Updates on Peanut & Ciku

Lack of sleep, caring for a baby and toddler and unreliable broadband connection makes it really hard for me to update my blog. Most times im so tired that i cant even string a sentence together much to the annoyance of my husband.

Anyhow, i dont want my children's milestones to slip by without me jotting them down, so here they go:

Ciku and potty training has been going very very well. She goes without a diaper during the day, alerts us whenever she needs to go to the loo. There have been accidents, bt very minor ones. Im glad that we werent in a rush to start it, cos it makes such a difference to train a toddler when they're ready.

Peanut's been driving me less crazy, bt he can still go hours without sleeping during the day. The wonderful thing is that he loves to chat, smile and coo. Sometimes he'd be mid-way in a feed and he'll look at me and he'll catch my eye and start a conversation. His utter adorableness rejuvenates my weary body!

Ciku loves Peanut still, kissing his hand, head, face; giving him a squeeze here and there whenever she feels like it. Besides dropping a figurine on his face many weeks ago, the worst thing that she's done, in my opinion was to use her thumb to press down on his fontanelle (soft spot on skull)!!! I was screaming cos that to me is the scariest place on a baby. You can see it throbbing with each heartbeat and i keep imagining that Indiana Jones movie, Temple of Doom, i think, where he was served up monkey heads (the top portion being cut open and brain exposed). Major yucks!

It's 5pm and i need to squeeze in a nap before peanut gets up from his. Hope to blog again soon!

Peanut - 7+wks

4.3kg (as of a wk ago)
Loves to use his mother as a pacifier and can scream for hours when not appeased. This morning he cried from 2.30-5.30am! Im so tired! I hope to find a pacifier that he'll take to. Please wish me luck!

Peanut's 4 weeks old

Peanut's reached his fourth week of life and is starting to fill out nicely. He's no longer the little tiny bag of bones, he, in fact, has a double chin! Seeing him grow on breast milk really does make all the sleepless nights worthwhile. I think of BM as being the building blocks of his whole being.

He's no longer the baby that sleeps hours on end, no siree bob! He wakes up every 2 hours and sometimes 1 1/2 hours demanding a feed. However, he's developed a peculiarity whereby he demands a milkless breast to suckle on before gng to sleep. When none can be had, he'll cry like he's being tortured. Last night he was at it from 9pm - 1am. I was so exhausted...the neighbours must wonder what i do to the poor child. With ciku they hardly knew that there was a young baby in the house. This boy makes it known that he's in the house and that he's KING!

Im tired.

Been watching tons of TV including all those birthing stories. Saw a woman get an epidural and all the tools they use for a C-section. I am sooooo thankful that i've never had to resort to those things so far cos i was absolutely petrified by what i saw!!!! Scary, scary stuff.

Im also bored out of my mind. I have another month left before i go back to work and i wish i could go shopping n check stuff out, bt it's a hassle to do so with a young baby & i do not want to subject him to the germs that are out there. He has only had one shot, so those are things i worry about. *sigh*

Peanut's in the house!

My kids like to surprise their parents and the world. Peanut arrived just as i was sighing with relief that i hit week 37 without a hitch, which meant that i had a full term baby. The day was marked with bouts of false labour (i think) which felt like period cramps. I remember telling m that my bits felt funny (couldnt share that on FB or anyone that day), and at night i had the same sort of sensations.

Hubs, ciku and i got home at 9.30pm where i was still having weird crampy feelings. At 11.30pm thats when the cramps got more intense and i was timing them. They were 5mins in between, bt my water hadnt broken and i had no show. Hubs called the hospital to ask whether i should come in or not and they said that it was up to us. That to me meant that nothing serious was going on, so we waited it out. I went to the bathroom to do a #2 like a million times or smthng, not realizing that my system was cleaning itself out for the biggest event of the year! By 12am+ i was having super crazy painful cramps which scared the bejeebers out of ciku. The poor dear was wondering wut kinda sakit perut her mummy was having. I told hubs that we had to go to hospital. Called my parents to come and get ciku. We left the house at 1.30am. I was a crazy woman in the car...i was breathing heavily, groaning, and at the final roundabout close to hosp my water broke. Hubs drove me to emergency where they wheeled me off to the labour ward.

I couldnt really communicate at that point, i guess i was in the final stages of labour then. The midwife or whoever it was tried to get me to change into the hospital gown, but i was like, nah-ah! I lay on the bed, they put the oxygen/gas mask on me and tried to delay my pushing the baby out. It seems that the baby was distressed. The gas really helped to calm me down and and 16mins later i gave birth to Peanut. It was so much easier than with ciku, though. My body worked with me this time, instead of against me...my body was bearing down and it was basically on auto pilot. with ciku all my body did was to be full dilated. Alhamdulillah that i've so far been granted fairly fast deliveries.

Things happened so fast that hubby left my handbag in the house, so there were no first pics of my little baby :( Not only that, my appointment card and moolah were also not on us, so he had to go home around 2am+ and he came back around 4.

I had to wait a really long time for Peanut to be sent to me. I think he only came at around 10am that morning or so. I couldnt sleep until i saw him again, as much as i should have rested. The head nurse in the nursery recognized us and made a comment to how quick i had the second one. The age gap's 2yrs 3 months, so it's not too small a gap, me thinks.

Everything was fast this time around, baby and i were discharged after 1 day, so there went enjoying the great hospital food.

Once we were home everything was a mess cos we hadn't planned for an early delivery & the mid wife came on Monday night. Having the mid wife around was strange. Im not used to strangers staying in with me, but we adjusted for 2 weeks. Mak Jang fed me and took care of the baby. I found it hard to let go cos i was so used to taking care of my own baby the first time around, bt after a while it was nice not to have to do certain things (like cleaning poop).

Preps

I've packed my overnight bag! All my stuff is in a very uncool shoulder bag...hope i have everything cos i seem to have forgotten the things i used the first time around. Im also looking forward to the confinement lady. Spoke to her yesterday and she sounded really nice...i guess hearing her kedah accent was comforting too for some reason.

3-4 weeks to go and there's still stuff that needs to be purchased. Hubs has to work this weekend which throws a damper on all the plans we've had, including buying a new bed for the downstairs room for confinement lady/maid. We havent even had the handy man over to install water heater upstairs and to fix stuff up! How?? MIL reminded me how it was so last minute the first time around (ciku came almost 2 weeks early and everyone had to chip in to get the house in order before the Queen and her baby came home). While we're at it, i guess we should have pest control over too...sigh.

Gawd...is it the nasi lemak that's making my eyes go blurry n want to shut?? If yes, im going to stick to having cereal every single morning!!

Quickies

Im on week 36 with the bubba, and i think i've been going on n on about how i havent put on so much weight this time around etc, but something's changed!!! Since last month, i've been putting on 3kg a month!!!! Im massive and i feel Ugh Lee. Caught hubs looking at me the other day...not sure wut he was seeing...

So, baby's 2.25kg right now and looking like he's doing fine. I pray that i'll have a regular delivery and that my baby is healthy. Amin.

Another thing to worry bout now is how to help my toddler adjust to changes. Already she's reclaimed her cot, blankets, baby toys and the playpen. Im reading the Gina Ford book (contented toddler and baby) and it sounds pretty complicated (one must set routines to be followed etc). Some people dont even prepare, so i dont know how far im gng to go with following Gina Ford's tips. Im so bad with routine...maybe it's cos im a bumbum. Another thing, it sounds like it's really hard to manage 2 kids!!!

Spartan Raya

There will be no kampung raya for us this year due to several factors. My mood's fluctuated from moping to wanting to make raya work for ciku. This would be her first raya where she really is a little person who can understand stuff, so i want it to be meaningful for her.

For those who know me, they'd know just how important balik kpg is. It's never about me, bt about making the lonely old folks up north happy. They wait all year for ppl to go back, and with them being aged, we just dont know how long they'll be around for.

Raya morning for me every year had been about rushing to go off for Raya prayers. We'd head out to Masjid Al Bukhary (after my tok passed away, we stopped going to masjid Dakwah). The cemetery where my grandparents are buried is within the mosque grounds, so we'd head over there to recite some doas after. The mosque and the cemetery have been designed really well, and it's clean with places to wash your feet when you're done.

After thats done, we'd head to my father's side where breakfast would be served. Traditionally, there was ketupat with kuah kacang and perut, and ketupat palas to be eaten with rendang. I'd normally change from baju kurung into something fancier and we'd have the beraya ceremony with everyone in the living room and a photo session.

As soon as thats done, my mother and i would race off to her side of the family which is a street away. Things are less structured there, but my tok chik n chu need a lot of help with preparations so that's what we'd do. They live in a beautiful traditional 1/2 brick, 1/2 wood house which has been a symbol of home to me for as long as i can remember. Lots of relos normally make their way to this house, which is why i love being there.

I wonder what will happen to this home once my grandaunties pass...i dread the day the house will become empty, cos it's never ever been empty! My great grandparents built the house and lived in it with their 8 children and helpers. The house used to be a bustling paradise with every child having a role to play. My tok was a princess, so she didnt cook all that much bt her speciality was fruit acar. Chu handled finances, chik cooked the main meals and tok ndak made the kuihs for tea and did the shopping. She used to always take a beca.

Those were the good old days. Now the house only has 3 occupants - Abang, Cik n Chu. I hope i'll get to see them after i deliver...

So for now im gng to have to figure out how to make this KL raya work. Wish me luck!