Journey of Faith: Bringing My Baby for Umrah

Mak (mil) asked me when we were in
Masjidil Haram, while waiting for prayer:

what would you tell those who wanted to bring their babies for umrah?

what would your advice be?

i asnwered:

go ahead. if you feel you are strong, go ahead.

but do not complaint.

be prepared mentally and physically cause things will not be easy.

and again, dont complaint.

for me, i wanted to bring Ayra. so i kept telling myself that it will be hard.

but i must keep on thinking positively and believe that Allah will help me.

and i truly feel He did.

Hub and i have always wanted to go for umrah ever since we got married.

 on the first year of marriage, we were not ready financially.

second year, i got pregnant,

and alhamdulillah, 2013 is our year.

i did not want to leave Ayra behind.

reason 1: ayra is still breast feeding. i would like to continue that till she's two.

reason 2: mommy cannot depart from her daughter. she cant even sleep if Ayra is in the next bed. 

reason 3: well. simply cannot leave her cos i know i'd miss her more than anything and it'd disturbed my mind from concentrating in my ibadah.

when we reach masjidil haram, it was about 12 midnight.
we were so tired being in the bus for about 7 hours.
ayra was definitely asleep.
upon reaching, we performed umrah.

i had to carry her during tawaf 7 times around kaabah.
she didnt want to be carried by others. she wanted mommy only.
so, i pulled some strength and carried on.
alhamdulillah. Allah made it easy.
it's a lie of i say i didnt feel tired at all.
yes, i did feel exhausted. but somehow it was bearable.
i think He lend me some strength.

this is when we were performing tawaf widaa. thank allah cos she did want to be carried by her ayah.

sa'ie was more difficult. the 7 times walking between safa and marwah
was really2 tiring.
alhamdulillah, my family helped me in carrying her by taking turns.
we stopped at each round for zam-zam.
and we finished after about 2 hours.
the next day was definitely a knocked-out day for us.
ayra slept almost all day.

but again, i have the energy to solat, to walk, to window shop.
the exhaustion was only for a while.
alhamdulillah.

prayer times were not too difficult.
i brought ayra to the mosque, and put her on her safety harness.
i tie the end of the rope to my ankle so she wouldnt go far while
im praying.

she would behave nicely when she has her peers nearby.
she is such a friendly girl!
she would approach babies/toddlers and start playing with them.
she is the friendliest baby ive ever seen,
she likes making friends.

if no friends were around, she wanted attention from me.
so i had to carry her while praying.

so far.. i think we did okay.
i pray Allah granted my prayers, umrah and repentance.
it was hard but i did not regret bringing my little joy along.

i learnt to be patience, and berserah to Him.
ayra also learns a lot.
she made a lot of friends.
she now knows how to takbir, rukuk and sujud in tertib.
she absorbs everything so fast.

cheeky face. she looked at people going over to take zam-zam. she saw it once, then straight away to take it herself.

we miss Mekkah and Madinah.