The whats and whys

Khaira talks a lot. Seriously a lottttt.. No surprise there since both Love and I are a bit on the chatty side. I always enjoy talking to her especially when she talks about her imaginary friends. We love that creative side of her.

But.. oh myyy lately she asks too many whats and whys. If that is not memeningkan enough, she would do it over and over again.

"Ibu, why is Aisha crying?"

A minute after that, "Why is she crying?"

2 minutes afterwards, when Aisha actually stopped crying, "Why did Aisha cry just now?"

The next day, "why did she cry yesterday while changing her diapers?"

*bang head against wall*

I came across an article about toddler asking the questions repeatedly and felt so much better afterwards.

The reasons why they asked questions repeatedly:

1. They are of course curious and your answers are not clear enough for them to understand

2. To seek for attention

Both needs me to improvise my parenting skill (T_T). That actuallly helps me become a lot more patience with her. So I just thought of sharing.

But if you need to put an end to her endless repetitive questions, here's what the article suggested you to do:

"Why do you think she cries?"

Ask for her opinion instead.

But what Love did normally was explaining to Khaira in a really really technical term I doubt she understood. Then she would stopped asking altogether.

Works everytime.

He must bore her to max. Hehe.

How to talk to your toddler

So currently I'm reading this..

Why? Because seriously.. having a toddler somehow seems more challenging than a newborn. The tantrum Khaira has nowadays since Aisha was born, ya Allah..

Look at the pic below.. Whenever mom dukung Aisha..

Anyhow, I just finished reading the first chapter of the book. I found it very interesting,  how it trained you to talk to your toddler.

Some points to share:

1. To encourage your toddler to eat --> "You take a bite of your vege, and then I'll take a bite of mine"

2. Separation anxiety --> Reassure that you will return and get her interested in an activity. Eg. "I know you don't want me to leave, but I'll be back soon" or "Why don't you feed your teddy while I make lunch?" Don't do this.. "it makes me mad when you do that" or "Poor baby.."

3. Weaning from bottle --> " You're a big girl now. Just like me, big girl drinks from bottle"

4. Other people have feelings too --> " When you hit Abi, it hurts him"

5. Put off a toddler's request --> " I can't play now. I'm reading my book. Reading my book is fun for me. Just like playing masak2 is fun for you. Now I'm going to have some fun with my book while you have some fun with your bricks". Explain the reasons to them.

I shall share more in shaa Allah.

The (hypno) birth of Aisha Asyikin

The pregnancy of our second daughter was exactly as planned, Alhamdulillah. I conceived a month after I stopped breastfeeding my 2 y.o daughter Khaira; of whom I gave birth via hypnobirthing as well. Read about my first delivery here and birth video is linked here.

It all started on Saturday, 2 days before Raya. I kept on hoping I would deliver Baby Aisha after that Friday night because Love and I planned to have the evening all to ourselves before the baby was born. So we had a wonderful dinner, movie and durian buffet. Then the next day when I woke up, I noticed some blood, but no surges at all.

My 189cm hubby and 148cm me

Afterwards the blood disappeared just like that. I was a bit disappointed because with Khaira, I gave birth to her the same day I had a blood show. Raya went by happily and on the second day raya night, the blood show started again. More bloody, this time with surges but again it went by just like that. Disappointed again.

Starting from the second day Raya onwards, I already had my daily morning or evening walk of about 3km a day. Then, I climbed up and down the stairs to my office at level 4. On 5th day of Raya, I still had my evening walk as usual, no surges at all, no show. Had my whole relatives coming over for dinner. It was super fun.

Walk at Taman TAR

Walk at Taman Wetland Putrajaya

The next day, 8 days before Aisha's EDD, I woke Love up early for our morning walk. But on the way back around 10.30 am, I felt even more sensational surges. But I was super hungry (the same feeling before I birthed Khaira), so we decided to pick Khaira up and went to mamak for nasi campur.

I timed my surges while we had our brunch. It was straight away a minute surge with only 3 to 5 minutes gap. By the time I finished my brunch, which was an hour later, the surge became more sensational.

So, we went to mom's place straight away. Took a bath, then I told Love to go straight to the hospital because the gap became even shorter to a point I didn't bother to time.

About 5 mins before arriving at the hospital, I already felt the sensation of pushing. I stopped doing my surge breathing and J breathing so that I stopped dilating for a while. Calm breathing, I reminded myself. I'm almost there. It was around 1.40 pm at that time.

The walk from the parking space to the hospital was like one of the longest walk I felt in my life. While Love settled in the registration, I tried sitting at the bench, but ended up squatting because I just felt like pushing so badly.

The nurses quickly offered me a wheelchair. Since the labour room was full, I was offered a ward where the midwife did a VE and said I was fully dilated. Rushed me to the labour room where they requested for another patient at 6 cms dilated to make room for me.

Entered the labour room at 2pm. No enema, no ctg, not even enough time for me to change to hospital garments, I got to the bed and just pushed, ignoring everybody except Love. The first push made me shouted at the doctor and said; "Doktor buat apa tu? Sakit!" As I felt some burning sensation down there;  I did not have that with Khaira. That was when Love asked me to look only to realize my baby's head was out!! Omg so biggg!! She weighed 3.1kgs.

My Asyikins

At second push; 2 minutes later, the whole body was out. Alhamdulillah so smooth. Felt so better afterwards. I survived with minor natural tear. And the following statement came from my gynae right after I delivered the baby, "You should consider homebirth for your third baby. Easy delivery you're lucky not to have DBA." Apparently DBA is the term they use for 'delivery before arrival'.

So there goes the birth of our 2nd daughter on 2nd of August, 2 minutes in the labour room, we enter at 2pm, she popped our at 2.02pm with 2 pushes. ;)

I must have been so blessed. Alhamdulillah. I would forever feel indebted to Sifu Wai Han whom I met 3 years ago; but changed my life forever. Thank you to family and friends for the endless doa. And thank you to my sweetheart of whom without, I could not even imagine going through this.

My birth story has also been published in Hypnobirthing Malaysia's website. Read it here.

Berbuka with kesayangans Ramadhan 2014

We have missed the first two weekends of Ramadhan since Love was warded due to dengue.

That Friday after Love recovered, we went to TGI Friday's Paradigm Mall with my dearest Uniten clans. Incomplete since Mel, Farah and Mimi had to cancel last minute. But still so much fun nonetheless.

Look at my cranky baby

The venue selection was just so so. Traffic was super clear to Paradigm. We left at 615pm and we arrived just before buka. I booked a table earlier but they forgot our reservation. Not making me happy since they gave table at the outside and Khaira apa lagi.. running around lah since dekat dengan air pancut outside. Sigh.. But the surau in Paradigm was very convenient :)

My forever fav food in TGIF is always the Nachos!

Then, on Saturday we went to The Club for buka puasa with Love's relatives. Khaira by that time socialized well with kids near her age. Made our day ♥

Sunday, had our buka at my grandmom's crib. Sighh.. the only grandmom we have this year. I can't imagine how Raya would be..

Monday, went to Tony Roma's Citta Mall with Love's uni clans. Ok. Best gile. Service was superb. Food was delish. They threw us so many desserts and appetisers in the house. Would definitely go there again!! And boy, the surau was also convenient enough for me to bring Khaira in.

Ohh.. and Monday to Wednesday.. kids eat free! Khaira had so much fun because this particular branch is very kids friendly. And Tony Roma's always have the best caesar salad with grilled chicken. :)

Tuesday was Nuzul Quran. Had our usual buffet tradition at Kelab Darul Ehsan with the in laws. This year, they had violinist. Khaira was mesmerized so we had our buka peacefully. And later she danced non stop to the music. I have no complain at all on the food. But the surau, memang can be improved a lot lah. Hopefully next year.

Spot Khaira

The fourth weekend on Saturday, we had Papa John's all you can eat at IPC for buka with the Ampang clan. We bought the Groupon deal, RM 82 for 3 pax. The service in IPC was super duper slow.. totally wouldn't recommend this place for buka.

Then on Sunday, went to Cozy House for buka with my SABians dearest. Reservation please if you intend to buka here. And must place your order before 4pm on that day. No website for the menu, so must memorize the menu like that lah. So funny. Dah la ala carte served only after 8pm. But the food was super good so it was worth it.

The Friday just before Raya, I planned a date just the two of us with Love. Burger King + Hercules + all you can eat durian at SS2. It was a damn good one.

That Saturday, had dinner at Horizon Garden, Bangi with my family. It was a simple one, went back right after buka so we can have our Maghrib at home.

And the next day, Raya eve.. the tradition. We had all the ketupat and rendang for raya.

Alhamdulillah, ya Allah for giving me the opportunity to have this Ramadhan and Raya.. I must have been so blessed :)

Meeting my kesayangans

Now that the time to give birth is nearing, the nesting instinct becomes crazier.

I didn't know if I would be able to have my Raya or not, didn't know how fasting for a full term mommy would be. Thus, I was just so glad to get to meet my kesayangans before Ramadhan.

After all I'm gonna miss a lot during my confinement later on. Weddings of my two best friends and ohhh.. David Blaine in Malaysia :( lots of open houses.. sedihnye. Dahla I'm a Raya freak.

Anyhow, I thank Allah for the opportunity to meet my SABians bfs. Do you know that we are ALL pregnant this year? Hurrah!

And the opportunity to meet my dearest Unitenians at Mika Kaleel's first birthday.

Earlier that day, we went to Baby Adleena's aqiqah. I so love the matching outfits of these daddy-child though Khaira refused to look at the camera.

Anyhow, happy birthday Mika darling. And welcome to the world Baby Adleena. Semoga menjadi anak yang soleh/solehah dan sentiasa dalam perlindungan Nya. We love the both of you a lot.

Khaira's salon haircut

Felt like supermommy these past couple of weeks.

Love has been down with dengue, but life must go on especially that the EDD is nearing!!

I went grocery hunting, with a trolley full with stuff.. alone twice. Imagine me with perut so big and fasting some more to carry all that from trolley to car pun tak larat. But I believe Allah SWT sees every good deeds. Love always helped people around and true enough, both times, a guy helped me out with the heavy stuff. My doa so that good things will happen to both their wives in return.

House chores lagi, all the laundry and stuff.. Alhamdulillah, given the strength to manage everything. Especially with the online shopping, Lazada I love you!

But the most important thing was that, I managed to bring my little girl for her raya haircut. Her first salon experience. She was so calm, no gadget needed until the stylist started to blow dry her hair. Hehe..

Good job, Little K!!

Fighting with dengue

The nightmare began last Friday. Mom was down with fever since Wednesday. Khaira became feverish on Friday. And when I got home, I was feeling under the weather as well. Love cancelled his weekly futsal and headed straight home after his office's kenduri. He too fell sick after he massaged me.

Day 2.

Both Love and I were too weak to even drive to clinic. With the help of my brother, we arrived at the hospital and Khaira was given ubat bontot since the fever did not subside after normal medicine.

Day 3.

Decided to go back to clinic since Love and Khaira had temperature up to 40 degrees the night before. All of us including mom and brother who caught a fever as well by then had our blood test. Mom and I were ruled out of dengue immediately.  Love had a platelet count of 135,000 which was border line. Developed rashes on some part of his body.

Day 4.

After my pregnancy check up, we headed back to clinic since Love's temperature did not subside and he was having bad body ache. Blood test indicated that the platelet count dropped to 95,000 and he was given a referral letter. Went to Columbia Asia Puchong where he was confirmed to have dengue and admitted there straight away.

Day 5.

Aside from bad body ache and constant headache, fever was still around 38+ degrees. Platelet count dropped to 88,000. Brother was ruled out of dengue today.

Day 6.

White cell was normal but platelet count still dropped to 72,000. Doctor said as long as fever was there, hard for platelet count to go up again. He was out of drip but caused him extra dizziness and raised in temperature.

Day 7.

Drip again for a few hours to make him better. Temperature still around 38 degrees. Platelet count dropped to 62,000. Khaira was ruled out of dengue today.

Day 8.

Temperature slowly going down around 36 to 37 degrees. At noon hiked up a bit to 38. Platelet count still dropped to 58,000. Rashes started to itch and skin became thinner.

Day 9.

Temperature finally normal and platelet count went up to 95,000. Love has finally been discharged today!

In conclusion, it has been a tough week for all of us. I strongly believe Allah SWT wants to ease us up in other things, let's hope one of them is the delivery ♥