SALEbration Starts Now!

It is a busy week. Uncle's Majlis Berbedak & Berdikir last night and tomorrow will be his Majlis Bersanding. Hope everything will run smoothly, ameen!

We went out hunting for some tudungs, and I managed to get one that I thought would have matches my baju for tomorrow. Na'ah! Tia karang. Confident jua tu inda membawa contoh warna baju, so when I reached home and put them sama-sama I rather say out berabis, and I was frustrated, because I just spent $77 on the tudung saja, more than what I pay for the baju. And to add salt to the wound, (ouch) the baju is also not ngam with me, and since its lace-like and got sequins, I don't feel comfortable wearing it in a hot day! Bleurgh! So yeah, I'm going to wear an old baju kurung, the one that I've been wearing to work. Kesian.

Anyway, we did a little bit of shopping at Mothercare Manggis Mall, and yes it's SALEbration people! Headache much in search of nice outfits for Haikal. I have to admit that shopping for him is no longer fun when DH is not around. I infact left empty-handed. Rugi lah since next Tuesday will be bonus & payday for government servants, and I'm pretty sure the next time I'm able to go out shopping the whole Brunei will be jam-packed and i definitely don't want to join the 'fun'. Anyway, maybe we can go on Monday? :D


The day began with a breakfast with DS (who's getting engaged next year. Eh next week!) and Haikal's second cousins. Then we went off to Bandar, DES School being the first stop as DS was getting some books and uniforms for the babies. I had a look around as the school also offers a daycare service. Quite to my liking, and they also have a branch in Tutong, which is great.


I also met Ayu, my TESL-mate who is on her break from doing MA in Oz. It was really good to see her & Iman as it has really been a while inda jumpa.


Then we went off to Manggis Mall for the most fun part, SHOPPING! Haikal was fast asleep all the time, and that supposedly would have made it much easier to shop. BUT we didn't bring his stroller so my arms really got tired of holding him for a long time. We had a quick lunch and yes, that's him on the sofa. Mummy nya lah tu punya keraja.


It's almost 12am now and I'm not sleepy yet. We have to get up extra early and get ready for the event tomorrow. Hopefully Haikal won't get cranky in the heat. I know I will pulang LOL!

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My 3-month old Darling

Alhamdulillah, Haikal turns 3 months old today (21st Dec). Memang inda terasa. And he's growing quite well. Though alum banyak lipat-lipat and no muscles, I am still happy to see him gaining weight, especially the cheeks & chin parts LOL!

And we both have 3 more months to go for exclusive breastfeeding. Though I can't wait for that time to come (that would be a great achievement) I desperately want time to slow down a bit. I've been warned about how fast babies grow and never thought it was going to be this fast!

Now my newborn is an infant! He giggles a lot more now especially when my mum and his amit Adin play with him. He has also begun to stay awake for a long stretch of hours during the day now. Luckily he still sleeps throughout the night.

This afternoon we took him out and finally got the chance to meet Alya & her parents! Though it was a brief one I had a great time catching up, especially on the experience of being new parents.

::With Miss Little Exclusive Alya::

Haikal got a little bit cranky but Julez managed to swing him to sleep. That never worked for me as Haikal loves comfort feeding and it is the quickest way out for me. Since he was fast asleep we decided to make a quick stop at MC for a little bit of shopping. I grabbed few shirts that were on sale as well as a pair of pre-walker shoes, and one thing that I had always wanted to get him, a Lamaze pull-and-play toy. I think I'm more excited than he is :p

::The New Lamaze Pull & Play::

And our last stop today was The Mall Gadong. Since Haikal was still asleep we decided to go to Swensens for a quick dinner since it had been a while. I remember the last visit there was during Ramadhan with the Stargazers. My all-time favorite the grilled lambchop was a bit disappointing but I wasn't really hungry so I was not that frustrated. Hope it will taste better when we come again in the future.



To my little caliph, I pray for your continuous health, semoga dipermudahkan Allah in raising you to be a good muslim, insyaAllah, Ameen.

p/s: Thanks to Syaf & Julez for the gift, another cool bodysuit for Haikal :D



Property of Mom, Servant of Allah forever Ameen :)

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Maternity Leave Ends Today

*sobs* All 15 weeks have gone just like that. Time flies so fast that I felt it was like yesterday when I first held Haikal in my arms. And today I'm reporting back to duty. I should be grateful anyway. It's school holidays and I don't really have to go to work. And I could have had to go to work in November instead had it not been His Majesty's gift, the 105 days of maternity leave. So yeah, alhamdulillah.

Now that I still have 2 more weeks left before the school reopens, I'm trying my best to make use of my time left wisely, and of course that means spending quality time with my boys. InsyaAllah, more family functions are coming up such as my youngest uncle's wedding, a family bowling tournament & the finale; dearest sister's engagement. We are planning to hold Haikal's aqiqah ceremony on the same day but it is still tentative (everything is tentative when you have a baby).

As we are still maidless (we are still waiting for Nana's visa approval) I can say that I often get tired easily, even early in the morning. Macam balum lagi apa2 ani wah. Baru one cycle bah laundry ah, kan menangis sudah rasanya. Thankfully Warah is around and she's able to help me with hanging the laundry dry as well as jagakan Haikal when I take my shower and doing other businesses. DH has been quite busy lately since the new dialysis centre is opening soon. Kesian, otherwise he would have been able to help out, like what he usually did.

On a happier note, I'm a bit relieved since I've established quite enough stock to start with. 10 cups of Avent Via (6oz each) & 44 packs of Farlin's storage bags (3-4oz each), so thats around 200oz of frozen ebm, alhamdulillah. I keep on reminding myself, bersyukurlah dengan yang sedikit.


Now that's the whole stock. As you can see, the bags are put in Glad Ziplock Freezer bags. Each big bag contains around 12 packs, and they are batched according to the dates, as taught by my dearest dairy queens, Ariesya's Mummy and Nani Azni. The bags are then labelled with numbers, 1 being the first batch (obviously) so I can later do FIFO technique. At the moment Haikal is well-trained with bottles (he uses Tommee Tippee) and he doesn't really mind who's giving him the ebm. So I hope it will be easy for Nana nanti once I leave Haikal for work.

By te way, I went for a B massage yesterday arah the well-known Alin due to the engorgement I had. It was really bad. Tried pumping longer, direct-feeding, applying hot towel but non worked. She was quite good, though the clogged urat was still there when I left. She taught me to use a hot hard-boiled egg and roll it on the hard area of the B. She also taught me how to urut sendiri and that we were not supposed to use our fingers, but the bottom part of your palm (between the palm and the wrist). Once we reached home I tried them out immediately including using the egg, and it worked and the engorgement was gone alhamdulillah. Bukan apa, takut if dibiarkan it would get worst and require medical attention including operation, na'uzubillah. Maka nya, as Alin said, jangan biarkan sakit and full for along time. Keep on direct-feeding or pumping when we feel the stinging pain, and before that try massaging them. Personally I think her touch has helped in improving the amount of my supply as well alhamdulillah, semoga sentiasa diluaskan dan dimurahkan rezeki towards achieving my personal target of giving only my milk to Haikal for the first 6 months. Ameen.

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Amah Anyone?

Sesungguh nya saya sedikit letih malam ini. Anyway, I managed to do the laundry (3 hari punya sasahan kali ah) and this afternoon we went to pick up my car at the agent in Berakas. Alhamdulillah there was no major problem, only got the sensor brake broken and we only paid $127 (phew!) when we had estimated around $300. Sekali nya since ada extra we are thinking of checking into a hotel tomorrow. Saja-saja since all our weekends have been fully booked with my uncle's wedding events.

Before picking up the car we headed to Serusop to collect my fudge Brownies. Now, I just can't resist the temptation to place the order. Pantang meliat @Sasbrownies' update on Twitter opening slots for booking confirm tesliur. Bleurgh!


We brought Haikal along and he fell asleep throughout the journey. Perasaannya macam kana unggak kali ah? Anyway, I drove DH's car home & alhamdulillah Haikal was asleep all the time I even had the time to make a quick drop-by at the tailor.

And now that I got some EBM storage bags bought from Ariesya's mommy, I can start pumping like crazy again. And by the way, one of my dairy queens wrote a post on EBM storage. An excellent post, pictures included and clear explanation, I shall share the post here in the future along with some pictures shared by other BF-ing mommy- friends.


I hope the bags are as good as Farlin's. I love Farlin's as I can store my EBM in small amout, maximum 4oz in each bag. As for this Autumnz, the maximum is 7oz. One plus point is that when thawing I just need to take out one bag for two feedings. And I'm pretty sure it's going to take less space compared to Farlin's. Moreover, with 25 7oz bags for $6, it is relatively cheaper.

And here are pictures of Haikal taken today. Inda mau tidur pagi langsung, put him in the swing dibawanya umminya baibun tah pulang :'s membagi menangis. Lats nya simpan dalam carrier and let him watch Rachel Ray bemasak. Seems like he loves watching Food network Asia channel. I guess pasal the colors are always vibrant atu kali. Except for the Barefoot Contessa show.





By the way, yesterday Haikal finally met his Auntie Eira (bukan nama sebenar) who dropped by with her son yang baru besunat in the morning. Steady Adik, baru besunat jalan-jalan tah ia. With kain pelikat of course!






Penutup kata: Ada amah for transfer? Need someone to help me with the laundry :( we just got Nana's faxed copies of her passport & other documents, hopefully my dad can get everything done before the new year.

I Feel Awesome Today

Pasal I managed to get a lot of things done. Seriously I feel really good, and all praises are due to Allah, only Allah. For the time, for the people, for all kinds of His Rezqi we spent today :)

The morning started wonderfully as I managed to express 7oz in one session! Alhamdulillah, ada peningkatan. I guess it's all due to Haikal being asleep for long stretch of hours and only fed for a while masa Subuh. I was one happy cow!

Since DH was having his day off, we were planning to go to Bandar to first uruskan my transfer application, then other businesses which included going to the car agent. I was sending my car to the agent as one of the sensors needs to be replaced. Sekali while getting ready this guy Nanding from the agent called us to double check on what needs to be done, and since they can only do the check-up tomorrow afternoon, we didn't really need to go there anymore as everything was already explained over the phone.

And another smart thing I did was to call the Unit Pengambilan Guru to ask about the progress of my application, so we didn't really have to go to Bandar today. I managed to talk to one of the officers and he was kind enough to spare some of his time explaining to me the current situation. No good news yet, but at least the application has reached them and the officer was well aware of my situation. Hopefully they will be able to find a teacher to replace me because that is one of the syarat before I can leave the school. Oh well, for now I just have to sit and wait saja, hopefully everything will be settled before the new school year starts.

On a happy note, today I spent some of my free time cooking! Mama has been mentioning about Aglio Olio (she had some masa my niece Alya's birthday celebration at Pastamania) so dengan semangat nya I made some for lunch. Too bad I didn't take any pictures but I swear it was really good! Pretty easy though, anyone can cook it :D After Aglio Olio, my little sister and I made some cucur udang for afternoon tea. So today I have cooked two dishes, both tasted good. I think.

Sekali nya during the afternoon tea DH and I thought of going out for dinner at our favourite restaurant in Bandar and leave Haikal saja. I've pumped enough fresh stock today and was pretty sure of going, but then it started to rain heavily so we decided to cancel saja. Next time saja dating. We did go out though, just to the pekan for a quick grocery shopping (got the Honey Nut Granola and it was the only box left on the shelf, yay) & a quick dinner at gerai riverview. Left Haikal for 1.5 hours and when we reached home alhamdulillah he was already asleep and took around 3oz of EBM. He only woke up at 12+ am and fed directly sambil tidur. A big shout out to my beloved B for her help in looking after Haikal! We love you *smooches*

And now, here I am, sitting happily on the couch watching my favourite show "19 Kids & Counting" while the two guys are sleeping soundly. And yes, expressing too.


By the way, I am happy today pasal we got some stuff for Haikal. First is the nose cleaner Ariesya's mummy got for us (thanks love, I know you are reading this). It's in my must-have list since many mommies recommend it to be used to remove boogie. It's not that we need it now, but I prefer to sediakan payung sebelum hujan. It costs $8.50 and boleh didapati di banyak kedai & gedung perniagaan :p


Another stuff for Haikal came around 11pm tonight; a gift from one of my favourite girlfriends/ cousins who just got back from Geneva. Now I no need to worry about getting him a new baju for his upcoming clinic appointment :D


Alhamdulillah, a very productive day. Syukur ya Allah for all the blessings you have bestowed upon us. The lovely & thoughtful people around me (especially my family) the money in our wallets & the precious hours, seconds and minutes. And thank you Allah for another reminder You showed me today. Something as a self-reminder. Will try my very best not to main-main with all the time we are left with, insyaAllah.




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When I Ran Out of Storage Bags

All I could say was Alhamdulillah. Never thought I would ever be able to use all the 44 pieces of storage bags (each contains 3-4oz of EBM). And I only started stocking on the 20th of November, which was exactly 3 weeks ago.


Now I have to resort to my Avent VIA storage cups for a while. We have been considering to use the clear plastic bags that you can get from supermarkets as an alternative but we are paranoid. Knowing that they are not manufactured specially for EBM storage a lot of worries came to our mind and we dropped the idea.

This morning I only managed to pump at around 8am, but alhamdulillah the result was impressive. I got 4oz from RB, and around 2oz from LB. I could have gotten more from LB though but Haikal woke up and I decided to feed him off my LB.


This is the first time ever I got a full bottle of EBM from a single session :D Alhamdulillah, semoga semua ni'mat rezeki akan berterusan selagi masa mengizinkan.

Another interesting thing I would love to share here. Fro the past two days I have noticed quite a high amount of yield, and I figured out that I had been having the same diet for the past two nights before going to bed; ground nuts & warm milo. And since I'm still trying to see what food would help to boost my supply, I will try to take the same diet for a week and see if its the nuts & milo that have been the booster.

It's weekend and DH has to go to work for a mini convention that sort of thing, so we will just be staying home the whole day I think. Anyway, I went out with Haikal the whole day kelmarin I think he might be tired of all the social activities haha. We went for an afternoon tea yesterday at the Holiday Lodge Hotel and Haikal finally got the chance to meet his Uncle Norali and Aunty Amal.








We also went out in the morning for breakfast with his Kaka Sara & Kaka Alya as well as the aunties, and I got the chance to get my pedicure done (finally!). Haikal stayed in my arms the whole time so it was pretty hard for me to enjoy the food (Ummi doesn't really mind anyway baby) and good thing he was sleeping through the whole morning.








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"Not You Abi!"

I was jalan-jalan on Facebook and went to my favourite breastfeeding page The Le@ky Boobs, and this is what I found. LOL! I wonder if this is what Haikal has in mind whenever his Abi picks him up instead of me when he cries or wakes up from his sleep.


On another note, I managed to pump another 5oz this morning around 4am, and another 2oz around 9am. I notice that my Bs get full quicker when I take the CNI Up Gold Soya prior to pumping, whereas taking dates would normally make my milk thicker & creamier.

And another story I want to share here. I was pumping yesterday and my niece Kaka Sara was sitting next to me. She's been around for the past few days and she loves to help me with my FS (pressing all the buttons and sorts). After I was done, as I was packing all the bottles I gave her some of my EBM and asked her to taste it. I was just teasing and never thought she would, and she LOVED it! She said it tasted sweeter and better than the fresh cow's milk, and even told me this morning to leave some for her if I have any extra hehe.

And my little caliph is 2 months 2 weeks & 2 days old today. Alhamdulillah, depsite the sniffles he had the other night he has been well and playful. But now we had to stay outside in the living room as we think its the dust in the bedroom that has caused him to have runny nose. Last night was the second night we slept outside and we didn't sleep well. Haikal was put in his travel cot and he kept on waking up every hour, perhaps mencari badan. Normally when we co-slept he would sleep uninterrupted for 3 hours or more. Now that he's had his bath, smells good, fed & fast asleep, I need to go and join him. Pay back time!

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Pumping Away

It's almost 2am and I woke up because Haikal was crying. It was a soft cry though, but good enough to wake me up for some pumping. Been missing lots of midnight sessions and ianya adalah satu kerugian yang besar kerana as most BFing mommies know, it is the time when you will normally get the best result! And tadaa...


Nothing much, just around 4+oz from RB (DFed Haikal on LB) but alhamdulillah. Sedangkan dapat 1oz lagi bersyukur, apatah lagi dapat 4oz. And I envy those mommies who can get more even they were just using a manual pump. Again, rezeki masing-masing. As for me, walaupun this is the most I can get, I am extremely thankful sebab ani pun cukup to add another bag into my stock in the freezer. Now I remember I have 2.5oz from yesterday morning I guess I might as well campur with this one then put them into two bags. :D

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Haikal's Weekend

Weekend is here and we have been taking Haikal out to family functions as well as some dining outings. We surely have had a great time since Haikal got to meet some relatives. Malas nak tulis panjang I guess the pictures will tell you a better story :)












We made two stops to dine yesterday. First was an afternoon tea at Nadj Restaurant in Kiarong and then we had soto rindu in Sengkurong, and I was glad that Haikal behaved the whole time. He was not crying at all! Put him in the carrier on a chair and we had peaceful meals :)

And I've just purchased my first Nursing Cover! Bought the Royale Bebe Au Lait from Dot Dot's Little Shop. There was an online sale last weekend on its website and I got it at 30% off the original price teehehee



What I love about this nursing cover is the fact that I can use it as a blanket as well. What hppened at Nadj was I forgot to bring along his blanket. And the place was air-conditioned. And it was raining. Luckily I had the NC with me I used it to cover his bare legs. Smart me :p


And a quick shout out to my beloved bitch *inside joke* sister! You are almost there, getting hitched officially soon! Happy happy happy for you xoxo

Post-Midnight Post

I am seldom up at this hour, even since Haikal arrived. Since we practise co-sleeping, midnight-feeding doesn't really require me to be totally up.

But tonight I decided to do a quick pumping and while getting everything ready Haikal got up. So I offered him his food and Zahraa got the other side. And on top of that business, I was switching the TV channels and stopped at Al-Hijrah, which was airing a talk show 'Tanyalah Ustaz'.

I watched for few seconds and got hooked. And here I would love to share some reminders on the show.

1. Our life begins with azan, and ends with Solat Jenazah. That is the metaphor of life itself. No matter how long we live, it is still a very short period of time! Just like the duration between an azan and the solat that follows it. Go to masjid, you do your Tahyattul Masjid, then it's azan. You get up, do the rawatib then solat fardhu. How short is that? Nda panjang. And there is no time for us manusia to main-main dengan masa :( The short time we have in this life should be spent wisely and well, untuk keuntungan di akhirat semata-mata.

I cried when the ustaz said this because I realized that was what I have been doing (muhasabah diri). Sibuk dengan social life, gathering sana sini, facebooking and other online activities inda beranti sampai terlalai dengan masa yang Allah bagi. Few days ago I was on the whatsapp chatting to a friend I met on FB. It was first about some purchase I made, and then we got carried away and I complained about susah kan cari masa to do other things (especially solat) ever since I had Haikal. And honestly, that had been my main concern since I was pregnant, takut sibuk dengan anak sampai lalai untuk solat. Her reply was simple, but sampai now melakat di kepala and I hold to it. She said, "Mesti curi masa".

2. The show was about Membina Hidup Berkualiti, and a woman from the audience was asking what we could do to build a strong foundation of Islam & Iman in teenagers. The ustaz cakap, "Berapa ramai daripada kita yang siang malam doa mohon keberkatan usia keberkatan rezeki tapi lupa untuk doakan anak-anak agar menjadi soleh and solehah?". One of the doa yang Allah inda tolak is doa kedua ibu bapa untuk anak-anak. If tah parents ani siang malam berdoa untuk their children untuk dikurniakan iman yang kuat, menjadi soleh dan solehah, insyaAllah, that is what they will become.

With Haikal falling asleep on my chest (pasal kekanyangan), I cried. Ya Allah, betapa kitani sering lalai dengan nikmat masa, keinginan nafsu (online shopping especially) sampai kadang-kadang lupa TUJUAN SEBENAR KITANI SEBAGAI HAMBA ALLAH. And OUR RESPONSIBILITIES AS MUSLIM PARENTS.

Dearest readers, I didn't mean to tunjuk baik or tunjuk alim, but this is at least what I can do as my deeds today, to SHARE what I have learned today. May Allah guide us to the right path. Amin.

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Haikal's First Time Away From Ummi

And it was when I had to go to the Women's Health Clinic this morning. DH was on afternoon shift and free in the morning, so we decided to try leaving Haikal under his care at home.

Before I left I prepared 2 bottles of fresh EBM in the fridge (2 oz each) and explained to DH how to use the bottle warmer. And alhamdulillah when I called home DH told me that Haikal had just finished his first bottle without much hassle and was then fast asleep. Too bad the clinic was actually ipen in the afternoon, which means I have to come back again this afternoon. And I might have to bring Haikal along since I don't really harap my little sister to jaga him on her own.

Now I'm back at home, Haikal is still sleeping. And as I type, I'm having a date with my Zahraa. Bzzzztt bzzzt bzzzzt~

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Zahraa I Love You!

And that's the confession of a mommy-turned cow! I am in a civil union with my new bestfriend now. And I wish we had met and known each other earlier. Benarlah kata orang tak kenal maka tak cinta HAHA

Been using Z for a week now but consistent pumping has only taken place for the past few days. Honestly, the yield is not as impressive as what I expected as I used to hand-express and got almost the same result. But when I think about how much time and energy I have saved (by 50%) I can only be grateful for this beautiful machine!

For now, stocking up EBM has been going on pretty well. (I used up all the previous hand-expressed stock by the way). For each pumping session of 10-15 minutes I can get around 3-4oz and now I'm aiming to increase the number of sessions. As for today, so far I've had 3 sessions; 4am, 8am & 7pm. Alhamdulillah produce has been consistent with 3+oz from each session, which means in total so far I've got 9+oz today. Hopefully things will at least stay the same, or get better :)

Now that I've been pumping before feeding Haikal, I realize that he tends to get angry during the feeding session, which I think could be due to slow flow of BM. But I'm hoping that also means he's getting all the hindmilk as the foremilk has been pumped out.

Now the only concern we have is whether to get our own deep chest freezer or just tumpang my mum's. At the moment my storage bags of EBM is filling up all the space in her freezer (two-door fridge). And we need to have a back-up in case of no electricity. Putting the frozen EBM on the fridge's freezer means there is a greater risk for the EBM to thaw quickly when there's no karan, compared to when they are in the deep freezer. My mum has two of them, but both are full with other frozen stuff. I can actually use one, since it is only used for frozen finger foods, but I will need to re-organize the whole thing in there first. And I think getting my own freezer is much simpler. *think think think*

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Haikal Goes to the Clinic

 Today we took Haikal to the clinic for his 2nd monthly appointment as well as his first dose of Tetra shot. He weighs 4.45 kg and measures at 58cm. He was kind of sleepy during the weigh-in and ended up kusut and crying, with the eyes shut!

All set to go! Baju courtesy of Babu Baby :D

Met Kaka Nashwa & Na'ila (not in the picture) at the clinic.

We reached home and found this lying in the living room. Had no idea who it was from :s

Now baby boy is sleeping soundly in Ummi's arm. Hopefully he won't get any fever from the morning shot. And the long weekend is here! Salaam Ma'al Hijrah dear muslim readers, semoga di tahun hijrah yang akan datang membawa perubahan yang lebih baik dalam diri kitani sebagai hamba Allah SWT. As for me, I hope to be a better wife to my Zauj, a better Umm to Haikal & a better muslimah. Istiqamah, istiqamah, istiqamah. Semoga sentiasa teguh iman in this jihad.

Haikal is Two Months Old Today!

Alhamdulillah my baby has reached another milestone. He is two months old today and is one healthy happy boy. He has shown some progress in terms of interacting with others. He loves 'voicing out' different noises and he loves it when there's someone talking to him and making silly faces. Lots of cooing & laughing and they just make Ummi's heart go lalala~ Apart from that, he is also getting fussier nowadays when we are late for his nappy change. And I think his love for bath has grown! No more loud cries during bath time. The sleeping pattern has been the same, straight long hours of sleep at night, waking up quietly for feeding at least twice. However he seldoms sleep during the day for long hours. 30 minutes at the most! This makes it a bit hard for me to get anything else done :(

On a happier note, my new bestfriend is finally here! The card reached my place on Saturday morning and I collected it in the afternoon. Got taxed but it wasn't much hehe Can't wait to start pumping and stocking up before I go back to work in January. And I'm naming it Zahraa! LOL! Hey every bestfriend deserves a good nickname :D

The new bestfriend :)

Owh, and as Haikal's birthday gift (excuse) I'm purchasing 2 Blueberry CDs from Cradle Delight!! *throws confetti* Semangat jua ah! Let's just hope I can do it. At the moment it's just going to be on part-time basis, and I'm going to start small, and slow. Maybe once the collection is large enough then we can go full-time. Errr. So ambitious eh! Mudah-mudahan kuat hati & semangat :D

The blueberry one size CDs in Lemon Lime & Stars. Hoping to get some weehuggers covers & flips :D

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Haikal is Home!

Finally! Alhamdulillah. And despite being sick, Haikal has gained 300 grams during his 10 days at the ward. I was not surprised to see the number on the scale since he had been feeding most of the time. Or the whole time. Even the nurses noticed that too. I think since rasa nya kurang baik atu feeding was the only thing that soothed him, as usual.

We also noticed that there were times when he got very cranky and inda nyaman tidur, which, after few hours, would be followed by him popping out greenish poops. I believe it's what people call senudong. So we got this tapal cina mama bought in Miri ( Hua Ho sells them at a lower price though) and alhamdulillah no more crankiness.

Last night was Haikal's first sleep at home after 9 nights away and he slept well throughout the night, only waking up twice for feeding. But it's a different case for me. I had the worst diarrhea ever in my whole life on our final night at the ward and as I type now (that's more than 24 hours) I'm still experiencing it :( No one is sure what has caused it. Everyone ate the same thing that night and yet only I got it. Not to mention the fever and body ache, it was so bad I had to ask a masseuse to come over for a whole body massage. And I feel a lot better today, except for the diarrhea bit.

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Haikal's First Stay @ the hospital

Today marks his 5th day in the hospital. The doctor told me this morning that we have to stay for at least 5 more days since Haikal needs to finish the whole 7-day course of antibiotics. Today is his 3rd day (he started on his 3rd day of stay) and he responded to the doctor's remark by making this loud fart noise! It was one funny moment :D

His fever has gone for more than 24 hours already now, and that is quite relieving. I don't want to rush taking home leaves. We did that yesterday and his temperature suddenly hiked. The best thing now I guess is to wait for his condition to stabilize banar2.

To dearest relatives & friends, thanks for your time dropping by, thoughts, prayers & concerns throughout this tough period. I believe this is just another 'gift' from Allah. I keep on saying to Haikal, jadi Amir mesti strong. Allah bagi Haikal sakit awal so that he will be a stronger boy.

I've skipped a lot of updates including the weekend we spent with the relatives celebrating birthdays as well Haikal's first 5 days at the hospital. Will post some pictures when I have the free time soon, insyaAllah.

Trying the Frozen EBM

Two nights ago I decided to train Haikal feeding off bottles so I took few storage cups of EBM (in total there were around 2oz only) and let them thaw in the fridge. Yesterday morning I took them out and took each lid off to check how the milk was. And to my surprise they all smell plastic-ky. I didn't taste them but discarded them straight away, and thaw some more (around 5oz) to see if they all smell the same. When I told my mum about it she said it is normal for milk to have that kind of smell. She used the word 'lantuh'. I did ask a BFing friend and she said hers never had such smell.

Then last night I was  browsing through the BBM group on FB when I came across a post by a mother regarding her frozen EBM tasting like plastic, which her son refused to take. Another mother commented that she also experienced the same thing. I then took out the thawed milk and it still had that plasticky smell. I warmed it in the bottle and try to give it to Haikal. My assumption was that if the milk had gone bad he would definitely reject it. And surprisingly he took around 2oz. And he had been fed an hour prior to that ( he was not hungry when he took the 2oz EBM). I did check online that such smell could be due to high amount of enzyme lipase, and what mothers can do is scald the milk before putting it in the freezer. But I guess there's too much work there, and if your little one has no problem taking it then there's no need for scalding (banarnya malas).

And Haikal is now officially botak! DH and I did it ourselves LOL! Saja kan ambil berkat, sambil gunting and cukur we recited some verses from the Quran and some prayers jua, something that the barber wouldn't do. The actual plan was to ask an Ustaz to do it but he is now away performing the Haj. I know that we should have had it done when he was 7 days old, but I have to admit at that time I was pretty occupied with the whole new experience so we skipped it. And lagi his hair was quite labat since birth macam rasa sayang jua kan buang :s Sekalinya one day at a family gathering a cousin talked to me about the bercukur thing, like all the kebaikan e.g. membuka minda, luas & tajam fikiran and most importantly it's a sunnah, so we gave it a go.

Taiming muka ah! His very first haircut by abi nya :D Ummi tolong pigang saja.

Tadaaaa!!! Smart eh abi nya cukur :P NOT! We actually took him to a barber shop suruh cukur lagi pasal ada yg sumpak :D

And today we begin to train him to sleep in the unggak. We are using the traditional hands-me-down unggak. Though we at first try not to resort to using the swing pasal takut kebiasaan, we realised that he falls asleep easily by just swinging him. And so far, as I type, he is still asleep. Since 12. Normally kalau siang he seldom tidur lama like this.

Si Gondol dalam buaian

Haikal's Day Out

We went out last Tuesday and our 1st stop was Sapphira Cake House in Kiulap. And this was what I had for breakfast. Nasi Lemak Campur. Love this dish, the best! And love the place.

He refused to be put in his carrier so I had to hold him while having my meal

At the Mall's Coffee Bean, waiting for Abu Haikal siap solat

Our second stop of the day, TOYS R US! Haikal was fast asleep so we really had a good time browsing around :D

And This Morning...

Haikal's First Visit to Abi's Kampung

We realize that he easily falls asleep when he's in a moving car :D

With Nini Bapa, Nini Babu & Datuk