Why I chose gentle birth

I'm an avid follower of gentle birth, and I'm proud of it.

I gave birth to my first baby (and the following, insya Allah), as gentle and natural as possible. It was a wonderful experience I will forever treasure. I thank Allah SWT everyday for it.

I didn't choose gentle birth just because of the benefits I received; i.e. vaginal birth, side effects free from the drugs, and of course pain free.

I chose it because I know it is the best for both my baby and me.

Imagine a baby being forced to go out of your tummy at times he/she is not yet ready. It's like plucking a fruit from a tree while you could wait perhaps two more days for it to ripen. It could have been sweeter and tastier.

Gente birth is like reverting back to nature and have a total dependence on no one but the Almighty. Just like what Islam told us to be. Ever think how women in the old days could give birth easily, even some in this generation accidentally gave birth in the toilet while bowel movement. Masya Allah, "Kun Faya Kun".

But knowing that birth can be as easy as just reverting back to our nature doesn't mean I'm taking it for granted. I prepared as if I was going to the war.

Daily affirmations every day, visualizing every night, exercising every evening, watching what I was eating for the whole 9 months, watching out my position every hour and is it worth it, without a doubt, yes! It's only for 9 months, what is there to complain about?

And in order to do all of the above, a proper guidance is needed. Thank you, Sifu Wai Han and the support I received from GBG and Homebirth :)

Cuma satu, we are only human. Redha. If Allah SWT somehow does not permit us to have one, He must have a reason that we are not aware of. The most important thing is that we have tried the best that we could. With a proper guidance, insya Allah.. we'll fine that thin line between gentle birth and risking the baby.

Like a normal birth, sometimes we may not achieved what we want during gentle birth. But blaming the gentle birth itself is unfair. Qada' dan qadar, have faith.

Outsides people are too easy to judge. Too easy to condemn. That's why I shared my gentle birth techniques only to those who asked.

If you haven't even grasped the concept of gentle birth, you are in no position to judge me, to judge us.

It's our decision. In any position there's a risk and it's one I'm willing to bear because I'm proud to say I have a total dependence in Allas SWT. When we try to do what's best for HIM, He'll be there for us :)

Di hamparan Shamrock - A review

The first religious book I read was "Aku terima nikahnya" by Ustaz Hasrizal and I was immediately hooked.

The way he wrote, is very near to people like me.

Take La Tahzan for example. I can't really relate to that. It makes my self esteem as a Muslim goes down the drain, hehe..

Anyhow,  I just finished reading "Di hamparan Shamrock" by the same author. It was like walking down a memory lane of 11 years of his life in other countries; to name a few.. Ireland and Jordan.

I read it at the very right time.

Doing a PhD is not an easy thing; not physically, not mentally, not financially.

Since I am not willing to wait for a scholarship from the university, I decided to do it part time. Mann.. Imagine, teaching, supervising, administration work, and research at the same time; not forgetting.. Daughter, sister, mother, wife all at one go.

Part time = pay it myself. On top of that, PTPTN+housing loan+car loan+ASB loan. :)

And mentally simply because time is against you. Perhaps someday, when the time is right I shall share how challenging PhD is for me mentally. Even at the thought of typing this down, I had to hold back my tears.

And "Di hamparan Shamrock" is something I really can relate to. I hardly cried when reading a book, this is one of those which I just refused to read in public.

To a friend of mine, the ones I wish to keep for life, the ones who gave me this book as it was her love at first sight.. This book will go from one hand to the other in this lab, as a motivation for us here to wrap up our 3 years work.

Doakan..

Rahsia kepimpinan Sultan Muhammad Al-Fateh a review

I accidentally encountered this banner on the way back to office from visiting my colleague who just gave birth to a wonderful baby girl during her chemoteraphy session (She had a breast cancer). Obviously I got excited!!

I didn't know who the speaker was at first, he was a DJ at IKIM it seems and the author of the book I bought a week before I went to his talk, 'Kuasa Kepimpinan Al-Fateh'. Should have bought the book for him to sign, if only I knew earlier.

The talk was as expected interesting. But 2 hours was too short for such knowledge sharing.

Anyhow, let me share on the three things about Sultan Muhammad Al-Fateh (SMAF) that I learned from the talk:

1. Positive thinking.
-SMAF's mom taught him positive thinking since he was little. He woke up every morning, and said positive things about himself and what he wanted to achieve in his life. He did this visually, auditorily and kinesthetically. Perhaps like what Jessica did.

And the mother pasted the map of Constantinopole everywhere in SMAF's room, reminding me of DarwishDarwisya's flash card method.

Why positive thinking? One of the video shared by Ustaz..

Please take your time watching this --> Masaru Emoto's rice experiment

2. Think big before micro thinking.
-For the whole 800 years, Muslim leaders tried to take over Constantinopole, but only at the 10th attempts it succeed. SMAF learned from the history why the previous leaders failed. And he took into account even to the tiniest details, on the perfect season for his army, on the weakest point of the Constantinopole, etc.

3. Focus.
-To sum it all, let's just watch this awarenest test video to see how focus you are.

I guess there are not so many things to be learned in 2 hours. Need to go to his 'Parenting Gaya Al-Fateh' talk one day. But it's motivating enough for me.

Anyhow, Ustaz shared one movie about SMAF which Love and I downloaded from Torrent and watched already last weekend. Fetih 1453. Man, very inspiring. Please go download :) Or if you're staying nearby, just get it from me.

P/S: I wanna go to Turki!!

Say whattt?? #1

My big baby

28th January 2013

The other day, Baby K pointed at my tummy and shouted, "Babyyyy!!!". I was like, "Whaaaattttttt??" Thinking she might be having her baby's sixth sense. Then I immediately realized the Upin Ipin cartoon printed on my Tshirt right at my tummy. Okay fine..

6th February 2013

Baby K took her counting book, pointed number 1 at me and shouted, 'Alif'. Haiyo..




 

A simple CNY update!

Happy Lunar New Year to everyone whose celebrating it!!

What we did on CNY:

1. Grab a new phone :)

Pardon me Mr. Steve Jobs, but the Stylus makes it very appealing

2. Bring Khaira Asyikin to KLCC park

Lasak like Abi!

3. Date with Love

Triple Decker O'Briens taste very different nowadays :(

4. And gathering with my loves

At Serai, gotta love the Pavlova but not the Cempedak Cheese (yes, we tried that thanks to Love (T_T))

Such a joyful holiday! In fact on Monday, we went to 4 shopping malls in a day. Had sooo much fun <3>

P/S: Watched the 'Silence of the lamb' finally. Okbye.

Baby's food - Darwish Darwisya's Method

Khaira's lesson on Hijaiyah is still going on as usual Alhamdulillah. Still yet to memorize all the letters, perhaps I need to buckle up, work harder.

At times I lack of motivation, I always remember what Pn. Lina said, Syaitan knows that my baby has the capability to memorize the Quran, thus he sends more army to bring me down. Ya Allah, grant me strength. Grant Khaira Asyikin and my husband strength for we are just another slave of yours. Ameen.

So, have you tried the supplement suggested? Anyhow, I have two more tips on your baby's food that I learned during the seminar..

1. Air zam zam, hard to get? Well, yeah.. Quite hard and expensive here. RM12 for 500ml. But, what Pn. Lina did was to mix a small amount of Air Zam Zam in her daily's drinking water. Why? Because a study shows that if we pour in a small amount of air Zam Zam in a larger amount of normal drinking water, the molecule of the normal drinking water will eventually follow the structure of that small amount of Air Zam Zam. Amazing. The Almighty is very considerate, Subhanallah, since we don't have an easy access for the Zam Zam water, He makes life a lot easier for us :)

2. Allow the water and rice (raw) that your baby is going to consume to be exposed to the sound of Al-Quran, perhaps while you're playing Juz 'Amma at your house. See, the study shows that the structure of the water changes as according to the sound it listens to. That's the reason why, our prophet, Muhammad SAW said that “Zamzam lima syuriba lahu”, which means “Zam-zam water will do the message and the intention of the one who drink it".

Simple tips, easy to try, so don't let them hold you back! Happy trying!!!

“And we create every living thing from water.” (Q.S. Al Anbiya: 30)

 References:
[1] Semina Menghafal Al Quran Cara Darwish Darwisya
[2] http://novianti1412.files.wordpress.com/2010/07/the-miracle-of-water.pdf
[3] http://www.myberita.com/subhanallah-keajaiban-molekul-air-air-zam-zam/

Istikharah..

A couple of weeks ago, I received an offer as a full time researcher in one big company. ‘Company’, rather than ‘University’.. A change of career path altogether.

I always knew since I was a little girl, that teaching comes as a nature to me.

After a while, I fell in love with research. It’s a passion, an addiction. So I took ‘teaching’ as a medium to find my actual passion -> ‘Research’.

But.. this place, where I’ve been since I was 18 held a soft spot in my heart. I have a stable job here, forever grateful with what I’m making at the end of the month, I created my own label here and mostly I have a lot of fun growing up with friends in the research lab of whom I cried and laughed with throughout the hardship of my PhD.

On the other hand, it’s thrilling. To see what you’ve been studying all along is inline with the industry and to actually see the ‘baby’ I’ve been raising all along is worth more than I thought.

But I’m too small for such BIG decision. So, I let Him decides. :)

The last time I had such BIG decision to handle was when Love proposed. And look where I am now. So, I have faith :)