Khaira's Aqiqah + our housewarming

The most adorable

Alhamdulillah, we're done with Khaira's aqiqah. A very small ceremony attended by our family and close friends.

Khaira, Abi and my whole family were wearing gold. Me? This is the only baju kurung that can fit me at the moment. Tsk.. Tsk..

At the same time, we recited Yassin in our new house - where the event took place. Khaira was quite cranky during Yassin recital because she was hungry. I fed her, and she slept the whole time during marhaban.

Right after the event, we spent our first night at our new house, as a family. And hence I'm crossing the 8th item in my 2011's wishlist; move in to our new home.

We are yet to have internet in our new home. At the moment, I am in my office room. Not that I'm back to work, but I have some stuff to settle here. And I miss this little girl like mad.



Right after the event, my dad and Love did this to Khaira..



And she looked cuter than ever dengan kepala botak. Will update her picture soon!

Highlight

I remember how I was a bit reluctant when he first came to me and asked me to become his final year project (FYP) supervisor. I was about to have my maternity leave the second semester of his FYP, that would be tough.

But to turn a student down was not even an option. I took him anyway. He proved himself worthy when he did everything I asked. Not only that, he questioned back, pieces by pieces until he managed to put them in one big picture.

When you see yourself in another person, you would do everything under the sky to help him. His persistence, his patience, his curiosity.. just enlightened me and smothered me at the same time. Hehe. Imagine, he would call me at midnight to ask about his project, super funny!

Then, at the critical moment, there I was. I gave birth, I got confined, and I had a hard time juggling between a mother, a PhD student, a lecturer, a supervisor and a 'supervisee' (is there such a word?) at the same time.

He came over every now and then. We discussed through phone most of the time. How hard.. long distance supervising for someone as new as me, you wouldn't even want to imagine.

His last visit, we had a long serious discussion. I am sure happy with his technical ability. I was a proud supervisor when his paper got published in a conference. But his ability on selling his project worried me BIG time. Love helped me brainwashed him, spent an hour teaching him on his presentation skills; two days before his actual presentation.

And just about an hour ago, he called. Thanking Love and me because..

HE HAS JUST BEEN NOMINATED AS THE BEST FYP AWARD.

Alhamdulillah.

Just about I feel soooooo hard to go back to work.

To you, I'm proud of you :) This is the highlight of my supervising career.

To Love, what more can I say.. :)

Surviving confinemnt

Woottttt!! I survived the 44 days of confinement!! :)

I wouldn’t say it was an easy one. Not mentally, not physically. I’m done with 44 days of having to ikat rambut, having to wear long sleeves and kain batik all the time (masa pantang panas gile badan!), bertungku pagi and petang for the whole 44 days (believe it or not, i did that!), berpilis, berbarut, bertangas. Lagi the food!!! Haiyo, bosan!!!!!~

Alhamdulillah, I’m through all that. Though some things, I have to still do until hari ke 100. Such as no air sejuk, bertungku still everyday in certain parts and barut? Haha, now have to wear girdle siang and malam. For petite like me, the best girdle has got to be from Cosway. Makan masih jaga since I breastfeed Baby Khaira, but not as bad.



I haven’t yet go back to my pre pregnancy weight of 34kgs. Currently I am 35.8kgs. I don’t intend to get back to my old weight pon, I like the curves I have now. But still, could not help but being disappointed of the fact that most clothes still did not fit me :(

Finally, get out of the house after confinement. Visited my in laws!



Went to Shameem’s wedding at her house and at Hotel Istana. The grandest wedding I’ve ever attended!



Eh? Hijrah :)

Had to leave Baby Khaira behind most of the time we were out. My parents have a strict restriction on bringing Khaira to shopping malls until she’s 6 months old. Which is fine by Love and me because we want her to be less exposed to the outside environment for longest possible. But, I miss her all the time, 4 hours pon rasa cam nak nangis. Pelik sungguh. How to go to work like this, Khaira?

But the best thing about ending the confinement is that slowly, I can find tune on what’s work for Baby Khaira and what’s not. Alhamdulillah.

Baby Khaira pon dah pandai main! Last night, Love candid the most adorable photo of us, my current fav.



Saya sayang awak a lot, Khaira!

As of now, busy preparing to move in to our new house and busy preparing for Khaira’s Aqiqah. Again, to all WAHMs out there, semakin hari semakin cemburu!

P/S: I bought the fight ticket to Bali yesterday! Minggu ni fuel surcharge AirAsia murah!

The breastfeeding challenges

Only Allah SWT knows how challenging it is to breastfeed Baby Khaira.

The first three days, I did not manage to produce any milk. After three massage sessions, I fully breastfeed Baby Khaira on the fourth day of her life.

Unfortunately, Baby Khaira kept on having colic after I breasfed her. Tried experimenting with my diet and found out that she could not take lobak putih. So, I stopped eating lobak putih and she got better.

But then, my milk supply decreased. The confinement lady came again and found out that there was some clog. Massage again, Alhamdulillah the next morning, it got better.

After I stopped pumping since the milk supply decreased, I started again after the massage. But only to find out that there was no suction with the breast pump. Manufacturing defect. Took a week plus to service and they loaned us another pump, Modu. Sucks a lot!! The suction was so slow, took hours to express my breastmilk.

Then, I got a message in my blog from a reader saying it was not good to pump during the first 6 weeks. I took it as a sign. Takpelah, tak pump for a while. After all, I got about 12 bottles (60 ozs) of supply already.

So, last Saturday, Love dropped by at our new house.. where I stored my expressed brestmilk (EBM). And sangatlaaaaahhhh sedih, rumah black out. The 12 bottles of EBM? Rosak, dah masam.

Astaghfirullah.

Dugaan..

La yukallifullah hunafsan illawus 'aha.

Everytime I read the Ma'thurat, I paused at this part and cried.

"On no soul do Allah place a burden greater than it can bear."

A decade together and another year older

21st Nov, 10 years ago, a best friend that was so dear to me proposed me to become his girlfriend.. And now, I'm his wife and the mother to our daughter, Baby Khaira!

On 22nd Nov was Love's 26th birthday. Whee!! We had moderate celebrations this year; for his and for mine compared to last year's celebration -> mine; his.

For mine, since it was 5 days before I gave birth to Khaira, we had a mini celebration at Little White Cafe , Bangi. Ooohhh.. The red velvet is to die for!

For his, since I was in confinement, I couldn't take him out to a fancy dinner. For a little surprise I decided to try Blooming and send over a box of chocolate for him at his office.



I am very satisfied with the service. The chocolate came at the right time and it was uber delicious! I chose Beryl's homemade chocolate, it was Oreo cookies inside with Beryl's chocolate outside. Love loves both the surprise and the taste of the chocolate. I am one happy customer, good job Blooming!



Later as he got home, I called for Domino's delivery and we had a mini celebration with my family. FYI, I did not eat any of the pizzas no matter how tempting it was. *Pat at the back* Am so proud with myself.


Happy birthday, Sayaaannngggggg!!!! I love you a lot. After confinement, we go celebrate ok!!! :)

One month old

Anakku Khaira,

Alhamdulillah.. U’re one month old today!

I will forever remember the moment I birth u. U cried a little just to announce ur presence to the world. And when the Dr. put u on my tummy, the first thing I realized was how large your eyes were.. The most beautifull!

During my whole pregnancy, I always pray for an easy delivery. Alhamdulillah, I got just that. But I took for granted to pray for my milk supply. And for the first 3 days of your life, we had to feed u with Mama Iza’s EBM + formula. God knows how it broke my heart. Thus my dear Khaira, don’t take for granted the power of doa. We are just His humble servants after all.

The first night we took you home, we slept at Nanny’s guest room downstairs. What started as a peaceful night turned out to be a chaos when u cried everytime we put u down. So abi and Ibu had to hold u the whole night, clueless on what to do.

The next day onwards, Nanny and Atuk decided to sleep in the living room, helping Abi and Ibu to take care of u. At times, Ayah Ngah and Busu came down to hold u in the middle of the night when u cried, so much love in the house for u. Nanny and Atuk taught us what to do when u cried and eventually u got better day by day. WE gor better day by day. When u grow up later, please do ALWAYS remember what Atuk, Nanny, Ayah Ngah and Busu did for u k.

Khaira, I never knew breastfeeding would be such a time consuming task. U were nursing every hour and sometimes up to 40 mins per nursing. I learned that breast milk are much easier to digest compared to cow’s milk. And that explains the every hour feeding, day and night and I never had a solid sleep more than 2 hours after u’re born.

You were having colic for the first 4 weeks of ur life. I tried to monitor everything I ate, and just about 3 days ago, I stopped eating lobak putih that was supposed to increase my milk supply, and finally ur tummy got better and better. Alhamdulillah.

Day after day, u started to nurse less frequently. Started to recover from ur mild jaundice. Started to learn how to burp and to adapt on day and night.

Ibu on the other hand, learned how to hold a fragile newborn, learned how to nuse u, how to burp u, how to calm u down..

Abi learned how to bath u, to change ur diapers, to swaddle u, to make u sleep..

Dear Khaira, the reason I’m writing this letter is not to whine, but to remind u of the hard times; the times I almost gave up, the times I bet u almost gave up. But look at us Khaira, after a month, we adapt to each other eventually!

You as that tiny little person outside the womb. Ibu and Abi which life changed into parenthood in just one night. And with patience and time, we managed to find the middle point.

A month old Khaira at 3.9 kg

I hope in the future, u’ll always remember, if we survived this, we can survive everything insya Allah. At times u think u cannot go on, remember that u’re a strong person. Not a single cry during BCG, a minor cry during Hep B yesterday, you’ll survive, I have faith.

Much love, Ibu and Abi..

Mum vs Grandmum

My mum was being raised by her grandmother, I was raised by my grandmother while my mom was working and now Baby Khaira would be raised by her grandmother (my mom) when I'm away to work later.

Now since I'm in confinement under Mum's care, I pretty much get the idea of how Baby Khaira is going to be raised by my mum.

And of course, since Mum and I were totally on a different page, there were hiccups here and there. Like the fact how Mum babytalked all the time while Love and I treated Little Khaira as intelligent human being as possible. Or she held and sang to her for every single reasons possible; nak tido, nak buang air, hiccups, while Love and I would rather calmed her down inside her baby cot.

Gaahhhhh!! Tension ok sometimes!

Anyhow, I too was raised by my grandparents. I, too was being spoiled by my grandmum and many times I witnessed the arguments between Mum and Grandmum, funny it's happening to me now.

But to think about it again, I am REALLY glad that Grandmum was a BIG part of my life. I love her endlessly, she talked to me in ways a mum could never talked to her daughter.. She talked to me in ways I would listen. And I talked to her in ways she would listen.

And Mum, being a MOTHER has taught me all the disciplines I should learn. Though the gap between me and Mum were bigger than with my Grandmum, but I couldn't deny the fact that she shaped me to become the person I am today.

I might be spoiled by my Grandmum, but at the end of the day, both Mum and Grandmum were proud of who I am today. That is all that matters in the end, right?

And for that, I am more than happy that Little Khaira is going to have the right balance in her life. The love of a Grandmum and a Mother :)