Your Baby the Babbler
By six months your baby sees and hears the world almost as well as you do. His communication skills are expanding rapidly, too, including squeals, bubbling sounds, operatic octave changes, and babbling. At this age, about half of all babies babble, repeating one syllable – such as “ba,” “ma,” “ga,” or other consonant-vowel combinations – over and over. A few will even add another syllable or two, making their sounds more complex. You can encourage your baby by babbling right back at him and by making a game of it (“The sheep says, ‘baaa,’” or “The goat says, ‘maaa,’” and so on), or by listening as if you understand everything he says and find it extremely interesting.
- from babycentre.com

I do find his babbles extremely interesting! Umar will turn 6 months in 2 weeks time.. and we are starting to hear the first of his babbles! Its alot of fun layan-ing him now. Yesterday he was so chatty I decided to take a video of him babbling… but he got distracted by the expressed milk by my bed and started making pitiful faces. Even though he has just been fed!

Before my mommy friends drop envious comments about those generous two bottles of EBM sitting on my bedside table, I better explain that those are a result of not having time to express at work. I came home with terrible bodyaches from being too full. For new breastfeeding moms, please don’t get the impression that going longer without expressing is better cos you get more from one session. Its actually bad for your milk supply… you will see a big drop the next day. To maximise your total milk output for the day, you need to “empty” the breasts as often as possible. Its easier said than done. Sigh.. oh well. We can only try! And leave the rest to Allah the Provider…

I had a supply crisis last week and almost had to introduce Umar to formula milk when I was away in KL for work, but alhamdulillah he seemed to know Ibu was coming home and he drank less than usual the day I was due back. Its my fault… I’ve been slacking on expressing actually (eg I no longer express before going to sleep) and so my frozen supplies are dwindling. I need to buck up cos there will be a few more trips coming in Aug and Sept. I’ve gotten a little better at expressing on-the-road and bringing back home the milk now. I’ve found new expressing locations (disabled bathrooms and diaper changing rooms usually have powerpoints), and better ways to pack the milk so that it stays cool where a fridge is unavailable like when I go for all day meeting and have to bring my luggage with me to catch my flight immediately after. I bring small ziplock bags that I can fill with ice from the hotel, and I pack these with the freezable ice pack. I’m thinking of buying one of those small coolers.. haven’t gotten around to doing that.

Oh well, like I said, at the end of the day, He Provides, and He Protects. Still taking it one month at a time.. looking forward to our 6 month total-breastfeeding anniversary!