Hubby, Nuaim and Nu'man are off to Alor Star tonight, and they'll be back with Mama and Bapak on Friday in time for Aiesyah's aqiqah on Saturday morning. In fact they should have left on the 7.50 MAS flight but it was delayed. I hope Hubby is surviving well with those two commandos. The last I heard from him, they were still at the departure hall at 8.05 pm, and I could hear Nu'man yapping away in the background. They're probably already up in the air by now.
I'll miss my boys, but I'll also make full use of the opportunity to watch TV as much as I can, since Nuaim's not hogging it with repeats of 'Madagascar' on DVD for the next two days. And to start with, we have Yasmin Ahmad's 'Mukhsin' on TV3 at 9.00 p.m!
Wednesday, 17 October 2007
Monday, 15 October 2007
My Day-to-day Confinement Regime
7.15 a.m - Aiesyah wakes up for breakfast. If I'm lucky, she doesn't get up till 8.00 a.m.
7.30 a.m - I pester Hubby to go fetch the specially prepared air teresak (hot water boiled with some fragrant leaves and kaffir limes) for my morning bath. My daily outfit is a buttoned shirt (to aid in breastfeeding), a batik sarong and socks to prevent 'wind' from entering my feet.
7.45 a.m - Have breakfast myself, consisting of two slices of bread, hot Milo and a small glass of yellow-orange jamu. Cannot have eggs due to stitches.
8.00 a.m - Kak Yam, an Indonesian midwife, arrives for my daily urut (massage) and barut (abdominal wrap) session. Kak Yam is also the person who prepared the jamu, a traditional concoction of herbs, turmeric and other stuff designed to return the post-natal female form to pre-pregnancy bootyliciousness (one can hope). She uses a massage oil derived from young coconut, and after a good one hour rub she'll proceed to apply pilis (herbal paste) to my forehead. This helps to get rid of 'wind' and prevent darah putih (white blood cells?) from entering the head, thus causing headaches and poor vision (a bit too late where my vision is concerned). Apparently reading during post-natal confinement can bring the same effects, but that doesn't stop me.
Kak Yam will also apply a paste consisting of ground herbs, kaffir lime juice and I think ground limestone to my abdomen before wrapping it up in a bengkung/barut. The first layer barut is a piece of cloth, the same width as my abdomen, with strings on either side that are tied across my tummy. The second layer is a long piece of cloth, about 12 m long, that Kak Yam wraps and twists tightly over the first layer, from my buttocks way up to just under my chest. It works very much like a corset really, complete with the forcified erect posture and breathing difficulty.
I'm supposed to keep the second bengkung on till at least 8 p.m., while the first layer stays on till the next day. By the time I take it off, the paste has dried and flaked, and my skin feels all raw and itchy.
In the meantime, Cik Dah gives Aiesyah a waterbath and takes her sunbathing. The morning sun helps to prevent jaundice, and after the session Aiesyah comes back in looking red as a lobster.
10.00 a.m - Kak Yam packs up, and I get to read, play Sudoku and blog/websurf to my heart's content. Or I may just take a nap (depending on how much sleep I get the night before).
10.30 a.m - I take a mid-morning snack, usually some cream crackers and another cup of Milo, to make sure that I don't go too hungry and get any 'wind' trapped in my stomach.
1.00 p.m - Lunch for me consists of half a plate of rice, grilled ikan selar or ikan gelama, a vegetable dish (of the non-cooling variety) cooked with lots of garlic, ginger and no oil, a dry sambal made of black peppercorns and some ulam - typically bittergourd, pegaga, ulam raja and daun selom. I wash it all down with an infusion of dried Chinese red dates. This diet is supposed to restore blood circulation, prevent wind and help me produce breastmilk. Chinese radish apparently works too.
4.00 p.m - My tea-break consists again of crackers and a cup of hot Milo. If I'm good, I get some nice juicy orange slices too.
7.00 p.m - Dinner is served, consisting of a similar menu to lunch. Sometimes I get free-range organic chicken instead of fish, which is a nice change. Of course, it is either steamed, grilled or made into soup. Nothing fried or oily for me.
8.00 p.m - I get to take off the long wrap. Hooray, I can breathe again!
10.00 p.m - I get ready for bed, but so far I've been stayng up till almost midnight. Last night was worse - I couldn't sleep till after feeding Aiesyah at 3 a.m!
3.00 a.m - Aiesyah usually wakes up for a feed and a diaper change. I usually pester Hubby to do the latter for me, citing my confinement as an excuse. According to Malay custom, during the pantang period of 40-44 days, the new mother is supposed to restrict her movements. In some cases she's not even supposed to get out of bed in the first week!
So far Aiesyah hasn't caused too much trouble. She sleeps most of the day, getting up only to feed about three or four times or when her diaper gets too dirty for her. Sometimes she'll poo-poo away in her sleep but continues with her slumber. It makes for interesting noises during the night.
7.30 a.m - I pester Hubby to go fetch the specially prepared air teresak (hot water boiled with some fragrant leaves and kaffir limes) for my morning bath. My daily outfit is a buttoned shirt (to aid in breastfeeding), a batik sarong and socks to prevent 'wind' from entering my feet.
7.45 a.m - Have breakfast myself, consisting of two slices of bread, hot Milo and a small glass of yellow-orange jamu. Cannot have eggs due to stitches.
8.00 a.m - Kak Yam, an Indonesian midwife, arrives for my daily urut (massage) and barut (abdominal wrap) session. Kak Yam is also the person who prepared the jamu, a traditional concoction of herbs, turmeric and other stuff designed to return the post-natal female form to pre-pregnancy bootyliciousness (one can hope). She uses a massage oil derived from young coconut, and after a good one hour rub she'll proceed to apply pilis (herbal paste) to my forehead. This helps to get rid of 'wind' and prevent darah putih (white blood cells?) from entering the head, thus causing headaches and poor vision (a bit too late where my vision is concerned). Apparently reading during post-natal confinement can bring the same effects, but that doesn't stop me.
Kak Yam will also apply a paste consisting of ground herbs, kaffir lime juice and I think ground limestone to my abdomen before wrapping it up in a bengkung/barut. The first layer barut is a piece of cloth, the same width as my abdomen, with strings on either side that are tied across my tummy. The second layer is a long piece of cloth, about 12 m long, that Kak Yam wraps and twists tightly over the first layer, from my buttocks way up to just under my chest. It works very much like a corset really, complete with the forcified erect posture and breathing difficulty.
I'm supposed to keep the second bengkung on till at least 8 p.m., while the first layer stays on till the next day. By the time I take it off, the paste has dried and flaked, and my skin feels all raw and itchy.
In the meantime, Cik Dah gives Aiesyah a waterbath and takes her sunbathing. The morning sun helps to prevent jaundice, and after the session Aiesyah comes back in looking red as a lobster.
10.00 a.m - Kak Yam packs up, and I get to read, play Sudoku and blog/websurf to my heart's content. Or I may just take a nap (depending on how much sleep I get the night before).
10.30 a.m - I take a mid-morning snack, usually some cream crackers and another cup of Milo, to make sure that I don't go too hungry and get any 'wind' trapped in my stomach.
1.00 p.m - Lunch for me consists of half a plate of rice, grilled ikan selar or ikan gelama, a vegetable dish (of the non-cooling variety) cooked with lots of garlic, ginger and no oil, a dry sambal made of black peppercorns and some ulam - typically bittergourd, pegaga, ulam raja and daun selom. I wash it all down with an infusion of dried Chinese red dates. This diet is supposed to restore blood circulation, prevent wind and help me produce breastmilk. Chinese radish apparently works too.
4.00 p.m - My tea-break consists again of crackers and a cup of hot Milo. If I'm good, I get some nice juicy orange slices too.
7.00 p.m - Dinner is served, consisting of a similar menu to lunch. Sometimes I get free-range organic chicken instead of fish, which is a nice change. Of course, it is either steamed, grilled or made into soup. Nothing fried or oily for me.
8.00 p.m - I get to take off the long wrap. Hooray, I can breathe again!
10.00 p.m - I get ready for bed, but so far I've been stayng up till almost midnight. Last night was worse - I couldn't sleep till after feeding Aiesyah at 3 a.m!
3.00 a.m - Aiesyah usually wakes up for a feed and a diaper change. I usually pester Hubby to do the latter for me, citing my confinement as an excuse. According to Malay custom, during the pantang period of 40-44 days, the new mother is supposed to restrict her movements. In some cases she's not even supposed to get out of bed in the first week!
So far Aiesyah hasn't caused too much trouble. She sleeps most of the day, getting up only to feed about three or four times or when her diaper gets too dirty for her. Sometimes she'll poo-poo away in her sleep but continues with her slumber. It makes for interesting noises during the night.
P/S I get a treat tonight - sira pisang!
Sunday, 14 October 2007
Spiffy Spaceman
Came across this post today. Must read item for profound hilarity.
I was rooting for Kapt Dr Faiz Khaleed, the military dentist, by the way. Maybe he'll get a stint on the Mars mission. And now they're planning a search for his back-up crew? Why not just select someone from the previous Top 4?
By the way, notice any similarities between these two?
Saturday, 13 October 2007
Wednesday, 10 October 2007
Introducing Amirah Aiesyah
Sunday, 7 Oct 2007 -
I took Nuaim's hand as we crossed One Utama's car park. Hubby had Nu'man in his arms. As we took the escalator down to the shops, I felt another contraction and noted the time. It was 11.15 a.m. That's 15 minutes since the last one.Hubby had just arrived home from Sudan the day before, and we were buying for clothes for the boys. The plan was that all the walking about would help me deliver the baby easily - no induction or C-section required. Nuaim, of course, had his own agenda, which was to add an ambulance to his burgeoning toy collection. In between mild contractions, I managed to get him focused enough to at least pick out two shirts and a pair of trousers.
A last minute addition on our shopping list was a lightweight umbrella-folding stroller for Nu'man. We were in Toys'R'Us, where Hubby and Nu'man were each checking out their own preferences - Nu'man somehow zooming in on the more expensive, high-end brands (kids these days, eh?) when I felt my contractions growing stronger that I was almost bent double. It was 1 pm.
We decided to call it a break and go home for prayers, feed the boys, maybe put Nu'man to sleep and hit the shops again to search for Nuaim's elusive ambulance. However, after Zuhur prayers, the cramps in my abdomen were coming quicker and stronger.
"I think we should go to the hospital instead, Bang," I calmly said to Hubby. On hindsight, maybe I shouldn't have been so calm as he seemed to take it almost too lightly and was still reading the papers 30 minutes later.
After a bit of glaring and hmmphing on my part, we finally made it to the hospital's A&E section at 3 pm. I was taken to the maternity wards, where they took a CTG to monitor the contractions and the baby's heartbeat. Having to lie on my back made it more painful. At 4 pm, the midwife inspected me and said I was already 3-4 cm dilated. I was to go straight to the labour room.
The midwife also told me that my gynae had specifically ordered only Pethadine for this delivery. What, no Epidural?! The last time I took Pethadine it made me so drowsy but it didn't kill the pain at all. I'm going to have to rely on gas this time.
The hours passed by. The contractions were getting stronger, but strangely enough also further apart. As I was more comfortable lying on my side, the CTG somehow didn't pick up the intensity of the cramps, so the midwife allowed me to take it off to do my Maghrib and Isyak prayers. I still felt them though, and twice they struck just as I was about to sujud (prostrate). Oh God, the pain! It stopped me so that I just sat there on my knees for a full minute before I could properly bend over.
By 10 pm, my contractions were still only 10 minutes apart, so the midwife had me wheeled to the ward and have some supper. Funnily enough, the moment I entered the door, they started coming quickly. I was in the room barely 20 minutes before they wheeled me in again. And that's when the real business started.
CTG - on.
Pethadine - administered.
Doctor - finally I see her.
And the pain keeps coming. GAS!!!
Through the drug-induced haze, I see the midwives and doctor bustling about. Mak had told me to fight the urge to push until I was fully dilated, but there was no one there to really tell me how far along I was. Or maybe they did say but I just didn't register anything.
At one point, though, I just couldn't hold it in anymore. My mind was brought sharply into focus by the pain. Heck, where's the doctor? I panicked and started asking for the doctor, worried that the baby would suddenly fall right out of me with no one to catch her.
The doctor and nurses rushed in. I felt a sharp pain as the doctor cut me open, but my mind had started drifiting again. The contractions however, were coming quick and fast, almost without a break in between. On the crest of each one I took a deep breath of gas, and concentrated on pushing.
First push - nothing happened.
Second push - I felt a sharp pain in the most unlikely area and told my doctor, who seemed surprised for a split second.
11.32 pm - Third push (I think, but Hubby says at least 7 - whateverlah!) - and with such pain I thought I'd die, and cries of Allahu Akbar and Subhanallah and god knows what else (I so hope it wasn't gibberish) - I felt the baby's head bear down and break through, followed by her plump body.
I heaved back with a sigh of relief.
Earlier that afternoon, my husband and I had decided to store our baby's cord blood and had arranged for its collection at the very last minute. The blood was to be collected immediately after the umbilical cord was cut. The collection kit was ready since 6 pm, but I totally forgot about it now and didn't even witness how they did the collection. I was drfiting in and out of consciousness again, only gasping for gas as the doctor sutured me up.
After they'd weighed and relatively cleaned up the baby, I got to breastfeed her in the labour room, which funnily enough I never got to do with both Nuaim and Nu'man. There she was, all 3.25 kg of her, borne and delivered with grit and determination. Alhamdulillah.
Friday, 5 October 2007
Tick Tock, Listen to the Clock
In 4 hours, I will be leaving the office and not be back till two months later.
In just over 24 hours, Hubby will step foot on Malaysian soil.
In less than 48 hours, I'll be doing some last minute shopping, hoping all that exercise will induce contractions and progress into natural labour a day or two later without drugs. Hopefully, I'll still be able to make it for iftar at my in-laws that night.
In about 70 hours, my last pre-natal check-up will determine whether I'm actually in a position to go into natural labour or my baby's grown too big and I'll have to resort to another C-section. Must remember not to eat too much during iftar the night before.
Am excited? Of course.
Nervous? You bet.
In just over 24 hours, Hubby will step foot on Malaysian soil.
In less than 48 hours, I'll be doing some last minute shopping, hoping all that exercise will induce contractions and progress into natural labour a day or two later without drugs. Hopefully, I'll still be able to make it for iftar at my in-laws that night.
In about 70 hours, my last pre-natal check-up will determine whether I'm actually in a position to go into natural labour or my baby's grown too big and I'll have to resort to another C-section. Must remember not to eat too much during iftar the night before.
Am excited? Of course.
Nervous? You bet.
Thursday, 4 October 2007
Having a place of my own
I know it sounds freaky, that at 31 and with a 3rd kid on the way, I'm still living with my mum. Guess I'm just used to the convenience. I tell myself that it's the only workable solution when my house is a condo, it takes five minutes (fifteen if I'm pregnant) to walk from the lift to my designated parking space, I've got two toddlers in tow and my husband is out of the country. It puts my in-laws' and Hubby's mind at ease that there's always someone else around who can drive me off to the hospital at a moment's notice - although in reality, when there's no car available this is not quite true.
It does have its perks, of course. Someone else does the cooking, the laundry and even keeping the kids occupied. The downside though, is that I have less space to keep my own stuff and do my own thing. And I can't say Hello/Goodbye to my mum and siblings whenever I like (strangely enough I have a very low tolerance level when it comes to my own flesh and blood - and it's reciprocal).
So I really can't wait for the renovations on my house in TTDI Jaya to be finished, move in and start afresh. The only problem is my work might atually take me elsewhere - as in OUT of the West Coast. Let's just hope for the best, okay?
It does have its perks, of course. Someone else does the cooking, the laundry and even keeping the kids occupied. The downside though, is that I have less space to keep my own stuff and do my own thing. And I can't say Hello/Goodbye to my mum and siblings whenever I like (strangely enough I have a very low tolerance level when it comes to my own flesh and blood - and it's reciprocal).
So I really can't wait for the renovations on my house in TTDI Jaya to be finished, move in and start afresh. The only problem is my work might atually take me elsewhere - as in OUT of the West Coast. Let's just hope for the best, okay?
