Yummy Hands

Kareem has recently discovered his hands. He spends much time playing with them, crossing his fingers, unintentionally grasp anything that comes close to them, and the worst part is that he puts them in his mouth and start sucking them! No matter how I try to keep his hands away from his mouth, he puts them back!
He still doesn't know of course that they're part of his body and that he can hold things with them, but he finds them amusing, a new thing to discover and play with.

For the first time in history

Kareem slept six consecutive hours, and so did I!
WOOHOOOO

قده قد الفارة

كريم صوته عالي على ما يبدو، مش عارفة لمين طالع!! بس مؤخرا اكتشفنا انو لما يبكي أو يصرخ (مش بالضرورة يصرخ يعني زعلان ممكن يصرخ وهو مبسوط، أو لما بدو ياني بصرخ بصوت عالي) صوته بيوصل لعند الجيران، كل يوم بقولولنا سمعنا صوت كريم الساعة الفلانية و هو عم بيصرخ

فضيحة هالولد، قده قد الفارة وصوته مملّي الحارة

Two Months

At the hospital, when they brought Kareem to me, I didn't know what to do with him, didn't even dare to hold him. I'm not used to deal with newborns and always thought that they look funny and weird with their puffy eyes and wrinkled skin.

I stared at Kareem in amazement, like a kid who has just received a new toy and still has no idea what to do with it and how it works. I thought that he looked so cute, even with the puffy eyes and wrinkled hands. Everybody was encouraging me to hold him but I was scared and thought that he was too small and fragile to hold! I was afraid that I might hurt him or something. But eventually I forced myself to hold him, carefully.. and cautiously...
Is this the same creature who has lived inside me for nine months? Subhan Allah!!
So finally we met. It took us some time to get used to each other. I thought that I was such an ignorant mother who didn't know how to handle her baby, and I felt guilty about it. I didn't even know how to change his diaper, I remember that once I woke my mom up in the middle of the night because I couldn't figure out how to change Kareem's diaper by myself :D . I used to get extremely worried and panic whenever Kareem cries thinking that I must have missed something or done something wrong. I've always felt guilty and blamed myself about it until I found out that crying is just the way babies express their needs, it's their only language, and sometimes they cry just for the heck of it! I had lots of things to learn. I can say that the first month was extremely difficult, lack of sleep made me exhausted and drained all the time.No baby blues though thank God! I didn't know that being a mother can be this hard. Now I understand why is it so great to be a mom and why we must appreciate our mothers.

The second month, however, was less exhausting. I kinda started to understand Kareem's language. He now cries less and has certain signs to express what he needs instead of crying. I'm enjoying him more and everybody is enjoying him. Friends and family, young and old, have fallen in love with Kareem. He became everybody's toy :D. They visit us more often not to see me but to see Kareem, and call us not to check on me but to check on Kareem. And I don't mind at all of course :D. Kareem is a sociable baby, he likes visitors, and mostly behaves in their presence.
Kareem is a stubborn baby, and very hyper too, mashallah! He gets bored easily and always wants new things to entertain him. He has his own rules, nobody can control him and this is making things hard for me. I'm a person who cherishes freedom, now I feel that I lost it all. I am no more free to do whatever I want at the time I want. My whole life is now devoted to Kareem, the sweetest and the most precious gift that heaven sent us.
Kareem turned two months old today! Happy Birthday Kareemo. May God bless and protect you my little angel. We love you.
and thank you for giving me a few minutes to write this post :D

Abu Ramadan

Hubby is suggesting that our son, Kareem, should name his son Ramadan, so that his son's name would be Ramadan Kareem :D

Ramadan Kareem everyone :)

Ebni el Habool

started hurting himself.
He always scratches his face.I cut his nails, yet he managed to injure his nose as well as his cheek!!
He was screaming like crazy, and when I hurried to see what's wrong, I found him pulling his own hair!

Kareem's First Smile

Kareem is four weeks old. He has been smiling recently only while sleeping or just about to fall asleep. He looks soooooooo cute when he smiles and I always wonder about what makes him smile :D
Today, he surprised me with an adorable cute smile when I was talking and playing with him, and he was fully AWAKE!! Nothing can be sweeter and more heart melting than seeing your baby smiles at you for the first time! 7abeebi, he made my day! Can't wait to see more real and huge smiles Kareemo. 7ebak ana, mwaaah

Advice of the Day

Never try to cook or bake anything unless you make sure that your baby is deeply asleep and is not likely to wake up any time soon, cuz when he suddenly wakes up and starts crying you'll end up missing an ingredient or something and spoil the whole thingie

Thank you Foof!

Wafaa' made us this beautiful card on the occasion of Kareem's arrival! We decided to post it in our blog.
That was so sweet of you Foof. We love you. xoxo

Going Out for the First Time

I've been told that I went out for the first time last week. I'm saying "I've been told" cuz I really had no idea that I did! Since I need a passport, we went to take passport photos. Unfortunately, I fell asleep before going out and remained so all the time. They say that I opened my eyes after various attempts to wake me up and the photographer took advantage of the moment and photographed me before I closed them and fell asleep again! Then they went to a friend's place and stayed for a while and I remained peacefully asleep during the visit until we went back home.

So, I missed my first meshwar! This is so unfair mommy! :@
Anyway, I heard that I'll be going out next week too (I'll be one month old) , to visit my doctor this time. I hope I don't miss that too!!

Pee Pee Time!

A couple of days ago I peed on my mom while being changed :D
I did the same to grandma once but I kept the big surprise to mom. She felt a warm liquid pouring on her clothes from nowhere before she discovered that this liquid was nothing but my pee :D
She was shocked at first, OHHHH NOOOOO, but then she burst out laughing. You naughty little thing, shame on you!
Sorry mama, I tried to hold it in but couldn't :S :D

Delivery

On the same day I posted that I felt some labor signs, the signs started to get better gradually. At night I felt some contractions, mild pain accompanied with heavy sweating. But the contractions were not regular and not painful. My friend suggested to take me to the hospital but I refused since I knew that what I was feeling were not the “real” labor signs.
Kareem was moving that night like never before, his movement was increasing intensively and I told mom: the baby has been moving since hours as if he can’t stand to stay in there anymore and wants to get out so badly :D .
I slept a couple of hours that night. I wake up at 5 a.m. and shortly afterwards my water broke!I wake my mom up and headed directly to the hospital. There were no contractions, no pain at all.. but I knew that I’ll be holding my baby in my arms very soon. I was excited… at last..the moment that I’ve been waiting for since nine months has came … my baby is on his way… five hours later, Kareem arrived. I lost track of time but I was told that he arrived at 11 a.m.
What I first noticed the moment Kareem was born was that he was clean with just a little bit of blood on his head. He didn’t cry at first, he was looking around him, kinda scared, not knowing where he is or what’s happening to him, poor little thing.. I was examining him… not believing my eyes… “how’s the baby?” the doctor asked. “He’s fine” replied the nurse. I got emotional, as usual, and my eyes teared up, El 7amdulillah ya rab..
Then, a sense of relief and peace suddenly took hold of me. They took Kareem to clean him and I was taken to my room. I couldn’t rest, couldn’t sleep… couldn’t wait to see Kareem, hold him.. tell him how long I've waited for this moment and how much I love him... and start my new role as a mother :)

Hello World!

Hi everyone! This is Kareem blogging :D
I arrived to this world on Saturday, July 12, 2008, at about 11 a.m. I was supposed to arrive two weeks later but since I heard that mom was in a hurry and since I got bored in there I decided to come early. I am two weeks old now. Mom says that we must party and sing happy birthday to you tralala :D, she said the same last week too :D
Mom seems very happy and excited at my arrival. The moment I arrived she forgot all about her pain and the things the doctor and nurses were doing to her and turned her head towards me with eyes full of love and tears.
I love the songs mom made up for me. She usually hums them in the morning when she is still in a good mood. She says that I am the most adorable and the cutest baby she's ever seen! She's my mother you know and I wouldn't have believed her haven't I heard everybody else saying the same too, especially mom's friends. I'm glad that gorgeous ladies like me and think that I am so cute :D
I haven't met my father yet, he keeps asking for my pictures and videos, and I can't wait to see him.
Life is not bad so far, I spend my day mostly in sleeping, crying, and drinking milk. .. hmm sho kaman,OK that's it for now I guess. Since this blog was created especially for me, I'll be sharing it with mommy. Will be back later..

First Labor Signs?

When I was told that there were no labor signs at all, I was upset.
Now that there are a couple of signs, I became very anxious, worried, impatient and restless...
The bad thing about delivery is that you never know when exactly it is going to happen, some signs may take place a couple of hours, days, or even weeks before real labor.

This is the first time I call my doctor. I had to ask her about some changes that I noticed. She said that these are good signs that labor is on its way and there's no need to worry. She also asked me to keep track of the baby's movement and in case I didn't notice any for a long time I should head to the hospital to make sure that everything's OK.
Mom is asking me to distract myself and just take it easy and wait until it's time.
So, between watching the fetal movement and trying to distract myself, I'm kinda confused.
Yesterday night I was hallucinating about the baby's diapers, lol. I woke up and found myself saying: newborn diapers packs, not the 6 kgs one, I want the 2 to 5 kgs pack :D

Week 38

Two more weeks to go, or three, or maybe more (I hope not).
The doctor said that there are no signs that labor is going to take place anytime soon.
I felt bad, I was kinda disappointed by what she said; and I had abdominal cramps after visiting her. I know I know.. it's not my due date yet and I shouldn't have expected her to say anything else, but I just felt bad. I couldn't stand the pain that's supposed to be mild, to me this is not mild at all, I wonder how is it going to be during delivery, I'm scared already. I told mom that I won't get pregnant again, and I think that I will die during delivery, die of pain, lol. She yelled at me asking me to stop saying nonsense :D
There are times when I just feel sick of being pregnant, bored and tired of waiting...

On a side note,I stopped gaining weight since the beginning of the ninth month. I gained 13 kgs, which is normal and appropriate.

Oh No, Not Again!

I was looking forward to give birth so that I can finally stop feeling hungry every couple of hours and return back to my normal eating habits. It's weird how I should always worry about getting hungry, and take precautions before going out so that my stomach doesn't start growling and I along with my baby start shouting: FEED ME NOW :D

Until I found out just yesterday that the dream of going back to normal eating still has to wait and won't come true anytime soon. Because if a pregnant woman needs to add 300 extra calories to her diet, a breastfeeding woman needs to consume 500 additional calories per day! :S

Grrrrrrr

Mothers.. ya mothers... You were pregnant once, weren't you?! And you know how annoying and disturbing noise and mess can be to a pregnant woman!
So why do you come along to visit her with your unbearably naughty and noisy kids and turn her day into a living hell?!
When you have such uncontrollable kids, LEAVE THEM AT HOME for God's sake.. ana mish tay2a 7ali.. effttt
khalas, fadfadet :D

Random Thoughts

- Today I was surprised at how my fingers look, they have swelled up! They look funny, especially that I have small hands and thin fingers, and the wedding ring doesn't fit anymore! :D
My feet have swelled up too, long time ago, and I had to put my old shoes aside and buy a new pair.
My face, however, hasn't changed yet, not a bit. Although I heard that the face does swell in the last month too.

- I feel so heavy, and I am finding a difficulty sleeping, especially in this hotttttttt weather. It's so damn hot and I can barely take a breath.

- The doctor said that I can start walking from now. My mom laughed and said: She's been walking since a loooong time, halkatna :D . It's OK, I feel much better when I walk. If I stayed a couple of days without exercising, my back and legs start hurting.

- The baby is growing so fast in the last month, mashAllah. Last week, he weighed 2.5 Kg, now he's 2 Kg and 800 g. He's gonna be a healthy boy, inshAllah.

- I started "packing" the bag I'm gonna take to the hospital.

- The doctor started lecturing me about the do and the do nots. She concentrated on the point that I shouldn't freak out and get tensed, because this won't help at all during delivery. The more relaxed I am, the easier the delivery will be... Allah yestor :S

- The countdown has begun, and I can't wait until it's all over. I hate waiting, especially when it's for a big event like this... having my first baby.

Pregnancy Humor

أدعية المرأة الحامل

من انفع الأدعية دعاء الام الحامل لجنينها و هو في بطنها وهذه مجموعة ادعية للأم الحامل
حتى يحفظ الله لها جنينها و يتم حملها على خير و يستحسن الاتيان بها بعد كل صلاة
*****************************
اللهم اجعله مسلما صالحا عابدا ذاكرا..حافظا للقران الكريم وممن يعملون به..
اللهم اجعله بارا بوالديه وأهله..
اللهم حسن خلقه وخلقه ..
اللهم أعذه من شياطين الأنس والجن..
اللهم سهل ويسر حمله وولادته..
اللهم أقر عيني به..
اللهم ارزقني ولدا واجعله تقيا ذكيا
واجعله سليما معافى ولا تجعل في خلقه زيادة ولا نقصان ..
واجعل عاقبته إلى الخير...
اللهم اصلح لي ذاتي وذريتي...
اللهم استودعتك هذا الجنين فحسن في خلقه وأخلاقه يا رب العالمين..
اللهم اني اسألك هون الطلق وحسن الخلق ..
اللهم آمين.....

********************************
- "ربِّ هبْ لي من لدنك ذريةً طيبةً إنك سميع الدعاء".
- "ربِّ لا تذرني فردًا وأنت خير الوارثين".
- "ربِّ هَبْ لِي مِن لَّدُنْكَ وَلِيًّا، يَرِثُنِي وَيَرِثُ من دعوة الإسلام، واجعله رَبِّ رَضِيًّا".
- "اللهم ارزقني صبيًّا حَنَانًا مِّن لَّدُنّك وَزَكَاةً، وَاجعله ربِّ تَقيًّا، وَبَرًّا بِوَالِدَيْهِ، وَلا تجعله جَبَّارًا عَصِيًّا، واجعله اللهم يأخُذ الْكِتَابَ بِقُوَّةٍ، وَآته اللهم الحكْم صَبِيًّا".
- "ربِّ َهَب لَي غُلامًا زَكِيًّا، واجعله اللهم مُبَارَكًا أَيْنَ ما كان، وأعِنه على الصلاة وَالزَّكَاةِ مَا دام حَيًّا، وَبَرًّا بِوَالِدَيه وَلا تَجْعَلْه جَبَّارًا شَقِيًّا".
- "اللهم اكتب له طولَ العمر، وحُسنَ العمل، وسعة الرزق، وسعادة الدارين".
- "اللهم ارزقه جمال الخَلق والخُلق، وقوة الدين والبدن، وسعادة الدنيا والآخرة".
- "اللهم إني أستودعك جنيني الذي في رحمي، أنت الذي لا تضيع ودائعك يا الله".
- "اللهم احفظ جنيني واحْمِه، وامسكه في رحمي,وأتم حمله على خير".
- "اللهم يا من أمسكت السماء أن تقع على الأرض وهي بلا عمد، أمسك ما في رحمي، وأتمم له على خير".
- "اللهم صوِّره في أحسن صورة ونجِّه من كل تشويه ومرض".
- "اللهم يسِّر حملَه وولادتَه ورضاعتَه وتربيتَه، واجعله مطيعًا لربه، بارًّا بوالديه، متعاونًا مع إخوته، نافعًا لأمته، زخراً للإسلام والمسلمين".
- "ربنا هبْ لنا من أزواجنا وذرياتنا قرة أعين واجعلنا للمتقين إمامًا".

- ومن أفضل الأمور التي يجب أن تتحصَّن بها الحامل وتحرص عليها في كل حياتها: أذكار الصباح والمساء، فإن فيها نفعًا كبيرًا، وخيرًا عميمًا، وعونًا في أمرَي الدنيا والدين