July 2008

Okay okay...I think everyone are curious enough what's the suprise that I have for 2008. And now I'm afraid when I reveal my suprise people would say "hah...that's it?" or "tat's not suprising at all"... well i do hope my suprise is considered as a surprise for readers out there. At least for some.

When my friend Jessica from Germany made her guess...i was smiling non-stop reading her mail. The way she made her guess was very cute AND cheeky. Here was what she wrote in her e-mail:

Well, actually I already have a guess in my mind… Only, it might be a bit imaginative and fantastic. I hardly dare writing it down… Here it is:
1. It is really cute.
2. It is the greatest gift of God.
3. It has eyes, ears, a mouth and very likely a nose.
4. It has a pair of hands.
5. It is two-legged.
6. Nobody can see it, yet. But you can feel it.
Are any of my guesses right?
Looking forward to all surprises to come.

After I read the email, I called syauQi and read the email out loud to him. and syauQi was like... "number 2 is wrong"..and I looked at him and read number 2 again. I asked him "wrong?" I thought he would refer to our miracle babies as the greatest gift of God. With a very innocent look he said "isn't it me your greatest gift of God?" ....awwww sooo sweet =)

Anyway, back to the suprise. Yup, some of you guess it right! I'm in my 4th month of pregnancy. Nooo...not multiple pregnancy again. Only one this time. Some of you might have expected this news but perhaps it came as a shock to some. Well, I was definately shocked when I came to knew about it.

I didn't feel nausea this time, but I felt gastric. I told my mom, I didn't skip any meal so there's no reason to get gastric. Till one day, I had problem with my knee and no makcik urut was able to help my knee. One of the lady that massage me suggested that I should go for x-ray. That's when it cross my mind I should do pregnancy test because it would be harmful for pregnant mothers to do x-ray. Went out to buy the urine test...and tadddaaaaa. Result showed positive. I was speechless. I read the instruction on the box again and again to confirm two lines means pregnant or not. Well the news came as a suprise to everyone except hubby. syauQi was very calm. As for me, it was more of a shocked than a suprise.

We shall wait for June 2008, hArith & athirAh will have another sibling!

Yabedabeduuu...new family member coming!

aQiqah

Al-hamdulillah, my babies' aQiqah went well. Guest came in as early as 12pm. Since I didn't do any cukur jambul ceremony, at about 11am we had a group of Tahfiz from Darul Quran, Kuala Kubu Baru to recite the Quran instead, they khatam the Quran. 15 of them came and each of them read 2 juzu' each. It took them about an hour to finish everything. Oh of cause they didn't take turn to read the Quran, kalau macam tu bile nak abis bacanye...so all read serentak. Masing2 read the juzu' that was assigned to them. And later followed by Selawat beramai2.

My well behaved boy during Selawat session

The crowd that came at 12pm were mostly neighbours. Whereas relatives started coming at 1pm onwards. Parents' friends came from 2:30pm. Time allocated for my friends was from 4pm onwards and at night, pApa's friend came to complete the day. Yup it was an all day long event. Fuh...mmg sungguh penat. Well, we had 3 goat...so might as well invite a big crowd. But since my house compound could only have 150 seats...not big enough for everyone to sit at once, we had no choice but to stagger the time. The first goat was served at noon, 2nd was at 3pm and the 3rd was served for dinner. We had Rice Mandey...it's Arabic way of cooking where they cook the goat together with the rice and serve it on a big tray.

Mandey Rice

Of cause we had other menu too cause I believe not everyone fancy goat. So for noon we also had white rice and lauk pauk kampung menu. Laksa was also in the menu till dinner and the great thirst quenching, ABC. Since we knew nasi putih sure tak laku after 4pm, we started serving Char Kuey Teow and Roti Jala besides having the Nasi Mandey and Laksa. For dinner, we had the Nasi Mandey, Laksa, Char Kuey Teow, Rojak Buah and Yong Tau Foo. We had lots of kuih muih for dessert, few guests came with desserts in their hand.

Food, food and more food

Everyone seems to enjoy the food (I hope,hihi), they love the Rice Mandey especially...most of them eating it for the first time. The total number of guest was easily about 500 people (or could even be more). The weather was being kind enough to me, it only rain just before Maghrib and stop around 8:15pm, just in time for the next batch of guests to come in.

The best part of all, or shall i say the most amazing thing was my babies' behaviour. They were not cranky at all despite the huge crowd and hot weather. Even when i brought them out under the canopy to meet the guests, they didn't show any discomfort at all. Both of them mmg takde bunyi langsung through out the day. Ussualy even if I were to carry them on normal days after few minutes they tend to be restless. But on that day it was just amazing, they were at their best behaviour. Everyone commented on that. They remain quiet regardless who was carrying them. They even stick to their ussual bedtime routine. By 730pm both were sound asleep and even though guests at night went in and out of the room, that didn't caused them to wake up at all. We even had guests yg selamba borak kuat2, sungguh tak reti baby tgh tido...but yet babies remain asleep.

The secret to it? Talk to your babies, never underestimate their capabilities. A week before the aQiqah I told my babies every single day what to expect. I told them "there will be lots and lots of guests coming to see both of you, and people want to see good babies not cranky babies", " the guests wants to meet friendly babies so you must be good with everybody", "don't give mOmmy and pApa a hard time to put both of you to sleep because we have guests to entertain.", "pApa's friend coming at night, but by then it will be your bedtime...so you have to sleep and mOmmy will bring them in the room to see both of you, but please don't be awaken by the guests". I kept on telling them everyday what to expect. Al-hamdulillah they understood me. Well of cause some might say, not that they understood what I said, it was just coincidence that the babies behaved well. As long they behaved, it was good enough for me. But from my point of view, I do believe babies can understand us. We just need to talk to them. So never give them false promises, cause if you do they will not take your words seriously.

For example, there are times where I need to go out. So I would tell my babies...once mOmmy come back I'll play with you. So even if they felt asleep while waiting for me to return, I'll approach them, kiss them and whisper in their ears that "I'm home and you can wake up if you want to play with me." Yes no doubt they are asleep, some parents wouldn't want to disturb a sleeping baby and just wait till the baby wakes up. But I kept to my words, I told them before I left that ONCE I come back we can play. So that's exactly what I would do, approach them to inform them that I'm back. If they remain asleep, it means they want to play later. In most cases they would wake up with a smile.

Another example was yesterday, in the morning pApa promised hArith to have a swimming session in the evening. But at about 530pm when the 'pool' was ready, he felt asleep. We woke him up. We wouldn't want him to wake up middle of the night feeling that his day wasn't a cOmplete one (cause he was expecting the swimming session). So we woke him up for his swimming session then had his meal. Putting him to sleep after that was easy. By 7pm he was asleep.

So, I believe in the power of communication and must always keep to our words.We wouldn't want our own kids not trusting us.

Overall, the event went well. Food was enough for everyone. More than enough in fact cause the last batch siap tapau balik...hihi. To those who came, thanks alot. It meant a lot to my family and I. Sorry couldn't really sit down and have a chat with all of you. I was going from one guest to another. Through out the day I only had 4 roti jala. Each time I wanted to eat, I'll be hearing people calling me...so tak dapat lar makan. And thank you for the presentssss and $$$. Oh I seriously didn't expect to be receiving begitu banyak hadiah and $$$. It was like a 0year old b'day party....hehe

Lotsa presents for hArith and athirAh

hAppy guessing

As for 2008...stAy tunE, another suprise coming! =)
to evEryone out there, hAppy new yeAr!

If you readers were to remember, I wrote the above phrase at the end of my first 2008 entry. And recently I had a friend from Germany who enquire what's the suprise all about, in which she wrote to me:

"And by the way, does that “stay tune, another surprise coming! =)” mean anything in particular? Or does it mean life with two babies is full of surprises in general?"

Hmm...she already made her guess, anyone else want's to make a guess before I reveal the suprise?

Well..hAppy guessing!

Just Pictures

It's been quite some time since I last post photos here...

The public still ask the gender of my babies

Isn't it kind of obvious it's a gal and a boy?

"hmm...when is pApa coming hOme, I miss him...don't you?"

Laughter is the best medicine!

"mOmmy, i'm done jumping...could you please get me out"

" hmm..should we be good or cranky babies?
why not we team up to make mOmmy cry?"

"Don't worry mOmmy, we decided to be good babies!

I'm the boss!

Iqra'

My instant baby cot at Maybank =)

Passing baton

Today was very hectic. I now know what other blogger meant when they wrote that they actually cry bile anak cry non-stop and all. Well it almost happened to me today but Tuk Ki was just in time to save the situation. If Tuk Ki were to come just a second later, he would surely see me crying. hArith was giving me a hard time. He wanted to be carried at all time. And mind you, i'm not allowed to sit. Gosh, carrying him around was just too tiring for me...saketnye blakang!!! Ngam2 hArith in a better mood....athirAh lak nanges. Macam passing baton lar pulak. At that moment mom wasn't around to help me, and my dad masih jet lag from his London trip, so he needed some sleep. Thus leaving me with the two babies...and the babies chosed this particular day to be cranky.

Petang skit, i decided to bring them to OU...with the backache and all i thought i wanted to avoid carrying the stroller but it was better than staying at home. I got frustrated though at OU. With the Chinese New Year around the corner, they tend to have soooo many items to display, making all the aisle narrow. It was hard for me to pass through with my twin stroller. In fact, all malls have the same problem. Seriously, I really dont understand, even the babies/children departments have narrow aisle. Don't they expect parents to come with the babies? So are we suppose to leave the stroller somewhere at the open space while we do some shopping? Hell no i'm going to do that with all the kidnapping cases.

Gosh, I'm just too tired. It's only 8:26pm but i already feel like hitting the bed. Ohh, and something else just happened tonite, it sucks... well lets not get into it. I rather have my sleep. Gud nite people!

3 nights of bEauty sleep

Fuhh... it was great to have pApa around for 3 days. I managed to get my beauty sleep at night. For 3 nights while pApa was around, I need not wake up in the middle of night to feed my babies, pApa did it for both of them. Whenever I felt sleepy, I straight away drop myself on the bed. I need not worry that bottles were not clean and sterilize yet cause it was all well taken care of. Even to bathe them twice a day was done by pApa...top of that whenever the pampers smells stinky, I just need to pass them to pApa and have them back in my arms already smelling good. Yup, all these has been pApa's chores whenever his home. vEryyy nIceee!

Ohh..it was great 3 days! Well, in fact I treasured my nights sooo much that I actually slept early. Before 10pm I was already asleep. If i'm not mistaken I tuck in yesterday at about 9pm. That reminds me so much back in uni days where I claimed "Tido adalah nikmat dunia pertama".

Well, now back to reality...pApa just left bout 30 mins ago and will only be back on Thursday. That's 5 days just me and the babies (of coz my mom is around to help...well that is IF she doesn't go out ;) ). So hArith and athirAh, please be at your best of behaviour okay =)

Hmm...I think I wanna go to bed now. Gud nite people. ZzzZzzzZzzZzzzzz......

All 3 down with flu

syauQi came back from work on Saturday night. I knew I was going to fall sick anytime soon, so I was looking forward to waking up late the next morning…to reenergize myself. Thought of getting pApa to take the early morning shift with the babies so I could extend my sleeping hours…but men I was wrong. He had planned to have his badminton session as early as 8am. So there goes my plan for waking up late. And I thought at least I would have the chance to have my morning nap at around 10:30 or so (was hoping by then pApa will be home)…but men I was wrong AGAIN. He proceeded to Kelana Jaya to buy the infamous Char Kuey Teow F.A.M. which I was told that he wanna tapau…but somehow it turn out to be breakfast with friends….so the supposedly to be breakfast ended rather late. He then had to drop by at his parent’s house to send the tapau kuey teow. By then my head was as heavy as a bowling ball size 9. Lucky thing it was a weekend, I got hAna to mandikan the babies. I could barely lift my head.

By the time syauQi arrived home, which was almost noon, I was just too tired that I couldn’t get myself to sleep. Have you ever experience such situation that you wayyy passed your tired zone till you not able to sleep. Since I failed to sleep, I decided to put aside hArith’s and athirAh’s outgrown baju so we could have more space in the drawers. By the time I finished with the clothes, I was already having a bowling ball size 13 on my head. I managed to force myself to sleep but only for about 10 minutes ir so, I was awaken by syauQi. We had to go to the hospital to do some family social obligation. My sis-in-law gave birth the day before, she was very supportive when I gave birth to my miracles babies, so it was only right for me to reciprocate her kindness.

After returning from the hospital, I straight away drop myself on the bed and finally had the chance to take a nap. It was about 1 1/2 hour nap. I woke up feeling very groggy and drowsy. Not too sure what was the size of bowling ball I was carrying at that time, I could barely lift my head. My brother woke me up, informing me that babies are crying and cranky. pApa somehow felt asleep besides the babies.

After a week without maid, lack of sleep and over used of energy to handle the babies, I now have runny nose and cough, same goes to my babies too. I’m not sure sape menyangkit sape. Maybe if I had reenergized myself that morning I could have prevented this drowsiness + cough + runny nose. Guess it’s a bit too late. pApa left for an early flight this morning, leaving me with the babies for the next. Well work can’t be avoided aight, someone has to work aight. so wish me luck with the babies. I guess it is just a matter of getting used to this newly routine without maid.

So meanwhile, hArith and athirAh no kissy kissy and less huggy huggy, we wouldnt want to worsen each other flu.

Without maid, Without hubby

For the past 5 days without maid, i found a solution to make me less tired but the babies more tired...to bring them out. I'm not saying going out is not tiring for me but comparatively it is less tiring. At least they are both in the stroller and I just have to push it around. But of coz, from time to time athirAh will be crying asking to be carried. Previously she didn't want to sit in her stroller AT ALL, but now showing great improvement.

But there's a lot to do when getting ready to go out. Mcm nak pindah rumah angkut brg budak2 tu. Here's the checklist:

• Baby bag which consists of:

1. 3 diapers each
2. one change each
3. hand towel to use during changing of diaper
4. small towel each to use during feeding and burping (and for hArith who loves to play with his saliva)
5. baby wipes
6. changing mat
7. hand sanitizer
8. small plastic bag to dispose their pampers

• 2 bottles of prepared milk for each
• blanket/fleece each
• muslin wrap (a less thicker blanket in case it's not that cold)
• soft toy each; Abu & Mawar (to keep them occupied while seating in the stroller)
• stroller (im not consistent, which car do i use to go out each time, as a result i have to start transfering the stroller from one car to the other...very tiring!)
• same goes for the car seats, fixing the car seats from one car to the other

Going to the malls, there are more things for the babies to see and scan around, the more they focus on the faster they get tired. Unlike at home, everything are the same things they see everyday. At home, hArith wants people to talk to him NON-STOP. It gets more tiring because he wants us to have various facial expression when we talk to him. Jenuh kena buat muka tekejut lar, muka bekerut, tesengeh...etc.

Despite having a twin stroller that is one side blue colour and the other pink...people passed by us and asked some rather obvious questions. The usual scenario would be like this:

public: twins ker?

me: yeah =)

public: girl ke boy?

me: a girl and a boy?

public: wahhh...lucky you! which one girl and which one boy?

*goshhh...isn't it abit obvious that a boy sits in a blue colour seat and girl in pink colour seat?

And by the way, a lot couldn't believe that i'm the mother to the babies...hehehhe. The other day i was unloading the stroller and all other stuffs from the car. A car parked beside us. He and his daughter(about 8 or 9 years) came towards us while my mom and i were placing hArith and athirAh in the stroller. And of cause we had the typical conversation like above but this time there was additional question. He looked at my mom and said: " mak budak2 ye?" my mom with a big smile replied "eh, saya nenek...ni mak diorang (while pointing to me). And the men kept on and on commenting bout my petite size.

In another case, while doing some clothes shopping for the babies with my mom. The shop owner thought my mom is the mother to the babies and i'm "the auntie who is all over the babies"...hah, die ingat cam ni auntie yg teramat lar suke dgn budak2, tu pasal mak budak2 bawak me along to help jaga the babies.

Anyway, yesterday was the most hectic day ever (so far lar...hope it wouldnt get any worst than that). pApa wasn't around and Pah was out with my bro to ikea. So i was all left alone to feed, bath and put both to sleep. So bedtime started early for athirAh, i started feeding her Garber sweet potato at 5:15pm, luckily hArith was behaving, playing by himself beside me. About 20 mins later, I bath athirAh and gave her milk in the room. While giving her the milk, i was telling her i can only afford to pat her back for 2 mins this time cause hArith is waiting for his turn to eat. So i said, "dear, you like it or not, you have to sleep within the two minutes I pat you, or else you have to put yourself to sleep." Wow, good thing, she listened to me. So I continued feeding hArith. And by 7:30pm both were asleep. But gosh...my back was crying in pain. Coz i had too much of bending. I had to bend over to them while feeding them. And again bend when bathing them. And again, to pat their back in their cot I had to bend. I had wayyy tooo much of bending. Unfortunately my regular tukang urat has left for kelantan for a week. Ever since I was introduced to Makmah by dear friend Lana , i've been having like 2 to 3 urut session a week. My back needs it badly.

If pApa is around, i will feed one of the babies and he continues to bath and put one to sleep while I start feeding the other one. But for now, without maid, without hubby...they are all mine. pApa will be back tonite, but just for a day and will be away the very next day for 3 days, and be home for 2 days and away again for 4 days....oh mati lar saya...

First Day Without Maid

Last Friday, my maid (who been working wiz me for the past 4 months) drop the bomb...she wanted to stop. And she gave us 24hours notice. Her reason was, my old maid (which is the maid that belongs to my mom) kept bugging her asking her to do this and that. I didn't take her words though. In fact I just found out like 3 weeks back that all these while, it was my old maid (kak ani) that did all the ironing for syauQi's and my clothing. When I asked kak ani, why she did it, she said my maid didn't have the time to iron, so since she see it piling up, she decided to iron it all...afterall for the past 8 years she been ironing my clothes.

Well, if that's the case, I think my maid was over paid. I paid her salary just like any other maid, but comparatively to others she hardly had work to do. She only had to clean up my room unlike other maid who had to clean up the entire house, she NEVER cook (kak ani cooks)... she didn't do the dishes (except my babies bottles), she didn't need to follow my mom for marketing, well in short...she only needs to take care of my babies. Period. And it is not as though i'm working and she has to take care of the babies all by herself. I'm the one (or syauQi) who bath the babies and feed (solid food) the babies. She would help me give either one of the babies milk if my babies happen to demand for milk at the same time. Most of the time, I'm with my babies unless i want to bath or do my prayers. And only ocasionally I go out and leave the two babies behind (BUT kak ani would help her to take care one of the babies). When syauQi is around, the babies will be with us most of the time, where she ended up having her frequent morning, afternoon AND evening naps. On top of that, my babies sleep at 7pm, leaving her nothing to do after 7pm. Her eyes would be glued to the TV. (thus I told kak ani to let my laundry pile up, she had no excuse of not having the time to iron coz she can do it at nite).

And it seems that since she had to iron my laundry, she started complaining about the work loads. Isn't it only fair for her to do my laundry instead of kak ani? Today, when she left the house, I asked kak ani wheater my maid complained anything to her? Believe or not...she actually complained that she had to take care of two babies. So all these while she had in mind that, she handle one baby and I should handle one. No doubt there are times, after she put one of the babies to sleep, I'll pass her whoever that was awake so I could do my stuffs. Oh, apparently she told kak ani "saya sudah tidokan sorang, kasi lagi sorang pulak kat saya"....fuuuhhh byk shantek die, die ingat i bayar die gaji tuk jaga sorang je ke. Abis tu maid2 lain, kalau rumah tu ade 5 anak, bukan ke maid tu mmg kena jaga sume 5 anak, plus mengemas, membasuh dan memasak? Isn't that the standard job scope of a maid? Oh sungguh ngada2 lar tat maid. I doubt it she can get any easier job at any other houses. Well, good luck to her!

So for now, I have two babies to handle 24/7. Of coz my mom would help me, but she still has lots of errands to do. Thus I can't expect her to be home with me all the time. Lets just hope hubby won't have any looong tripss..i think maximum of 4 days is the most i can handle...hehehe. The prob is that hArith doesn't want to take any nap during the day. He expect attention all the time. The most he'll take15 mins nap. Just enough time for me to take my bath and solat.

Actually I have a lot to update about hArith and athirAh, will need to find the time to do so. Among them are:

• On hArith's nap time
• On storytime
• On athirAh and car seats & stroller
• On athirAh being choosy with foods
• On playtime

2007

gOodbye 2007 and hEllo 2008!

I'll just save myself from doing a New Year Resolution List. (well I never had one for any of the previous years, even if I were to have one, it will just be a paper with some scribble on it but tnothing done to work on it...hehehe)

hOwever, in yearSssSss to come, if anyone were to ask me about my 2007, it surely be about my miracle bAbies. On 9th June, I was blessed with my darling triplets...all alone in the labour room. Yup, unfrotunately in government hospital, we are nto allowed to have any family member (not even husband) with us in the labour room. But then again, it wouldn't make any difference if I'm allowed to do so cause hubby was away in Melbourne. Gave birth to my first baby at 9:05am, second baby at 9:11am and third at 9:17am. Hubby managed to fly the first flight out from Melbourne and met me and the babies at almost midnite (of the same day).

But it wouldn'e be fair for me to say that I was all alone. Coz while I was trying to push my babies out, I manged to do some head counts. There were 23 heads (nurses and doctors) in the labour room with me. Yup 23! As far as I could recall there were 4 (or was it 5) doctors and the rest were nurses. In fact, there were more heads actually. I didn't manage to count those heads who came in and out the room while I was trying to push out my babies. I had like a cheerleading squad team, all asking me to Push, pUsh, puSh and pusH! and few were like "hah, betul tu, bagus, bagus, bagus". and when hArith pop out all were like "BAGUS!!!!!!" And the cheer continued for alesYa and athirAh to pop out. I even had one of the doctor holding, supporting my head up.

I can still clearly remember, after hArith came out, I knew there were still more work for me to do. So I was like "Doctor, bile nak push lagi?". The doctor told me to take a deep breath and start pushing again whenever I feel the urge to do so. So I told her "nak lagi lar ni" and she replied "kay, push lar"...hheheheh

2007 will surely be a memorable one. The first two months after delivery was rather tense and full of anxiety. After loosing my second baby on the 11th June, the biggest fear would be loosing another one. Visits to the hospital became our new daily routine. Of cause to park the car at Pusat Perubatan Universiti Malaya (formerly known as US) add on to our level of stress.

Al-hamdulillah, I now have my two babies safe and sound at home.

As for 2008...stAy tunE, another suprise coming! =)

to evEryone out there, hAppy new yeAr!