Giving my Breastfed Baby Formula...

I should have just named this blog entry- LOL! I really thought I was going to give my 13 month old formula after being strictly breastfed since birth! HA! This experiment went totally wrong. You might be asking Why? Why now? The move actually came from the desperation to get caught up on my schoolwork.

I always hear about how formula fed babies sleep soundly through the night from an early age. I read on askdrsears.com that phenomena is due to the hard to digest milk curdles that form in the babies stomach. I am a stay-at-home mom, who co-sleeps with her baby, so I was never pressed to have bay Ruki sleep all the way through the night... until now.

Ruki is at a stage in her life were she is chronically teething and suffers from extreme nighttime hunger and separation anxiety! She nurses off and on the entire night, usually without fully awaking. However, if I try to sneak downstairs to get some housework or schoolwork done, and she rolls over to nurse, she awakens and wails until I return.

So basically, tonight I was at wits end and opened a free sample Enfamil sent me in the mail. First I put the strange white mixture in a bottle. The bottle entertained her for about 20 minutes- she chewed on the nipple, then she found out that if she jerked the bottle violently, the white liquid would shoot out in spurts. Then it just made her angry, so she hurled the undrinken bottle through the baby gate into the kitchen and started to cry.

Relentless in my efforts, I transferred the formula into her sippy cup. Well, this just made her plain MAD! She threw the cup down after one sip with disgust and anguish written all over her face. I insulted her intelligence. I insulted her gourmet taste. She will not be fooled!

So I sat on the couch and breastfed my little angel to sleep and instead of getting right to my schoolwork, I am blogging about my little princess.

So I'm Starting School...

So I'm starting school tomorrow, and I feel... anxious. I'm really excited, but at the same time, I am unsure that I have the capacity to do well in two Internet classes, because I was always the type that benefited from hands-on education. Taking on Internet classes, along with my other full time job (you know, the Mommy stuff) is just slightly daunting.

God has been really great to me, because he has shown me many great examples of stay-at-home mothers who also go to school. Some of them have outside help, like in-laws or parents or other relatives that help them with the children. I do not have these wonderful people in my locale as of right now.

However, I told myself I would stop finding excuses not to go, and just take the semester on like a charging bull. I recognise that it is a major blessing from Allah to be in a position where I can attend school in the first place.

I took two classes while I was pregnant, and had been looking forward to going back ever since. I declared my major: Journalism. I thought about World Affairs and Creative Writing majors also, but I think I need to just have faith in my abilities as a journalist since that is what lites my flame.

Pray for Me!!

Phenomenal Woman

This poem written and narrated by none other than famed poet Maya Angelou is dedicated to all the beautiful sisters holding down families, households, careers, or maybe just themselves. I just wanted to let you all know that you ARE intelligent and beautiful and worthy of being loved and appreciated. YOU ARE PHENOMENAL!

Phenomenal Womanby Maya Angelou

Pretty women wonder where my secret lies.
I’m not cute or built to suit a fashion model’s size
But when I start to tell them,
They think I’m telling lies.
I say,
It’s in the reach of my arms,
The span of my hips,
The stride of my step,
The curl of my lips.
I’m a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That’s me.


I walk into a room
Just as cool as you please,
And to a man,
The fellows stand or
Fall down on their knees.
Then they swarm around me,
A hive of honey bees.
I say,
It’s the fire in my eyes,
And the flash of my teeth,
The swing in my waist,
And the joy in my feet.
I’m a woman
Phenomenally.


Phenomenal woman,
That’s me.


Men themselves have wondered
What they see in me.
They try so much
But they can’t touch
My inner mystery.
When I try to show them,
They say they still can’t see.
I say,
It’s in the arch of my back,
The sun of my smile,
The ride of my breasts,
The grace of my style.
I’m a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That’s me.


Now you understand
Just why my head’s not bowed.
I don’t shout or jump about
Or have to talk real loud.
When you see me passing,
It ought to make you proud.
I say,
It’s in the click of my heels,
The bend of my hair,
the palm of my hand,
The need for my care.
’Cause I’m a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That’s me.

Maya Angelou, “Phenomenal Woman” from And Still I Rise. Copyright © 1978 by Maya Angelou.

Source: The Complete Collected Poems of Maya Angelou (Random House, Inc., 1994)

Nights and Weekends

Stay-at-home Mom, Housewife, Homemaker; taking on the responsibilities of the children and household: FULL TIME.

That's right, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. As much as I had heard that being a stay-at-home mom would be a full time job, I always thought of full time as most Americans do- 40 hours a week. Anything else would clearly be considered overtime.

What if this gig was a traditional 40 hour a week, Monday thru Friday occupation? No late night nursings- No babies in the bed at all for that matter. No 5am or 6am wake-up cries. No washing the dishes or doing laundry in the middle of the night because there just wasn't enough time during the day.

Breakfast would have to be at 9:15, because I wouldn't get to work until 9 am. Dinner would be prepared and served by 4 pm, so I can clean up and clock out by 5 pm.

Well, we can all dream can't we?

I am so fortunate to be at home with my little one, and I wouldn't have it any other way. Sure in a perfect world I'd have maid service at my disposal so I wouldn't have to sweat the small stuff. However, in this imperfect world, I have a perfect little angel who will be 1 soon and a great husband who puts a roof over our heads and food in our bellies. So I ask myself, what could be more perfect than that?

Baby, Ramadan, and Epiphany

Well, well, well, look who decided to blog! After a long hiatus I have come to the conclusion that I need to blog. This is my outlet. My writing is my salvation. Far before "blogging" was the craze, I had wrote poetry and journals. This is what I do.

Ramadan. Ramadan was great. I did not fast because I am nursing and am exempt. However Muslims who do not fast are obligated to feed a person for ever fast day missed. I kept pretty busy preparing meals for my family and the fasters at the Masjid (but mostly for my husband, who of course does not count in my 30 feedings. I was just attempting to be a good wife.) Lots of studying and no TV for the most part was beneficial. Ramadan is a time of worship, reflection, and repentance for over 1 billion Muslims around the world.

Baby. Ruki would be the main reason I have not blogged in three months. She has become so demanding. I found myself down at times during Ramadan because while my husband was studying, I was just trying to catch up with our daughter, whether it was a feeding, a mouth inspection (she eats everything!) or just trying to entertain the little monster. In Ramadans past, I would usually go to the park and stay for hours just reading the Quran or some type of educational literature. Now I can barely put aside the time to pray, much less read.

Epiphany. One day at masjid when everyone was praying and I was nursing my Ruki in the back, I realized that I had missed the point. I looked at my wonderful daughter and realized that she is my little blessing and taking care of her will increase my faith, not diminish it. Before doing many day to day things, Muslims say a short prayer, "In the name of Allah, Most merciful, Most Beneficent." I learned that God is a loving and forgiving God.

The Prophet Muhammad said, "Paradise lies at the feet of the mother". With this, I understand that being a mother is a great responsibility and privilege that is not bestowed upon every woman. Now I must go because my eight month old is screaming and crying to get out her high chair!

Thank God for Wall-to-Wall Carpet!

My baby Ruki is on the move! That's right, she is crawling and tumbling and bouncing off the ground every other second. This is why I say "Thank God for wall-to-wall carpet!" My little baby is tumbling all over the place and she just gets up and keeps on trucking! We recently visited a friend's home, and she also had carpeting, but it wasn't nearly as thick as ours and I - not thinking - put my 6 month old baby down to play and do I regret it! She tumbled over and hit her big ole' head on that hard carpet, then wailed and wailed until I nursed her back to normal. (Funny how nursing is the cure-all for everything!) I'm pretty sure she was more shocked at the hardness of the carpet, rather than hurt, but I'm sure blessed to be able to put her down to play at my own home without constantly surrounding her with pillows!

Jenny McCarthy shuts down Amanda Pete!

Jenny McCarthy was witty, yet poignant when she snapped back at comments made by fellow actress, Amanda Pete. McCarthy, 35, is the mother of a child diagnosed with autism. She told Spectrum magazine, “(Peet) has a lot of [nerve] to come forward and be on that side, because there is an angry mob on my side, and I like the fact that I can say she’s completely wrong.” She added, “I look at (Peet) now and say to myself, ‘That was me before I had autism in my life,’ and until she walks in our shoes, she really has no idea.”

She was referring to comments Pete made urging all parents to get the required number of vaccinations mandated by the Board of Pediatrics. However, there has been growing concern about certain vaccinations having a possible connection to autism, a complex developmental disorder.

On McCarthy's website, www.generationrescue.org, researchers attempt to approach the ongoing mystery of the possible connection between autism and childhood vaccinations. The Generation Rescue website states, "The United States has the highest number of mandated vaccines for children under 5 in the world (36,double the Western world average of 18), the highest autism rate in the world (1 in 150 children, 10 times or more the rate of some other Western countries), but only places 34th in the world for its children under 5 mortality rate. What’s going on?"

Jenny McCarthy has since apologized for her comments targeting Amanda Pete, but her and husband, Jim Carey represent a growing number of parents that are questioning the strenuous vaccination schedule that is prescribed for all American infants and children. The fact is that there are a lot of American children suffering of autism- a disease that seemed to pop up overnight- and parents want answers! The question is- who can they trust? Many parents just want a straight answer and a cure.