(Featured on Huffington Post here!)
The cookie dough in the freezer is calling my name. Raw, sugary, buttery cookie dough. I can’t help myself. It’s 8 am, past suhoor time, but that doesn’t stop me. I reach into the freezer and break off a chunk. One chunk doesn’t stop there and before I know it, I’ve eaten a few chunky tablespoons.
It’s Ramadan. I should be fasting, but I’m not. This is the third year in a row that I’m not fasting. I’m six months pregnant which exempts me from fasting, which means that right now feeding me and baby is a priority. The last two years I was nursing, which also exempted me from fasting.
I do attempt to make up my fasts and I made up quite a few in the stage when I wasn’t nursing or pregnant, but it was lonesome as I didn’t have a whole community fervently fasting with me. I do try to listen to lectures and get in the Ramadan spirit, but it’s a little challenging with a two-year-old clamoring in the background for my attention. Needless to say, without fasting these consecutive Ramadans, it’s a little hard to get into the Ramadan spirit.
I am glad though that pregnant women and nursing women don’t have to fast because during this stage, cookie dough aside, good nutrition and nourishment is essential. So rather than moping about the amount of fasts I have to make up, or feeling like the lone eater that I am, this Ramadan I am grateful for the blessings I have this year. One healthy, super-active, toddler and one baby on the way. And cookie dough of course. Does life get better than that?
For a great article on Ramadan and Mothers, written by a mother who’s missed more fasts than me, click here ! And another good article here on the challenges mothers might face.
Doodling Through Life 