Beyond 30 days

Our little princess has passed the one month line, Alhamdulillah.
The growth progress is really good, she is above the average line for her age. Physically we can see she is getting much much taller, her weight is now 4.36KG...not bad at all considering she started as a veery veeeery petite lady weighing at just slightyly above 3KG when she came to earth!

Oh...and she's more predictable now, especially to Mama, who will always know what Aliya wants most of the time. As for me, I just found out the way to make Aliya feel comfy with me, by continuously patting her back while talking to her...she'd be falling asleep sooner or later...and I'll be following soon after!

Alisya recovered from the fever & cough last week, but Naufal just caught the same package - as always, one down, one to go! But as always, insya-Allah he'll be recovering sooner, he's a tough guy!

Otherwise we would already be going for a cool dip.....

Zzzz...Huh? Cool dip? No thanx Dad!
I am allergic to anything below my body temperature!

Heat

Aliya is doing very very well. She’s starting to look chubbier and the kids love their sister very much.....they were there for Aliya’s first morning stroll.

But Alisya has not been feeling well these past few days....early Monday morning her temperature went up to 39degree C, kesian my baby gurl. Had to take her to the clinic yesterday, she did most of the explanation to the doctor who was very friendly to her, in the end the doctor said, senang betul kerja dgn Alisya ni!
...and this morning when she woke up she came looking for me. Gave her a dose of her meds and explained to her she won't be going to school today. "Esok sahaja sekolah?" she asked me. Smart gurl....that's my baby.
Get well soon sayang.....

Her First Real Outing

On the 18th. day, Aliya went for her first outing with us. Some people were shocked when we mentioned she's 18 days old, out came remarks like: "Eh! Dalam pantang dah berjalan dah..."

Baby: Zzzzzz....Zzzzzzz....ZZZZZZ!
Me: Oit! Already enter frame laa!
Baby: Huh? Say wot? Zzzzz....Zzzzz!

Well, there's no such limitations really (*Alisya was 4 days old when we took her to a mall in Kuching!).....but we always avoid places with too many people & foreigners, thus why Alamanda was the first mall for Aliya.

Been a while since Along & Angah last went there too.....since it was quite a rainy weekend, Along & Angah did not have the chance to brush their cycling skills....maybe this weekend kids.

N: Gawd! Look at the hair of that Makcik!
A: Hmmm...just an oldie trying hard to be hip-hop adik! Let them be...kesyiaaan!
Baby: Zzzzz......Zzzzzzz.....ZZZZZZZ!

After a round of shopping for the kids, Mama belanja us coffee & foods.......

......then off to Tesco for some groceries

Girls & their toy

A: It's ok Mom I got it....
M: Ohh its ok Kakak, I got it...
A: I'll push her mummy, I insist...
M: Its ok, you are tired, let me push Baby Aliya ok...
A: I am not tired, I am ok, I will push Baby Aliya
M: Oit! Let me push the wheeler la...!
A: Allaaaa!! You had your turn just now!! Let me push it laa pulak....!
Baby: Zzzz...Oi gurls! I am trying to concentrate here ok! ZZZZZZ!!!

17 Days

Aliya is now 17 days old, growing stronger and bigger everyday! We are learning to understand her personality, as we did with Alisya & Naufal.

For now, I would say that she is quite like Alisya in her early days, maybe a bit quieter. At this stage, she's lookking more like Mama than me and she's very much attached to Mama since she’s been (and will continue being, insya-Allah) solely breast-fed.

We would like to say thank you to those who visited Aliya & Mama and for those who sent well-wishes via SMS, e-mail, this little blog and any other modes.

We really appreciate your presence and words. Thank you so much for being there! We have been waiting for so many years....and....finally! Alhamdulillah.

Thank you again....

....and I pray, 17 years from today I'd still be around and able to put up an entry entitled: 17 Years....

The 7th Day

It's been a week since the arrival of our Aliya Irdina.....went to see her pediatrician today, everything looks very good. She has started to gain weight, from 3.04KG at birth to 3.13KG today. Thanx to Mama!

At Birth -> Day 1
--> Day 2

Day 3 -> Day 4
--> Day 5 ---> Day 6

TODAY

and...today is also Along's & Angah's first day in school!

I walked them to the playskool and left them on their own....walking back home I realized yet again, my babies have grown up!

Later, we were there with their maid to fetch them in the afternoon before going to GIMC. Naufal seems to enjoy playing with his new friends very much...the principal told me....and compared to others in the class, Alisya is very very active despite her size. They get along well with the rest, but towards the end of the session they had a fight...between them! Naufal disobeyed Along's warning or sumthing...which is typical of him! But Alisya will always be protecting her kid bro regardless what Naufal did to her lah.

Along told me during our late evening borak just now, she got ramai kawan today and when she opened her bag to get some cookies to eat, they "assisted" her....and finished all the grubs in her bag! Kesian my girl...first day dah kena "pau" dgn kawan!

Now I got another big duty everynight.....talking Alisya to sleep....she has sooooo many "helah" to stay awake for as long as possible. Last night she insisted to be carried like a baby, so there I was in her room, "dukung" her like I did when she was a couple of days old.....until she fell asleep...if I have to do that again....I may need a backbone transplant!

Luckily, Naufal does not need that much persuasion to sleep, he can quietly sleep on his own, either that...OR...he'd be quietly doing his "project menggodek kecil-kecilan" with whatever stuff he can find around him...bahaya mamat nih....his hands are really fast...maybe should consider him for aikido or karate kenpo instead of taekwondo when the time comes.

Aliya pulak....well for now, sleep is her top most priority....

I guess, life will be more interesting than ever.....Alhamdulillah.

A.L.I.Y.A.

That's her.....
A Delayed broadcast…for a VERY VALID REASON!!

December 26, 2005
1.
~05:10pm

Well, the ETD is today!

Mama is now in the labor room number 6, just being induced at about 4:25pm by Nurse Hayati. Dr Aziz arrived about 4:50pm and talked a bit about the “strategy”. Aliya was supposedly to be delivered about 2 weeks back i.e. 12/12/2005 but since today is the final ETD, we are going to closely monitor her heartbeat rate (averaging at around 135 per minute now). At 11:00pm, Mama will be induced again and if Aliya is still not out, an inspection will be done around 8:30am tomorrow and we’ll see how it goes from there….

Mama and the twins, moments before we departed to GIMC

Tagged!

2.
~7:30pm

At about 6:00pm Mama was transferred from the Labor Room 6 to Room 301, together with her dinner....and me of course! Whoever says hospital foods are not tasty, the person’s appetite & taste buds need to be calibrated! The room windows allow us to get a view of the GE Mall. I actually planned to go there, get some (very late) lunch and Mama wanted the O'Brian's triple deck sandwich. If I have time I wanted to drop by the MAC Centre and get a MAC sleeve for Yoda.
Unfortunately, I couldn’t! Mama is starting to feel pain on the thighs, very painful. She is feeling very uncomfortable. A nurse came to do some checking and I told Mama I need to grab something to eat…so here I am at the GJC. Airzed and ZapZone is present but I do not have neither of the account. Maybe get a prepaid one, if needs be…..

The main gadget in the labor room

3.
~09:00pm
My tummy filled now…but Mama is in so much pain that I simply do not know what to do to comfort her but be right next to her and hold her hands….and my tummy, which was filled with GJC sandwich, now feels like its full of butterflies....no no....make that....bumble bees!

The contractions are coming more frequent and its getting more painful each time….kesian Mama.

We called Alisya & Naufal at home….as always, Alisya would be the one who’s eager to talk…..and was she very busy with her cousins! Well at least she would not be missing Mama that much. This is only the second time she’ll be spending a night without us in our own homey. The first one was when Mama had to attend a course, I had to take care of Alisya alone (Naufal was in kampung, kidnapped by the grandees!)….and that was like almost a year ago!

Show me a person who'd not miss being with kids like ours...
and I'll show you a person with no heart!

December 27, 2005
4.
~ 12:30am

Back in Labor Room 6….

We have been here since about 10:00pm. Nurse Salina told us that Dr A asked her to monitor first and (if needs be only) Mama will be induced at around 11:00pm. Looking at the contractions trend line, Nurse Salina mentioned that there is no need to induce but the opening was only about 3cm (read: long way to go!) and asked whether Mama can stand the pain anymore or would want a normal painkiller jab or go straight for epidural.

The contractions pain was really bad since 8:00pm. It was coming more frequent and at a longer period of time too. Mama decided to go for epidural, at about 11:11pm. Unfortunately Dr Chua was on emergency at Level 1, so it took a bit of waiting until finally the procedure was done. The whole procedure was kinda cool, (from my position at least!) The stuff used and the precision of the anesthetist is something to be admired.

Aliya’s heartbeat rate was fluctuating like rollercoaster soon after the procedure was done, I was a bit worried….well actually VERY worried (Sheesh! Come on man you’d be worried too if you are in my shoes! Hehehe!).
Mama was given oxygen to breathe in order to assist Aliya in gaining the average heartbeat rate again. Asked Mama to breathe normally, inhale through the nose and exhale via mouth. After a couple of minutes, the heartbeat looked normal again.

Anyways, was later informed that it’s a normal thing to happen, when the epidural kicks in, the baby will respond to it and the effect would be fluctuation of the heartbeat, which is why Dr Chua was around to monitor until it came back to the normal average.

Now, Mama is asleep, Aliya’s heartbeat is in the good average and I need a nap too!

….have a feeling its gonna be a very long day today!


5.
~06:30am

Well…it DEFINITELY IS GOING TO BE A LONG DAY….ALIYA DECIDED TO MAKE HER GRAND ENTRANCE INTO THE WORLD AT 3:59AM, DECEMBER 27, 2005……THE LONG AWAITED PRINCESS IS FINALLY HERE!!

….before that magical moment arrived, I was not able to sleep properly (who would!?).

Based on the original plan, Dr A is going to check Mama at 8:30am today ~ to decide what to do next. Since Mama took the epidural, it kinda speeds things up. At about midnight, the opening was just 3cm. That’s when she finally managed to sleep.

At about 3:00am, nurse Salina who came to inspect Mama, mentioned that the opening is already 9cm! I was a bit drowsy and it took me a while to realized that its going to happen really really soon now!!!

Dr A stepped into the labor room soon after that, all equipments ready and he explained that he will have to use vacuum to assist Aliya & Mama in the delivery.

I quickly warmed up the camera and told myself – this is it! Took my position next to
Mama and whispered to her, Aliya is finally coming!

….and the procedure begins.

It did not take too long….3 pushes and at 3:59am, 27 December 2005, Aliya finally came to the world.

The bonding starts immediately between her & Mama!! Was moving around in the labor room with my camera, capturing whatever possible in those most exciting moments in our life….

WELCOME TO THE WORLD, ALIYA…..

ALHAMDULILLAH….6 years….2 greatest most adorable kids…..and now we have Aliya…

Aliya looks like her sister Alisya….. immediately, the bonding started with us. Aliya was placed on Mama soon after she was out, and after she was being cleaned, Aliya introduced to Mama’s “feeding apparatus” for a couple of minutes before I took her to do the qamat….

Then after I signed some documents.....as I sat back on the chair next to Mama who was tired and trying to catch her breath…..it started to rain….ALHAMDULILLAH.

We started SMS-ing the families and friends.

6.
THE FIRST DAY IN HER LIFE….

Since Aliya will be breast fed exclusively, we were allowed rooming-in and therefore Aliya is always with us unless we asked the nursery to clean her. The day was quite hectic for Aliya……

The first of the visitors arrived as soon as 8:00am ~ Uncle Kimster!! Then an almost continuous string of friends and colleagues…Along Alisya & Angah Naufal arrived in the afternoon and they were happy to see their kid sister and the last visitor was Tok Mak & Tok Abah who came with cousin Raiyan.

The excitement did not end there…Aliya had trouble sleeping and Mama has to work on the breast feeding procedure immediately….its important for Aliya to get the colostrum into her system….and in turn, she plays important part to stimulate the production of milk in Mama’s system…..it was quite an effort but with the assistance from nurses Tooba, Asma, Ooi, Christy and some others, it went pretty well…within about almost 24 hours the milk started to come out and Aliya has enjoyed Mama’s milk. It was almost dawn when Mama finally get to shut her eyes properly.

Mama is a true champion…we love you so much Mama!


December 28, 2005
7.
~11:30pm
The day went quite slow actually. Not many visitors and in between attending Aliya’s demand for milk, we managed to catch up on sleep.

I was too weak to walk to the MAC Centre nearby…..which is a good thing actually…else there definitely would be some damage to my wallet!


December 29, 2005
8.
~10:30am

We are getting ready for home! Everything looks fine for Mama & Aliya. Dr Aziz came and said everything looks very good and well, he has instructed for the discharging process for us today, which means that by noon we should be leaving this room and back to our little homey.

Dr Ananda also came can told us there is nothing to worry about Aliya, from his observation, the jaundice level dropped since yesterday and he is very sure we don’t have to worry about Aliya getting jaundice. It was probably due to the colostrum and early breast feeding done…according to the books we read lah. Anyways, we’ll be seeing him in one week’s time.

…but now, its time to pack!

Daddy....enough with Yoda already! I need a nap....

24 hrs ago

1.
21Dec will be the final visit to the Gynae before the real date. It seems that Baby Aliya will be arriving 26th or 27th Dec, latest, or anytime from now to those dates. Whatever it is, we have booked everything, check-in at 4pm on the 26th Dec., Mama to be induced at around 8pm, and then at 3am the next morning. We’ll see how it goes.

Alisya tagged along for this last visit. Was about to bring Naufal too but Mama has a good point when she asked can I handle the kids alone in case she has to be admitted on the spot.

So, Naufal had to stay and look after Cousin Raiyan and the grandees. Gave him a couple of RM and off he went to buy news papers with Tok Abah, “Bah! Oiyy Abah oiyy!! Nak yi pepper…” (Abah! Oi Abah! Nak beli newspaper…)

2.

Entertainment la sikit!

Was on our way back from GEI, when I saw the stickers on this car. A confused bloke perhaps……I dunno laa….have to ask Mr Wong to comment on this, never knew that Honda has Type R RS pulak….

Actually I wanted to capture the “rugby post” on this rig too, but the traffic light was turning green and it sped away like a true champion…being chased by another Honda of the same serie, only without those stickers and a slightly low rugby post and the color is not as Ferrari as that one you see up there…..

The Type R RS apparently went straight at another junction and the other Ricey went the same way we did, up the hills, with its big exhaust blasting tsunami like riot, I was surprised that our low class MPV zoomed effortlessly pass it only to see it chasing us back when we went down hill…..maybe he’s out of NOS kot…..

Bottom line: We can count on RiceBoys for good entertainment (read: Something like Mr Bean + 3HS quality of joke) on our roads!

3.

Back home, Cousin Raiyan decided to go back early – his supply of formula milk supply was not sufficient! That’s why we entered the homey and found Naufal a.k.a. Angah was half asleep, else he’d be playing with his RC (Mama bought one for each of them recently…..a cheaper version for pre-training before they can finally “drive” the off roaders RC mentioned in the earlier post).

Good for him. I don’t want my boy to be interested with the sorts of Barbie toys and other girlie stuffs Along has! Susah jugak to convince them that a boy is a boy & a girl is a girl!

Alisya @ Along can really concentrate in doing her stuff....Naufal @ Angah, well I have to find out how to boost his concentration level....cepat boring & not putting the same amount of effort like his sister in doing stuffs....including watching their favourite movies...or maybe boys memang macam tu kot....hmm...research research!

4.

Along surprised me yesterday, while I was checking e-mails & stuffs, she came up to my room with her butterfly wings on her back, carrying the little poney (look at the pix above) that she used to sleep with when she was a baby (well…she is still a baby!) Mama has cleaned up all the soft toys and other stuff to prepare for Aliya’s arrival and apparently Along & Angah have been re-living their early days……they still love to play with the soft toys, including those first ones they had when they were just a couple of days old.

I told Along something like, “When you are just a small baby, you used to sleep with this poney. The poney sings a song that will make you relaxed and fall asleep (Rock-a-bye-baby). But now its broken (the maid actually washed the poney in the washing machine without taking out the device in it!) but let’s see if Ayah can fix it ok? Poney loves you!”

Along’s reply was, “Sayaaang Poney baby….sayaang ia”

I was later told by Mama that she has told Along, the poney now belongs to Baby Aliya. It seems like Along is accepting it!

We have a couple of days more to "wait and be alert". The best way for me to spend these days would be being bullied by Along & Angah lah….their stamina & demands really requires a big effort from me to catch up.

The day normally starts with buying food for breakfast, if their Nenek is not around lah. If Nenek is around, breakfast will be on the table as soon as we came down from our rooms.
After breakfast it would be a round of melayan the kids, since they are into crayons, it’s a bit easier, let them do their stuff and we can read the papers, with interruptions from time to time when they asked us to draw something or comment on their artworks. Or it would be a round of movie/ cartoons and playing with their toys.

Whatever it is, I would normally fall asleep on the couch by noon…..the only response I would be capable of giving them by that time is a nod and a smile that goes with “Uiiii!! Cantiknya! Pandai laa dia lukis...Zzzzz”
And Along/ Angah wud go like,"Aiyahh!! Wake-up laa!! Oi Aiyahh!! Aiyahh niii...Aiyaahhh~!"
"Zzzzz......cantikkkk.....Zzzzzz"

The only way to not fall asleep is to excuse myself and do some stuff on the MAC, or read the (free) book I recently got titled : Our Ways. Itu pun tak tentu jugak, reading needs more effort than MAC-ing!

5.

That’s only half day gone! The other half would be convincing then to go to sleep...or else they will not be allowed to go to the playground in the afternoon. Normally the plan succeed…50%....Along would prefer to do her stuff for as long as she possibly can before finally fell a sleep for a few minutes and waking up to climb on my tummy, put her face right in front of me and say something like, “Aiyah banyun! (Ayah bangun!) Aiyah chen-up (stand-up) ayah, nak pegi taman. Aiyah banyun aiyah…..aiyah niiiii banyun laa!”

.....and that would be my wake-up call for Asar and taking them to the playground or spin around the area if its raining. Ever since they got their new sports shoes, they won't stop running and jumping in it. It’s just a joy to see them getting along with kids younger and older than them. At least I am confident they are able to communicate and not going to grow up being timid personalities….insyaAllah.

They really love babies, while almost all of the other kids (and their maids, mothers) seems know Alisya & Naufal, since the twins have been playing there ever since they were able to walk. But after almost 3 years of doing this playground thingy, I can say 8 out of 10 times, I’d be the only dad with kids at the playground. Yeah, the others are working I guess...overtime on weekends too perhaps...