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

Haikal's 1st Night Out @Pastamania

 

Sleeping Haikal.

So it's his first night out and no the confinement period alum habis lagi. Few more days to go but we didn't want to miss my niece's birthday dinner :( So when my sister asked if I would go I said YES! Didn't even consult DH if boleh or not hihi Luckily he said okay. I was quite nervous since it's his first time keluar malam and it's at Times Square Bandar. Before we left the house (kebetulan Maghrib) I recited 3 Quls and Ayat Kursi and tiupkan from his head to toes. 

In terms of feeding I wasn't worried since I know the place ada Breastfeeding Room. Thank God Haikal was asleep when my food arrived, giving me enough time to makan peacefully. But right after that he woke up so we left for his feeding session. Kan jadikan cerita, while feeding him in the designated room (it's on the Ground Floor next to the toilet near Giant) a guy barged in! Luckily I was properly covered thanks to my tudong. Apparently he wanted to help the daughter tukar the cucu's diaper, and he was just checking if the room is occupied. Sad! There was a BIG sign on the door saying FEMALE ONLY. I knew I should have locked the door but I thought it would be a hassle to bangun to unlock the door if ada orang kan masuk. Plus, the sign was big enough and no one could have missed it, unless the ignorant people lah.

Anyway, we had a great time there. Haikal was well-behaved but he refused to be put in the carrier. I ended up carrying him around sambil window-shopping and I noticed he was getting heavier to lift :D Good good good! We reached home at 10+ and alhamdulillah everything was well, and he also slept soundly.

Haikal & Ummi

Haikal & The Birthday Girl

Happy Birthday Alya, we love you!

One Fine Afternoon

Haikal's First Visit to the Clinic

It's Haikal's first appointment at the Tutong Clinic and we were rummaging through presents from friends for a cloth that fits him well LOL! This is why. We got a very nice Baby Aspen gift set from my darling cousin and we had picked it for today's purpose. Sekalinya confident lah konon muat, but nope it didn't. Looked like we gotta wait for another month and the baju has to wait too. And paksa bekakas mencari baju lain and finally we picked this Tigger romper my sister got for him. It was a brilliant choice pasal sanang buka and sanang pasang, since we had to take it off and put it on back balik2 di clinic.

Haikal's personal nurse :p

So he now weighs 3.38kg, just an increase of 100 gram from his birth weight, while his length is 52cm, an increase of 2cm. He also got a shot for Hep B prevention (I forgot what it's called) and DH was the one doing it! He had some past experience when he was working at Telisai Clinic and he did well this morning! Haikal only cried when he inserted the needle and that was it. Good boy anak ummi :D

With Kaka Arissa

Sent from my iPhone

Haikal's First Month

 Alhamdulillah my little mujaheed is one month old today. And, I don't mean to brag, but he's been such a good boy! Not cranky at all and always, a Qurratu'aini alhamdulillah. I do get stressed out easily when the house and the room are messy with all the clutters but looking at his face cools me down immediately.
So far Haikal has been at family gatherings for few times, and we look forward to take him to his Abi's kampung end of this month for the first time. And last night was his first time staying up the whole night, but amazingly he was not crying at all. I thought I'd put him to sleep but I woke up to his coo sometimes around 1am. He seemed like enjoying his time making noises so I let him be and went back to sleep.
And everyone has been saying that he looks like his Abi. Everyone as in 100%. That's what I've been getting from relatives and friends since Day 1. And now that he's almost 40 days old (cos I was told that the face will keep on 'changing' until he's reaches the 40th day) his face has becoming more and more like his Abi. Oh well, fair enough, at least he's got my eyebrows LOL.

With Kaka Bella at Nini Usu's house

Ya bunayya, it has been a smooth one month ride with you alhamdulillah, and Ummi looks forward to experience more things motherhood has to offer. بسم الله توكلت

Sent from my iPhone

It's 8am and Haikal is clean and smells good already :D Laundry is done and I've had my breakfast! For the first time ever I managed to settle down this early without DH around. Yeay!

It's normally different when he's on morning shift. Most of the time I wouldn't be able to eat a proper breakfast when DH is not around as he is the one who prepares the food, and Haikal wouldn't let go of my Bs!

However today I decided to wake up much earlier, bathe him right away, feed him and put him back to sleep! Alhamdulillah he is willing to cooperate :p otherwise I wouldn't be sitting on the couch now typing this entry. Next is going back to bed, time to catch up on lost sleep.

Sent from my iPhone

The Poop Story

I was laughing hard at myself after I changed Haikal's diaper this afternoon. It was his first 'produce' for today and I never felt as happy before. Why? Coz his poop was back to yellow! Yayyyy!! I really said that out!

Motherhood is amazing, and weird too. You've changed from this relax, laid-back girl into one of the most paranoid women in the world. The poop is green and you immediately go online and google for causes and remedies. The baby doesn't produce anything for 3 days again you get worried sick and ask google. Maybe once I get my hands on the new iPhone 4s I will try asking Siri. For now, alhamdulillah everything works well.

As Dr Gillian the paed said to me when we first met, "Welcome to motherhood, the world of endless worries". Indeed.

Sent from my iPhone

Haikal is 4 weeks old today!

Alhamdulillah, my little mujaheed is four weeks old today. And I can say that everyone has been coping very well. Things have been fairly easy since Haikal is one happy baby. He only cries a little bit when he wants to be fed and during bath time. And during nappy change!

Nowadays we normally go to bed around midnight and only get up around 8-9 am, and Haikal only wakes up twice throughout his sleep for feeding. Our morning routine (when DH is not on morning shift) would normally be him preparing all the bath set with warm water ready, helping me to bathe Haikal, doing the laundry and preparing breakfast. As for me, I would normally feed him first so that he doesn't get cranky during bath time, bathe him, feed him again until he's asleep, then have my breakfast.

Reading the BBM page on Facebook sometimes makes me feel extremely grateful for this one easy no-fuss baby. So far he has no allergy reaction whatsoever, no sniffles etc. I remember when I was pregnant I was a bit concerned since our room has wall-to-wall carpet and it gets dusty and stuffy easily. Both DH and I always had runny nose back then and we were thinking of getting an air purifier but alhamdulillah so far Haikal shows no signs of allergies when put in the room, hence air purifier can wait hehe

And today for the first time his poops changed to green color. I know it's not a good sign as for fully-breastfed babies, the poops should be yellow, mustard-like! At the moment I'm still unsure what the causes are, but I googled and it could be due to breastmilk imbalance, which means the baby might not be getting a balanced amount of hindmilk & foremilk. This is possible when the mother has been switching between the two Bs when nursing the baby, which I have been doing lately. So, I will try to go back to what I used to do. Nurse him on the LB during the day and RB during the night. It worked fine before, so why not right?

My Breastfeeding Journey

This is something that I have been wanting to share here but only now I manage to take a little time out of my busy busy busy day to actually sit down, recall and type away.
Breastfeeding has always been a top priority, something that I had set in my mind. With many good friends and relatives breastfeeding their babies exclusively, I consider myself as really lucky since I have a very strong support system.
I think being well-prepared mentally in this matter is the most crucial of all. I told myself that as much as I wanted to breastfeed my baby exclusively, I should be prepared if things don't go as planned and it would still be okay if I had to resort to FM. This I think might somehow help to alleviate some pressure which new mummies might feel once they give birth.
Apart from mental preparation, I had also read a lot about BFing so I knew what to expect once I gave birth. BM is not going to come right away in most cases, but colostrum would. And knowing that the size of your newborn's tummy is only that of a pea, you know that you don't need a lot of BM to actually feed your little one's needs! And again, I assured myself not to worry if I was not producing a lot.
As in an earlier post, my breastfeeding journey began wonderfully, with Haikal latching well straight away once they put him on me. The nurses actually had to feed him with a little bit of FM though since his glucose level was quite low, but I was okay with that. At least he was still breastfed most of the time. And we conquered the breastfeeding room at the ward most of the time since it was warm and cosy. My Bs infact started to feel full and engorged on the second day and I had to put Haikal next to me in bed every night at the ward so it would be easier to nurse him.

Bilik Lepak :D

Now on the 24th day, I have to admit that there are times when I feel that my BM supply might be inadequate since Haikal has been hanging on the Bs round the clock. Most of the time he would spend around 1-2 hours feeding, every 30 minutes to 1 hour if he doesn't fall asleep. I normally would let him go of the nips himself and let him have it as long as he want, and then burp him. If I'm lucky he might stay asleep for 2-3 hours. If not, he would stay awake for 30 minutes, then cry for more.
At the moment we are still trying to establish a routine but I don't think he's settled already. Let's hope that he will, soon. So I can finally really start thinking of stocking up EBM. What I do now is just hand-express and put them in the freezer, shall the needs arise for me to leave him at home (especially once the 40-day pantang is over) :p
Something I would like to share here jua. I remember when I was pregnant, DH would always, at the end of his prayer, pray for all the good things for baby and me, AND also for me to have lots of BM! I laughed for the first few times when I heard him saying them pasal cali, especially since he said them in Brunei Malay, but yeah that's the power of du'a.
And to my dearest BFing relatives & friends, if any of you are reading this, thank you so much for all the support! And alhamdulillah for my beloved family who have been supportive!

I'm 28 years and 2 days old, today! *Editted with Pictures*

So it was my birthday 2 days ago. And I swear I totally forgot about until I got a text from The Body Shop asking me to collect a free dinner voucher at Rizqun Coffee House and some other TBS vouchers. And the text said I had to collect them BEFORE my birth date. I was like, owh okay sama jua batah lagi. Well, here's why. I got several discount vouchers from other companies as well, but they reached my place way long before my birthday, like a month in advance! Sekali after few minutes reading that text then I realized, it's esuknya. Like esuk wah, and I was in Tutong, and the nearest TBS pun di bandar jua, and it was 6pm+!! Called up my sister and luckily she was around Serusop area (I later found out that she was actually getting my birthday bouquet ordered by DH :p). And lucky her jua TBS people let her collect the vouchers on behalf.

Upon getting them, she told me that the dinner voucher could only be used on my actual birthdate. And I'm in confinement still! Boohoo~ siasiapun! Anyway, it would be a waste not to use it so I gave it away for free! My dearest Cammy was the lucky one, and she brought her sister, whose birthday was sama like mine. Her rezeki and I was glad I gave it to her :)

I guess the excitement of being a mother has overtaken the whole me that I wasn't at all excited about my own birthday! DH surprised me the night before, at around 8pm +. I was truly surprised pulang. We were in the living room when he asked to be excuse ke dapur kan buat teh tarik (yes!! He makes teh tarik and it's awesome!). Sekali when he's done he came out to the living room and joined me and my mum and my sister, chatting away while enjoying his teh tarik. All of a sudden there was a blackout but it was only partial. Yang tutup karan ani arah bilik tamu pulang tapi area dapur buka masih pasal karannya ali2. I don't know if I'm making any sense here hehe but yeah cematu lah. Then DH left konon kan check the karan box. Tau2 they came in with a cake (candlesnya 27 :p) Thanks to DH, sisters, brother & my mum! This year is the best so far with Haikal around, and all praises to Allah the Almighty.

p/s: I'm going to share the pictures here once I go on my laptop.

***pictures***

THANK YOU TBS! But maybe next year you should send the text at least 3 days earlier :p

Sekali nya I couldn't go jua :(

 Lovely lilies! Funny DH complained they smell horrible!

Cute pumps from DH! Thanks bi ILY! Nasib muat :p

My loves!

Sent from my iPhone

My Little Mujahid

Subhanallah Alhamdulillah Wallahu Akbar!

Announcing the arrival of our new bundle of blessings, Amir Zakwan @ Haikal bin Alizam bin Haji Abdul Karim@ Haji Aliassim bin Matzin :p Born on the 21st September 2011 at 7.54pm weighing 3.2 kg.

I had my first contraction at 3am Wednesday morning but only woke DH up around 4+ when I realized more were coming and they were getting more intense. We went to Tutong hospital as my plan was to have my baby delivered there. I was 1cm dilated upon arrival and progressed to 5cm at 11am. However there was little progress in the afternoon and the doctor decided to send me to RIPAS. I was straight away sent to the Labour Room and had my water ruptured by the doctor to induce labour. However she wasn't happy with the baby's heartbeat shown on the CTG machine and sent me for an urgent C-Sect. Everything went extremely well and I was warded at Ward 14 for 5 days.

Breastfeeding was also a breeze as baby latched on pretty well since the first day already and the colostrum made its debut immediately alhamdulillah. I had a very amazing stay there as my dearest friend was also a nurse working at that ward. Most of the nurses were extremely helpful and friendly and the Paed Doctor, Dr Gillian, was lovely! Alhamdulillah now Ummi & Haikal are having a great time together at home with Abi who is on 20-day leave :D

Love this picture of DH & Baby!

Huge thanks to my beloved family, relatives and friends for all the lovely wishes, thoughts & prayers posted on my FB wall as well as those sent to my phone. May Allah bless you all.