we figured it’d be more worthwhile to hold a joint cukur rambut ceremony for the two babies, and invite relatives and friends at one shot since many hadn’t had the chance to be acquainted with the new arrivals, and so we did – for aidin, who’s at that extremely cute age of three months (topped with curls to die for and smiles that melt the heart), and auni, who’s at that rather clueless age of one month (with few fuzzy bits as hair and accidental twitches of the lips that get passed off as smiles).
oh look, four little tykes to strike terror upon their oma! *gasp* let’s tie them to the train tracks!
aniq, auni, aidin, adam… and thomas the train
the last time we had the ceremony for aniq, the husband got to carry the baby during the ceremony, so this time, it was my turn.
.
yeah, told ya the boy’s curls are to die for. compared to our almost-botak girl, tsk. must be from my (follicle-challenged) gene pool. (premature balding/receding hairline’s in my side of the family, gah!)
so, ta-da! her first haircut… err, hair trim. we’ll spare you the “boy or girl?” queries from strangers and not shave your whole head ala GI Jane. keep that few fuzzy bits you call hair, and don’t worry, *some* day you’ll get to wear those hairclips aunty diah gave you, ok? :p
the thing about having kids in the family, is that there’s bound to be comparisons. like how different adam and aniq are. and looks like it’ll begin again – or perhaps has already begun – with the two new additions.
but this time, we have a trump card – “alah, dia kan girl…” and yeah, this line has actually been used a couple of times already as it is.
the thing is, it’s us parents who perpetuate this comparison business – we simply can’t help it! i’ve caught myself asking the husband why the sister’s different from her brother, and it always start with “aniq dulu…”
eg.
“aniq dulu rambut lebat, auni rambut sikit.”
“aniq dulu minum susu banyak! kenapa auni tak minum banyak eh?”
“aniq dulu malam bangun, auni malam tak bangun terus.”
“aniq dulu tembam sekali! auni ni macam tak kembang-kembang jer.”
“aniq dulu active! auni asik tidur, tidur, tidur…”
and the husband’s response would be – you guessed it – “alah, dia kan girl…”
like it makes all the difference in the world, to be a girl!
but maybe it’s a good thing, to have that gender difference as a trump card, since she’s gonna have to compete with her brother AND two boy cousins. heh.
and speaking of cousins, meh, makcik nak promote sikit ni!
with our regular cupcakes and berkats supplier, Simplycupcakes a.k.a. ayu, about to move continents in a few months time, we’re happy to find another worthy replacement in her absence. as my mum says, they both have the same “citarasa”. tasty and tasteful, indeed.
as promised, an exclusive preview of the new liverpool jersey! you can’t get it yet at the stores. maybe you can try this weekend but i guess i’m one of the few who managed to kop it early.
To ogle some more of the jersey, check out my flickr here ;)
so we played our hearts out, running and puffing for the bloody ball. screaming and shouting our lungs out. but its great fun when you get 11 guys on the field kicking the ball like no tomorrow, except for last 45 minutes, when most of us had run out of steam and prefer to walk it out and take it slow.
its been a great workout for the guys and special mention had to go to azfar for his acrobatic antics as the goalie. his quick reflexes and diving skills helped to keep out a couple of sure goals. azfar, next week bring your gloves, i think you made the goalposts as your playground! another skillz player had to be naz, who scored a couple of spectacular goals which would definitely make torres proud.
this is going to be a weekly thing for the guys. so if any of you out there is itching to kick some balls, feel free to come down and join us. tentatively the next session should be on tuesday, 27 may 2008. same time, same place. so keep the date free! who knows, you could be the next rooney or gerrard
and see, bono = One Campaign. you know, make poverty history and all. which was mr ben and mr jerry’s agenda for this ice-cream, courtesy of the husband who was obliging his wife’s need for a pint of frozen confection. (with the price of b&j’s ice-cream, we’d soon be in poverty too.)
and what else do they have in common? why, they both have purrty-looking swirls on them, and they’re both faux “cheesecakes”. :d
Oreo Swirl Cheesecake, by Whims & Fancies
thanks for all your orders! we’re swamped, we are. in a good way.
we’d actually been asked to be featured on suria and channel U (!) for some variety programmes, and we thought reaaaally long and hard about whether to do it. coz shooting’s pretty time-consuming (our hours are precious!) and we’re not tv people (they add 10kilos to you on screen you know, hurhur).
anyway, with four little kids between us at this point, we decided to pass up on the opportunity. well… in case we can’t keep up with the demand. coz this IS still just a little hobby for the partner and i. we’re not so ambitious lor – we don’t even think we’re making any money yet, can?!
ok, maaaaaaybe just enough to buy the occasional ben & jerry’s ice-cream. (wait, the husband bought it for me – but with his W&F ‘delivery boy’ tips, i’m sure ha ha.)
ps: tapi kalau majalah manja nak feature kek popok kita, orait jugak lah, kan? ;p
calling all football loving daddies, husbands, boyfriends, brothers, uncles, etc!!
always wanted to play football but not enough kakis to form a team? you think you can dribble better than ronaldo, score more goals than torres? well, here is your chance to let your feet do the talking! join us in our weekly informal football kickaround at safra tampines futsal pitch.
we are a bunch of fanatic semi-retired footballers who are serious about football as we are with our punctuality! hehe..
anyway, our next session is this coming wednesday, 21 May 2008, 7pm till 9pm. so come down with your scoring boots and get that feet kicking! btw, the missus are more than welcome to come and join the rest of the WAGs in their weekly pekpot sessions.
below are the details!
where? safra tampines futsal pitch 2 when? wednesday, 21 may 2008 time? 7pm till 9pm attire? football gear plus boots (barefoot also can if you tak sayang your kaki!)
i recommend using football boots as the pitch is a synthetic turf aka astro turf, like the one at jalan besar stadium, excellent for boots.
ok, due to, err, popular demand (ha ha), this is how the abdominal binder looks like. aiyah, no need osim lah.
(how creepy are these models with their skin-coloured bodysuits??)
from mustaffa, $49.90, size S, four panel.
you have to velcro it on REAL TIGHT, okay. as tight as scarlett o’hara’s corset in ‘gone with the wind’. you can put it on when you’re not wearing your normal bengkung (which should be even MORE SUPER TIGHT). you can eat, sleep, sit, berak, everything while wearing it, no problem. and you can continue wearing it long after your confinement is over. like till your baby is twenty-one years old or something.
but no guarantees that you’ll get a 16″ waist like scarlett o’hara, ok? :p
while the initial first week of post-natal recovery felt like it was going to last forever, the whole process thereafter surprisingly feels faster this time round than the first.
and as you can tell, i’m not big on confinements. i don’t deny that confinement’s important, for the body to heal, to increase your milk supply, and for the newborn to be ‘protected’ from illnesses (and of course, to hide all that disgusting post-natal flabs from the world!). but i’ll only tolerate up to two weeks, and that’s it. fresh air, please! and err, a bit of walking around is good exercise… no?
i hear some people (ie. the chinese) even get confined up to 100 days! that’s just crazy, man. the thought of being stuck home that long can give me the (post-natal) blues. old folks will tell you things like “nanti masok angin” or “nanti badan sejuk”, or… i don’t know. i don’t exactly have any old folks dishing out to me a smorgasbord of warnings and taboos, so i rely on my experienced and knowledgable tukang urut for all post-natal matters, and if she says ok, then i take her word for it.
alah, mat saleh takde pon confinement, okay jugak perrr… :p
also, with an older child in the picture, you feel more obliged to get up and running as soon as you’re feeling better, coz well, life goes on, and they need you just as much as your newborn.
anyway, since the daddies had started some kind of weekly football workout, we brought the little ones along to join in the kick about.
the men
the mascots
i have a feeling he’s gonna be an avid football player, this boy.
aniq, crowned ‘man of the match’!
as for the baby? aiyah, tucked tight against mummy’s chest with the susu masam smell, she sleeeeeps only lah, all the way. lagi best than playing football, you know.
half of the WAGS, ha ha
ok wait, her eyes were open at this point – pasal dia tau dah nak balik, darrr.
has it already been more than two weeks since my status upgrade to “mother of two”?? it hasn’t sunk in yet, really.
while the baby has been a dream to look after so far (welllll, it HAS only been two weeks – wait till she’s two years), the bigger challenge is, of course, the toddler, who IS two years, who has a gazillion times more energy than our two thirty-year-old bodies combined, and who constantly makes us hone our negotiation skills to a fine art.
i’ve been thinking about what i should reflect on this mother’s day. but all that comes to mind is how i think i make a bad mother, more often than not. :p
there are always moments when i wonder what the heck i got myself into, having kids and all.
and then there are moments when i wonder what i’d do without them.
is there hope yet? does one get better at this whole mothering business as their brood grows?
and more importantly – will one ever get a shiny mother’s day present in a blue box from the husband for bringing his children into the world??
last night, as she was sleeping, i was breathing in her sweet baby scent, my nose nestling against her warm neck, taking a deep whiff of her soft cheeks and nuzzling her fuzzy hair, when it hit me like a tidal wave:
“this could well be the last time i’ll ever get to smell a baby of my own.”
and i felt… sad.
i mean, the logical equation is: 1 boy + 1 girl = close shop, right?
right!
i’m all for stopping at two. that’s the maximum capacity for this boat. my fuse is too short. plus, to go through the whole pregnancy and post-pregnancy process again? ho ho.
perhaps it’s just those post-natal hormones playing emotional tricks on me. that baby scent, it’s like an addictive drug, you know? produces pleasurable effects and makes you temporarily high. (i say temporarily, coz you snap out of it once they start to scream their lungs out. :p)
or perhaps it’s just the minyak telon i marinate, err, slather her with. i swear i love minyak telon.
“wangi!”, her brother says, nodding in agreement. hehe.
wow, fourteennineteentwenty-five thirty-five slings ordered – not bad!
i’m not making money out of this, really. i’m just a big fan of babywearing, spreading the love for slinging.
coz babies love to be close to you! just like this cute lil peanut…
so, what’s the day of a temporary sahm like?
let’s see.
baby stirs, baby bathes, baby feeds, mommy bathes, baby poops, baby sleeps, mommy eats, mommy tinkers at the computer, mommy deals with W&F matters, baby feeds, mommy scavenges for snacks, baby sleeps, mommy does laundry, baby seeks attention, mommy gets baby acquainted with house, baby bathes, baby feeds, baby sleeps, mommy bathes, mommy spends time with toddler, mommy scolds toddler (ha ha), toddler sleeps, baby feeds and feeds and feeds and finally sleeps, mommy watches tv, mommy sleeps.
or something to that effect, more or less.
in between, she gets her body kneaded back to whatever shape it was previously. or at least, tries to. :S
i think every woman has a pre-pregnant pair of pants or jeans or skirt that becomes like a yardstick or measurement of achievement when they are able to squeeeeze their newfound post-pregnancy hips and butt into.
i chose this favourite pair of mango pants as my yardstick, which i really missed. (i know, i’m cheating – these are CARGO pants, supposed to be worn loose, lol!)
erm, how esah, do i look two months pregnant now?? :p
sigh, now to psyche myself up to do tummy crunches. ugh.
(update: bulk orders for peanut shells IS CLOSED. i’m not taking anymore! please go to goo-ga.com to order individually! thankyewforyourattention!)
visits to the docs are highlights for those in confinement, eh? :p
(boring stuff ahead, but they’re more for my own records. really.)
to summarise, doc checked my stitch (apparently, i only had one, like the last time – how elastic my Netherlands are, i simply cannot fathom) and declared it gone *poof*. the thing about stitches, the peak of its sting is felt some time around the fourth or fifth day, when the thread is drying up. couple that with a ‘bengkung’ wrapped tight around you, sitting down gives you the ultimate OOMPH, i tell ya. (didn’t i mention i’m a masochist?)
there was some discussion on family planning, which i’m sure you’re NOT interested in, ha ha. (and if you ARE – it’s gonna be the needle, baybeh. either that, or cut off those tubes!… ok, kidding.)
another visit due in two months time for a pap smear.
and yes, 7kg down, 3 more to go.
moving on… :p
next was another trip to the paedi, where more questions on her pees, poops and feeds were answered. he assured that the baby’s jaundice is almost gone, and will clear up by itself in due time, so no need for another blood test. hurrah!
i voiced my concern to him about how she sleeps too well at night, and that i even wake her up to feed (well, more to relieve my bursting-to-the-brim ‘udders’, really!). and get this – he said to LET her sleep! a wild idea indeed! apparently, i should count myself lucky that she lets me sleep where others have sleepless nights, and that i shouldn’t change her momentum – just feed her more in the day. hokaaay… i just thought, you know, babies *need* to be fed regularly every few hours. but this girl, hmm… she’s one of those day-feeders, i guess. which is good news for me and the VERY LUCKY husband, but bad news for me boobies!
ok, so i guess here’s where i start talking about my revived breastfeeding career.
(i can imagine all the anti-tit-nazis starting to roll their eyes at this point, ha ha.)
ahh. as the wise old saying goes – “the path to total breastfeeding is never easy”. (ok, it isn’t a wise old saying, i just made that up.)
the two days at the hospital after the delivery, i’d set my expectations lower – yes, you read me right, lower. i knew that my supply wasn’t going to be magically abundant. so i did what i did the last time, but without the guilt this time round – got her to suckle for as long as i could, and when i really needed to rest, i allowed the nurses to give her some formula. i knew she wouldn’t take much anyway, because she’d be tired by then from suckling me, and at one to two days old, she wouldn’t be that hungry.
and when we came home on the third day, the milk came in, right on time. hello, boobs!
it’s… kinda like driving a manual car – you sorta remember, but you need a refresher, you know? i admit that the first week is never easy for any mothers attempting breastfeeding – whether you’ve done it before or not!
engorgement? of course. sore nipples? yep. blisters? sure.
but i had superb support and help from the masseuse. she practically trained the baby to open her mouth “big big!” and taught me to pop that “big big” mouth – NGAP! – onto where it’s supposed to. (ok, she actually suggested that i video auni do the “open big big!” trick and put it up so other mums can do the same with their babies too – maybe i should get funding from the health ministry for a public awareness campaign? hmm. :p)
that sorted, she went on to massage the engorgement away – and it did, instantly. hurts like hell, coz here you have two rocks on your chest, and they get kneaded and squeezed, and you’re squeaking and squawking away, coz the rocks are very sensitive, can? but nevermind, masochist says, “pain is in the mind”…
the blisters, well, once you got the latch right, those things dry up in no time, with all that sucking. mine came off by itself within a week.
and after that one week teething period, so to speak, we’re on cruise control. (what is up with this car analogy, hana??)
but i must disclaim that i only speak for myself, coz i know this whole “BF” issue is like treading on glass. every mum, and every baby, is different!
i had an enlightenment during my two-day stay at ‘hotel eastshore’ when auni had jaundice. i was sharing the room with a mother who’d just given birth to a baby boy just five days before. he was warded for jaundice too, being born a few weeks earlier than his due date, with a cord around his neck.
the room being so confined, i couldn’t help but overhear a lactationist giving her advice and trying to show her how to do the football hold. later on, i could tell she was having a hard time whenever she tried to feed the baby, so i walked past and asked if she needed help, coz her baby was screaming his head off while she was helplessly trying to get him to latch (and coz i’m freaking kepo, i know). she said yes, so i tried the tickle-the-chin-and-”open big big!”-and-POP-mouth-onto-areola thing with the baby.
but i realise that her nipples were short, and the baby’s mouth was small, and she wasn’t comfortable holding the baby, and he was hungry and impatient, and… well, it IS hard, isn’t it?? :S
so yeah, i felt her frustration.
and i thank my lucky stars to have nubs just right for my babies with their big big mouths.
to soon-to-be mums, i wish you all the best if you intend to set on The BF Path. remember to, err, pull those nippies if you think they’re too stubby! (they’re pretty stretchy you know. or you can try nipple pullers, i hear they work.)
and if you need that “open big big!” video… i get auni to demo on izad, ok? :p
the wife noticed that our little girl’s sclerae (the whites of the eyes) were yellowish in colour, so i had been religiously going out in the morning with auni to ‘tan’ her in the sun. but when it didn’t go away, we went back to the paediatrician who looked at her right after the delivery. the doctor diagnosed it as jaundice, and that my little girl’s bilirubin level was over 260 µmol/L, high enough to be warded for phototherapy. bilirubin is found in red blood cells and too much of this chemical causes jaundice.
too much bilirubin in a newborn baby can cause brain damage, hearing loss, problems with the muscles that move the eye, physical abnormalities, and even death. so we were definitely concerned.
we had to put the eye-mask on the little one and leave her behind at the hospital while we rushed home to quickly pack the wife’s things for a two-night stay. she insisted on staying with the baby throughout because she was direct breastfeeding, and couldn’t bear to part with her newborn although she was still in confinement…
the next morning, her bilirubin level went down to 211 µmol/L, and by friday, it went down even lower to 100+ µmol/L. she could finally go home!
aniq and i dropped by the hospital to visit them as much as we could, to keep them company. and he was more than happy to bring them both back.
her skin looks better now, just a little yellow left in the eyes.
38 visitors online now 7 guests, 31 bots, 0 members Max visitors today: 61 at 05:14 pm SGT This month: 61 at 07-02-2012 05:14 pm SGT This year: 65 at 21-01-2012 09:08 am SGT All time: 103 at 10-12-2011 05:33 am SGT
.
Entries (RSS)