Being a mother...

Being a mother gives you a special feeling.. We have always been taken cared of or cajoled by someone all these days.. For the first time in your life, this little baby loves and needs all your care.. This is a very special mother's feeling and we pamper our baby.. It seems as though he is our utmost priority and everything else comes second. You enjoy their pranks and yes, to be true, sometimes it does make you frustrated. Especially when you are taking care of him alone. Sometimes, losing our patience we might even scold them. The wonderful thing to appreciate and learn from them is, they "forget everything"! Yes they forget that Mom scolded and smile at us the next moment and wants us to hold them. :) Children indeed are gifted to have this character. Infact, we humans have them innate.. its just that as we grow, we get transformed and slowly lose it. I am remembered of a famous Tamil song குழந்தையும் தெய்வமும் குணத்தால் ஒன்று (kulanthayum deivamum gunathal ondru) Yes, this is also the song which I sang in my childhood and got some prize. My mother always says that she spent so many days making me sing that song... As I told earlier children "forget everything" and I have forgot how much she struggled with me.. :) Ah, this makes me think why youngsters don't appreciate or respect their parents affection! May be they "forgot everything" that how they have been grown up by their parents.
Okie, let me not diverge from what I intended to write in this post..

I thought I could scribble some of my experiences that might be valuable inputs for someone..

• First thing I would say is don't ever practise your baby to fall asleep after drinking milk. It will be seriously difficult to make them sleep otherwise.. Most importantly they will not sleep in your absence and also refuse to take any other milk in the later months.. Give them milk sometime before they go to sleep and put them to sleep in someway that suits you both.
• You can eat some ayurvedic legiyam (paste) that helps promoting secretion of breast milk. The breast milk usually gets scant after 2 or 3 months.. so it is a good idea to start consuming it earlier.
• It is a good idea to give breast/formula milk or water to the babies from the initial days using bottles. This helps to inculcate the habit of drinking from bottles. Though you might think that it might not be needed initially, in the later months some babies refuse to drink from bottles. And, this is the mistake I did!
• It is a good practice to keep them on the floor most of the time and hold them only when they cry or want to.. Don't ever hold them because you like it or they love it.. Babies always loves to be carried on.. But this will hinder their development progress and also you will see from 9 months the techniques they use to make you carry..  It is very important that you keep them on the floor after 5 months for they start learning to turn around, roll, crawl, sit, stand etc..
• If you are planning to send your baby to daycare, then it is a good idea to know the habits they follow beforehand. Habits like using potty,  eating habit, drinking habit, sleeping habit etc. This would really help the babies to accustom themselves with the daycare easily.
• Once babies start taking solids, I am sure that all mothers like their babies to be fed by them. Also babies like the same way. But from my experience, I would strongly recommend that its a good idea to practice feeding solids and formula milk by other close ones like Father, or grannies.. It is in fact true that during initial days they resist to eat and in some cases eat less when they are fed by others, but the practice makes it slowly better. This really help in future, when you are planning to send your baby to daycare or you have to join office back or you could not feed them for some reason!
• After seeing children in the daycare, I would say the best habit that we inculcated to Barathraam is sleeping without dummies or pacifiers (tutti in Finnish). I felt bad when I saw a 2 year old needing a dummy to sleep. While babies innately like to taste their fingers, it was during 3-4 months they develop a strong tendency to suck the fingers. We gently diverted his attention from sucking and yes, its a bit difficult. He cried many times in the night and we pacified him somehow and yes, sometimes we did use the dummies (sometimes in the night and while he is inside pram). But not always. At the end of 5th month, his liking towards sucking gradually reduced. And, after that he never wanted a dummy. I know that each baby is different, but if you spend sometime you can bring up your child without using dummies.

I will keep updating this post with my latest experiences and things to share..
I am sure that you have something useful to share. Please do pour in your thoughts.