go back to sleep. She’ll continue sleeping even when I’m changing her diapers. :-)

I breastfeed her for breakfast, and sometimes after her bath where she just falls asleep. When I come back in the evening, that will be around 7pm I will usually breastfeed her before her nap. Night time is breastfeeding session all the way. She only takes EBM* from my mother. She will reject any attempt from me. I only managed to gave her EBM once, and that I believe was because she was too sleepy, too hungry to argue! Ha ha ha… She feeds about 3oz to 4oz during major feeds and 1oz to 2oz during snack time.

I normally express twice at work, and bring back around 8oz to 10oz everyday. Morning expression yields around 8oz to 10oz. Therefore, there is always about 16oz to 18oz at home. And I really belief that a mother produce what her child needs for a day. Because, regardless how much I bring back, it’s usually enough for Baby Hana for the day. My frozen stock, they are still frozen. She rejects thawed EBM and only take it when she’s really hungry. I do not plan to go outstation until she’s six months old. So, I belief we will be okay with the current arrangement. :-)

I plan to breastfeed her as long as I’m able to until she’s two years old. The Hubby pretty much let me decide on this, as he says it’s up to me. You can tell from this post that I’m an advocate of breastfeeding. As long as a woman is able to do it (special condition is exceptional), I belief she should. I know mothers who really love breastfeeding their children, but had to stop early either because the milk stop flowing or because of medical condition. I’m sure there is hikmah for everything, so must belief He knows what’s best for us. Don’t be sad.

Someone asked me how to increase milk production because hers is dwindling, and her child is younger than my daughter. I don’t do any special extra thing, I just make sure I drink a lot during the day, and drink milk (when I remember!), and watch what I’m eating. InsyaAllah.

* EBM – Expressed Breast Milk