Chinese woman shares her baby's routine, including surprising Hanuman Chalisa ritual

A Chinese woman shared how the Hanuman Chalisa has become part of her morning routine with her four-month-old baby. Her post on motherhood at 40 drew warm responses and prompted followers to share more parenting tips.Chinese woman shares her baby's routine, including surprising Hanuman Chalisa ritual (Photos: @sarajaneho/Instagram)A US woman has shared an emotional glimpse into motherhood at 40, opening up about her four-month-old baby’s little routines, the things she has discovered along the way and one rather unexpected part of their mornings, the Hanuman Chalisa.Instagram user Sara Jane Ho, a Chinese woman based in Los Angeles, shared a carousel of memories featuring her baby, from their adventures together and quiet moments at home to book quotes and snippets of her reflections on motherhood.Among the many things she had introduced into her baby's routine, one that stood out was the Hanuman Chalisa. Sara said she discovered the devotional song through Indian friends at Burning Man and found that it had a remarkably calming effect on her baby.“When a baby is fussy or melting down, playing the Indian song Hanuman Chalisa calms him within 5 seconds and puts him to sleep in 2 minutes,” she wrote, adding that she now plays it on loop every morning. Ho also opened up about how she responds when her baby cries, making it clear that she prefers to comfort him rather than follow a “cry it out” approach.“I don’t believe in letting him ‘cry it out’,” she wrote. Her post also touched on some of the other ways she is trying to introduce her baby to different experiences from an early age. She said she was sending peanuts and soy milk to her surrogate, who is pumping breast milk for the baby, in the hope of giving him early exposure to those foods. Ho acknowledged that she did not know whether the approach was scientifically proven and said she was following her intuition.She is taking a similarly hands-on approach to introducing him to animals, allowing him to spend time around friends’ and neighbours’ dogs because she hopes the early exposure could help prevent pet allergies later in life.Ho also described her habit of letting her baby's bare feet touch natural surfaces such as grass, stone and dirt while spending time outdoors.“Any more tips you can share with me that I can try out with baby J?” she asked her followers at the end of the post.Take a look at her post here:The personal update received plenty of warm responses, with several users particularly delighted by the mention of the Hanuman Chalisa. One called it a powerful Hindu devotional song, while others sent blessings and said they were happy to see the reference to the prayer.For Sara, the carousel was less about having all the answers and more about documenting the small things she is learning, trying and discovering as she navigates motherhood for the first time.- Ends