Irfan has been on pacifiers since the first week of his birth. His first pacifiers ever was bought by his uncle, Mamu Pah (MP) right after 2-3 days he came back to the house from the hospital.






After a few minutes of speaking in med terms, the doctor finally told me that my water is already a dark shade of green, which means that the munchkin had already passed motion, and a lot of it judging from the colour of the water. She was explaining on how it could be dangerous for him if he swallow it and judging from my progress, we'd still have at least 7 more hours to go before he'll finally pop out. So there's almost a 100 per cent possibility that he WOULD swallow it.

Not knowing what else to do and how to react to this, I just ask hubby what he thought of it. He said -in a defeated tone - that he didn't want me to go through the c-sect. Neither did I. We weren't prepared for this. And I really really have a thing against being cut open, anywhere on my body. Bukan apa, takut okie. kena paper cut pun dah bising sakit sakit, inikan pulak nak kena belah perut kan. Sigh..

Since we really couldn't decide on what to do, I called Abah and told him -tearily- on what the doctor told us. Abah said that if it's for the best then go for it. "It's gonna be an experience for you", that was among his words to me.

Then, the anesthesiologist Dr Redzuan, came in and explained again in a very kind voice of the situation. I was quite soothed by his words, I guess he knew what we were feeling and I think he even saw me crying everytime I look at hubby kot. :-D (hihi Emi said I'm a drama queen ahakz)

So we decided to go for the C-Sect. While the staff were preparing the OT, abah arrived and he came up to the labour room to doa for me. After first I was like, alamak! bole ka ni abah masuk, nanti doktor marah plak, but after that I just couldn't care less nemore. I was in need of support and thankful for all of it that I got from everyone.

After the OT was ready, I was wheeled in and both abah and hubby followed me up to the front door of the OT. Both were smiling encouragingly at me while I was busy wiping my tears (definitely a drama queen).

Dr Redzuan then asked me if I wanted to be awake during the surgery and I said yes. However, after he gave me a shot of something ( I still have no idea/can't remember what it was) I was totally knocked out.Throughout the surgery, I woke up once or twice, thinking that I was in a space ship or something as all I could see was glaring ORANGE lights and lotsa buttons(?) on the screen-like wall.

After 45 minutes long, the munchkin was born - on the same date as his abah's birthday! 19 Mac (1980/2008). The best birthday gift ever for abah. :-D

The surgery went well. I vomited a few times after that, most probably due to the pain control shot I was given earlier. After I gained consciousness, the nurses wheeled me back to my room. Mak and makchak was quite surprised that I was able to smile after the surgery. Turned out...patutlah, still on epidural rupanya. hehehe...

Post surgery..

After he was cleaned up, they brought the munchkin to me (in the room). It was such joyous moment for me, but sadly I was still feeling groggy and helpless thus I couldn't breastfeed him immediately. I was sad, really.

Hubby went to see Penang's mufti(?) Ustaz Bukhari regarding the name and our initial plan to name him Muhammad Adam Rayyan was changed. He is then officially Muhammad Aqil Irfan bin Mohamed Amin.

I stayed at the hospital for 5 long days. Day 2 saw me struggling to sit up, and walked a short distance to the toilet. It was darn painful but advisable as the longer you wait, the more painful it'd be.

Throughout my stay, hubby wasn't around that much. Mak was there almost all the time and I'm sooo thankful that I have a mother who really understand her daughter and didn't fret about me being manja and all when I was in pain.

Oh, and I have a confession to make. Yes, I had the baby blues syndrome throughout the confinement period. I was sad and depressed most of time. In fact, I think that the confinement stage was worse than the delivery stage. I hope I won't have to go through those horrible moments ever again, praying that for the next one (insyaAllah kalau ada rezeki) the confinement won't be so bad anymore.




It's been almost 6 months and I've never blog about my experience of giving birth to Irfan.

As most of you know, I gave birth through C-Section. It all started with me taking 2 weeks leave from work to come back to Penang as we planned to give birth at one of the Maternity Hospital here. My EDD was on the 16th of March 2008 (Sunday), so we had 2 weeks of final checkups in Penang with Dr Rozit* before I was due to give birth.

On that Sunday upon waking up in the morning, my first thought was "OMG! I haven't felt any pain at all. camna ni???"..I was quite restless throughout the day as the doctor said that if nothing happened until the next day (which was Monday) I've got to be admitted to be induced. I so wanted it to come naturally, not wanting to be forced to give birth. However, the doc was quite strict and insisted that we came on Monday if nothing happens on Sunday.

So hubby took me for a walk at the Youth Park, sebabnya orang cakap jalan banyak lagi senang beranak kan. We walked from Youth Park until Waterfall and I really did enjoy our last moments together just as husband and wife, not yet parents.

Anyway, Monday came and I still didn't feel any contraction, nor was there any show to indicate I was to give birth any time soon. Mak (and MIL of coz) told us to wait and not go for induce yet as Mak said that she didn't gave birth to any of us until at least a week after her EDD(s). However since Dr Rozit* was a very strict doctor, we didn't dare defy her order lest something bad happen to the baby. Hubby did called the clinic and told the staff that we want to wait another day, and if still there's no signs of the baby coming out then we'd go on Tuesday. The doctor agreed, but not full-heartedly.

That Monday night we had a really nice dinner at Tari Cafe with mak, abah and the siblings. I ate all I felt like eating, but not too much as I didn't really had the appetite to. Maybe risau thinking of tomorrow.

Tuesday came, and still no sign of him coming out any time soon. So that morning hubby took leave and we went ahead as planned, to the hospital. I got admitted into the ward and waited for quite a while for them to start the procedure. Oh btw, we took a single room so hubby could be there with me throughout the whole ordeal, as I'm a very coward person and totally needed support from him to face the unknown.

So after about an hour of waiting, they finally gave me the induce tablet - they called it the vagin* tablet - and asked me to rest on the bed. That happened arond 10 in the morning and I waited for a long time but no pain came. Mak and abah came to send lunch and saw me still gelak2 and sitting happily on the bed watching TV. They went back and the nurse came to give me a second dose at around 5 in the evening.

From then on, the contraction came with the frequency of about 2-3 minutes per contraction. However, the earliest hour's contractions were very mild thus bearable to me (whose got an extremely low pain threshold). When my contractions were monitored through the CTG machine, the nurses kept on asking me why was I smiling even when the contraction reached it's peak reading. Well, I told them it was bearable. I thought that if that's how painful it'd get then I might be able to get through it breezily. Cewaahh...angan-angan betul...

The night came and my contraction became harder. Being manja, I was of course looking at hubby with tear-filled eyes and asked him to rub my back or do anything to ease the pain. Somehow that night was the longest night of my life as I was contracting every 2-3 minutes, but when the nurse checked I was only about 1+cm dillated.

I was sooo frustrated with my progress and kept on asking the nurse to check my opening, much to THEIR frustation. Hehehe...

That morning, I just couldn't take it anymore - thinking that I still have a loooooong way to go and no energy left as I didn't get any sleep at all the night before, I requested for pain control. I was only 2+ cm dillated at 8+ am and I WANTED MY SLEEP damm*t! (At that time, thinking over and over again that I shouldn't have went there to be induced, instead should've let nature work it ways).

At around 10ish in the morning, the doctor ordered that I be wheeled into the labour room so they could give me the pain control I requested (okay okay, I actually requested for an epidural). Afterbeing injected with the epi, I was laying back quite comfortably (the doc didn't give me the highest dosage as he said I still need to feel some contractions so that I'd have the urge to push the baby out later) before she poked my water bag. After that, I heard the midwife gasp*and the doc and midwife both spoke in their medical terms which I had no idea what it was all about* but still being contend with feeling less pain now, I just smiled at everyone in the room.

to be continued...




As promised to Yong, I'll write a short note about my exam the other day.

I got the letter informing me to come sit for the exam a day before I was supposed to sit for it. It wasn't even 24 hours, maybe only about 14-15 hours before, to be exact. It was for the post of Programme Producer, which I had no idea what it was all about. I called my cousin, Yong who is in the broadcasting line to ask her about the job. She wasn't so sure and told me to google it as she said SPA's website has got information on it, complete with examples of past exam questions. I did - googled it I mean - and found out that this post is all about journalism, broadcasting and such.

I didn't really have time nor passion to read those long exam questions. This is something that you have to learn in 3-4 years (read : doing you bachelor's degree) not overnight. Besides, I had the berbuka meal to prepare and a cranky baby to take care of.

So the day came, and as decided the day before, I proceeded to the university where I was supposed to take the exam. I know I knew nothing about the stuff but at least later I won't be regretting not knowing what could have been. We send Irfan to mak's house and then hubby send me off to the venue. There were only 5 of us in attendance, well..that's a bigger chance to get the job isn't it. Less competition whaaat...

At around 9 am, we were called to the exam room. Just before entering the room, I suddenly noticed something I haven't noticed before. There, written in bold letters on the board was the sequence of the whole process. First there'll be exams. Then it'll be followed by an AUDITION. After the audition, whoever gets shortlisted will be called for an interview with the board of inteviewers. I was already chuckling to myself. U know lah, an audition???? What the h*ck was I supposed to do during it. Sing a song??Acting like I was a news reporter or something??? Well, I have NO IDEA at all!

Anyway, we went inside and after we were seated at our seats, we were allowed to look at the question first before the exam will begin. I flipped through mine, and at that instant I knew I was only wasting my time being there. I don't really know about stuff such as "Beri definisi bagi *screenshot* et cetera. Okie, not really screenshot, I don't even remember what the question was. But what I did remember is I don't know any single stuff written on those pieces of papers.

So, I went to the person in charge and told her my story. Panjang lebar gitu..on how I thought I'd just come to see what kind of a job a Programme Producer is and how the question would be, and now that I had a look at it I know I wouldn't be able to answer even a single one as this isn't my line of work (nor study) at all. They just said ok and thanks for coming.

Haha...so that's how it went. I wasn't there for even 30 minutes before calling mak to ask my brother to pick me up. Lawak kan ;-p

So Cha, it looks like I won't be getting another nice dinner treat this time around*sob*sob*

Ok lah, on to another story.

Irfan weaned yesterday. He isn't 6 months yet, only 5.5 mths but he's just so hungry nowadays that his feeding frequency became less than 2 hours each time. And I believe a hungry boy deserves to have his meal in form of solid.

So after receiving much suggestions from friends and such, I finally started him with carrot and rice puree for breakfast yesterday. That was my son's first ever meal and I cooked it for him! It's truly an indescribable feeling to be able to do things for your son and I'm really enjoying each and every one of it.

Pictures of him weaning can be found here : http://bai-lunar.fotopages.com/

*Yawn*yawn* I'm going off to continue my sleep before Irfan wakes up. :-D




Ayam masak merah

Okie la. Gotta go and pack up stuff as we'll be spending the night at mak's house tomorrow. As for the exam tomorrow...errrr...just wish me luck ya.

I had an exam couple of days back. P*blic Mutu*l exam, in order to become UT agent. Ok. the truth is I didn't really have the passion to be an agent, but as hubby said that I might as well take the test and do it whenever I have the opportunity, I just agreed lah. After all, he's paying for it kan..so I see no harm here la.

But the thing is, I was too lazy to study for the exam. Whenever Irfan's sleep I'd prefer to do other things. Catching up on my beauty sleep for example (haha), do household chores, watch TV or surf the net.

So the night came when I was supposed to take the exam tomorrow, and I had not touch any single notes given to me. That night saw me kelam-kabut flipping through God knows how many pages of the notes, trying to absorb everything I need to know to pass the exam. Widad told me that out of 20 people taking the exam, usually only 3-4 will pass. So you can imagine how gabra I was la as we paid MONEY to sit for the exam kan.

The day came. Mak came over to look after Irfan, and Pah sent me to the exam center. Arrived quite early, and there were 3-4 lads and gals discussing the notes and such. I just smiled at everyone and kept my mouth shut.

Okie la, so I took the online test and surprisingly passed it! I was thrilled of coz, as I overheard a few of them telling each other that they flunked it. Luck was really on my side this time, alhamdulillah!

Anyway, with haste I called hubby and told him of the result. I demanded a nice treat at Secret Recipe that night as I'd been craving for their cheese cake for quite some time. He agreed. Somehow that night, Irfan wasn't really on his best behaviour so I decided be enjoying it more if we could have it at home. So on his way back from work, hubby bought it for me. And my craving was satisfied. :-)

A slice of bubble-something-cheese cake? Award-winning katanya. Memang deserved the award lah, very nice.

The usual choc banana yang telah separuh dimakan.

Choc indulgence kot...I'm not a fan of choc cake, tapi boleh la makan.

A few days after, I wasn't in the mood to cook and since I had not yet been treated to a nice dinner for passing the exam (mengada2, demand lebih plak!) we went to the Chef & Brew at Krystal Point. Well, frankly the food wasn't that nice if u ask me. We should have gone to the Fisherman's Grill near our house instead.

Yesterday, the first berbuka for this Ramadhan was at Makchak's house. The food was great, nasi kacang and the usual lauk plus kuih. But we all ate in the dark as we got a black out just about 5 minutes before berbuka. What an eventful day of Ramadhan.

Okie la guys, Irfan is calling for me to play with him. Happy Ramadhan to all and may this month brings us closer to Him and each other.