According to Malay tradition, a baby shouldn't be taken out of the home until after at least 40 days. I took my baby everywhere with me, of course taking all the necessary precautions like ensuring he was dressed properly, travelled in comfort and with safety and not going out in the evening, after maghrib. I preferred to carry him, letting him know, I hope, that he was always cared for and I will keep him safe.
GM spent most of his time sleeping, feeding about every 2-3 hours about 50ml of milk in the day during the first 2 weeks, I fed him on demand and followed each feeding with holding him almost upright against my shoulders and massaging his back. I find that there is a difference between formula milk that is prepared by vigorously shaking the bottle and by steadily swirling it around the bottle. With the second method, less air was introduced into the milk hence it led to less burping by GM. Alhamdulillah, I was lucky as at night, he only needed to be fed once before suboh. I found that if I fed him at 10pm, he normally wants another meal at 2am and then at 6am. This allowed me to rest longer than in the day time between feedings. By the end of the first month, he was feeding every 4 hours and his intake had increased to approximately 80ml per meal.
Keeping him warm but not overheated was also important. I practiced swaddling him and he slept better being swaddled. Depending on the day's temperature, I would either use a flannel blanket or the cotton cloth diaper which was used specifically for swaddling him. Both at Lui and at home in KL, at night the temperature was cooler, albeit at home by air-condition to keep the temperature comfortably cool, so I dressed him in "onesies", those pajamas that had both the hand and feet covered. During the day, I dressed him in lighter clothing but always with mittens and socks. I kept a regular schedule of changing his diapers, once every 4 hours, always about 30 minutes after his last meal. With every diaper change, I always applied a "diaper rash cream" and powder and found that this prevented him from getting skin irritation and diaper rash. I bathed him once a day, about 9am and followed that with a morning sunbathing ritual lasting 5-10 minutes. I also massaged Telon oil or Yu Yee oil on his tummy and soles of his feet after every bath and also in the evening when I changed him into his pajamas. The sunbathing ritual was based on traditional belief that this will keep him healthy and keep "yellowing" at bay. From modern medicine, it is my understanding that the melanin levels in his body was still not optimum so it was important to not over-sunbathe. The oil massage was to keep his colic or perut kembong at bay. Throughout the first month, he only had colic once when he was 10 days old, for which I am thankful, as that experience was both stressful for GM and me. During this month, my checklist for when he cried was:
- is he humgry?
- is his diaper wet or dirty?
- is he hot or cold?
- is his tummy upset?
