100 days

List of things I can't do for 100 days from the day Lil Chica is born....

1. No love making 

2. No heavy lifting 

3. No exercise

4. No fruits other than Apple and Oranges

5. No Ice (ice cream included) - tough one here

How am I going to survive? 

19 down.. 81 days to go... 

Confinement Day 18: 18 days away from Civilization...

Conversation with Hubster...
Hubster just got home from work...
Me: So, What's new? Tell me the Juice!!! (with owh so hopeful eyes that there's something to share with me)
Hubster: I'm sorry... There's nothing new to share...
Me: Hmph!

Not even half way through and I'm going crazy.. I don't mind having to eat the confinement food and drink the oh-so-sedap-NOT! air akar kayu.. but not being able to go out, sobs!!!

ONE UTAMA!!! I MISS YOU!!!!!!!

8 days down.. 32 more to go...

Believe it or not, Lil Chica is now 8 days old. We've been adjusting to our new roles as parents that time flies. My time management depends on my new boss's appetite. Another major thing about my new role is enduring my confinement period. 40 days to be exact since i delivered a girl. If i delivered a boy, it will be 44 days of confinement. On top of that, it will be 100 days of not 'sleeping' with your spouse and no ice (after the 40/44 days you can drink cold water but will still have to refrain from ice.. No idea why).

Some of the rules during confinement period:

a) Massage and hot stone treatment everyday during the confinement period (this part is my favorite. Though it can be painful but definitely worth it)

b) Not to wash (wet) hair everyday. The lesser the better. Thank god for the creation of dry shampoo. Fudge's dry shampoo is helping me with this a lot. 

c) Endure confinement diet (pretty much tasteless and heaty food that pretty much is the same) Sigh! Can't wait for it to be over

d) Wear the traditional corset called "bengkung".. This is my least favorite. The traditional corset's material causes my skin to itch. Yet, my mom is very persistent in getting me back in shape so she's making me wear them no matter what. Sigh! I'll prolly invest on a good pair of corset after this (prolly wacoal, cosway and spanx.. Those crony and premium beautiful is far from my budget) and of course workout like my life depends on it.

e) keep my legs together and take high fiber meals to ensure that the stiches heal well.. The high fiber portion is to help with my bowel movement to soften the stool. Yes, it can be too much information but that is one of the important part.

f) sauna-rized my attire.. Wear socks, jacket and all that even when it's hot.. This is also not my favorite part as it delays the healing process of my rash..

g) lifting or any kind of work is forbidden. I am only allowed to take care of my baby.. And during this confinement period, i get the help of the confinement lady to ease the burden.. This is not so bad. Since it is my first born, I'm still not all that confident with all the tasks. 

Well, the list goes on.. Apparently, during this confinement period is when there will be a whole lot of challenges to test us so that we will be able to adapt to our new roles better. We are blessed that Lil Chica behaves well. Quiet and able to sleep in by herself. She will only cry when she's hungry, when someone disturbs her sleep and change of environment. However, there's a slight change in behavior today. Normally, she will wake up at 6 in the morning and sleep after feeding. This time around, she woke ip at 5am and wouldn't sleep. She's even asking for people to comfort her. Not sure whether it is because her belly button is going to come off but whatever it is, all this things will definitely be worth it. Sigh! I can't wait for confinement to be over. 8 days down and 32 more to go...

By the way, say hello to my new boss 

The Birth of Lil Chica (Warning! This is a very long Essay)

Growing up, we have heard of so many birth stories. With the current technology and social media, we were even given the chance to watch birthing videos that people share on youtube and what not. Having just gone through an experience myself, my conclusion is no birth story is ever the same and you can barely imagine how a birth takes place until you experience one. 

From the scare of C-section (caesarian), macerated still birth, double charges when a normal delivery fails to the long hours of labor. Yes, I've heard and witnessed it all. My sister was told that it is impossible for her to deliver normally because the baby is too big to pass through her pelvic opening. My sister in law experienced macerated stillbirth and lost her baby who was almost due. I've a friend who had to pay double procedure fees because towards the end, her baby was in distress (emergency c-sect was required). My cousin experienced a very long labor hours. 

Then, I was also introduced to the wonders to hypnobirth. My husband's bestfriend's wife who is much smaller than me (the bestfriend is bigger than my husband fyi) was able to deliver her baby normally via the method. So, I thought, hey, so normal delivery is not impossible for me. Also, I watched a video of my 2nd cousin (daughter of my mom's cousin) gave birth in the water which made both my husband and I more interested in the Mongan's Hypnobirth Method. Some people kept asking things like, "what? Is it like hypnotizing yourself? That's easy right? Just zikir your pain away". Well, it is far more than that. The hypnobirth method teaches us what we need to do during the pregnancy period for an optimum birth. For example, several exercises were taught in order to ensure that the baby is engaged in a proper position where the head is facing down. If the baby were to face upwards, it will be difficult for the baby to come out. Why? Because the back of the head is smaller and the skull was structured in such away so that it can overlap and adjust in size to pass the birth canal. A massage method was introduced to help with the pelvic opening (so really, there is no such thing as the pelvic opening being too small for a person to deliver normally). 

However, there was also drawbacks when a person goes for hypnobirth class. We were asked to delay our trip to the hospital as long as possible to prevent intervention. Intervention in what way? Intervention like the popping/bursting of the waterbag. The waterbag will normally pop by itself. Most often, the doctors will pop it in order to make the labor faster. Drawback is, if your dillation does not reach 10cm within 24 hours, you will need to go for c-sect. That is the rule. So, if you are labor, my advice would be to not let anyone pop your water bag. Induce labor is another famous term that is used.  They kept saying about how we need to induce labor but we were not told of the additional pain that comes along with it. Induce labor only gives a person strong surges but does not guarantee dilation. The ideology of hypnobirth most of the time opposes medical birth. Some doctors does not agree to it. So, to avoid complications, those who took the class were asked to delay their trip to the hospital. However, we were not that certain on that case. For us, it is better to be safe than sorry. So, what we did instead was to do a little more research on medical birth and chose the best of both worlds (which ever is applicable in our case). 

For preparation, we did the exercises which was introduced by the Hypnobirth. At 37weeks, Lil Chica was already engaged in the correct and optimal position. It was just a matter of time for Lil Chica will be ready to come out. A little reminder I would like to share is that there is no such thing as babies being overdue nor will the baby straight away come out when they are engaged. Especially for the first baby, they can be engaged for about 2-4 weeks and still not come out. Your pregnancy age is only an estimated age that the doctor picked based on the last day of your period. Some babies cook faster than others, some take a longer time to bake. At 38 weeks, I was already getting very anxious especially with the unbearable itch that comes along with my sudden rash attack. I took about 45 minutes walk in the mornings hoping that it will induce labor naturally. That was until I fell sick. After that, there's really nothing much I can do.

On the 6th of September, at about 4.50am, I witnessed the bloody show. Both Hubster and I were excited as the bloody show means that labor is about to start. I've been having this itch to go to Pavilion and go to Juicy Couture store there just to shop check out for more baby juicy stuff for my little princess. We called our Hypnobirth instructor to ask roughly how long till labor actually starts. She said that it can start that evening or it can even go for days. Since I was so keen to go to Pavilion, I made my mom take me there without telling her about the show. So, there I was in Pavilion all happy only to find out that Juicy Couture is no longer there. Sigh! But I didn't put my effort to waste. Bought a piece of Little Marc Jacobs outfit which was on sale. During lunch, I told my mom about the show. Sigh! I should have waited a little longer because she was then rushing me home. There goes my chance to check out that pair of shoes at Stuart Weitzman. I was still not getting any contractions but my mom rushed us to the hospital. We arrived there only to be sent back home. We were told to only come when the pain was unbearable. 

That evening I started getting cramps but they were very little and the time difference was very far apart. We ended up in Bangsar Shopping Center having dinner at Monte's. Last fling before confinement they say. LOL! So the scallops that night was like extra yummylicious! Haha!!! However, I don't really have much to say for later that night as I was starting to get cramps and my rashes was suddenly having a major reaction that I called my husband back from futsal while he was half way through his session. The cramps was actually tolerable but not the itch. I soaked the affected areas with dettol and hot water. Once the water starts to cool down, I then soak my foot in ice water. That was pretty much how itchy it was. 

You would think that I would just head straight to the hospital but I didn't. Instead, that morning, I asked Hubster to get me Che Nah's Nasi Lemak Taman Tun. The Nasi Lemak was sold out so I asked for Nasi Dagang. I could still have a complete meal that morning which only meant that it was only an early stage of labor. However, there were quite a number of pauses in between as I waited for the cramps to go off. I then walked up and down the stairs feeling even more anxious. I kept asking myself how to make the baby come out sooner. I even googled for reflexology to induce labour naturally sites for guides. My mom called my cousin to ask more about labour (she's a doctor). I was told that contractions is like the cramps that you feel throughout your entire belly. Thing was, I could only feel the cramps at my lower abdomen. Thinking that it wasn't contractions, I was convinced that it wasn't going to come anytime soon. It wasn't till the cramps start to get even more intense and at an interval (although irregular). Urm.. I don't think this is just a normal cramp. So, at 1.30am, I woke Hubster up and told him that I wanted to go to the hospital. We told my mom who then wanted to follow us along. I asked my husband to take his time as I was still in doubt on whether I could still withstand the pain. 

We arrived at the hospital at almost 3am. At that time, I was already 4cm dilated. Kindly note that hypnobirth does not encourage vaginal examination. We decided to go along with it so that we know how far and long the labor is. We made it very clear that we do not want the water bag to be popped. We were then told that my cramps were actually contractions. Shortly after that, my contractions advanced to 2 minutes interval and back pain starts to kick in. I was in my super bossy mode instructing Hubster to massage my pelvic bone to ease the pain and for the opening to be easier. At 6.40ish, my water broke. At that point, my back pain was becoming unbearable and I felt like poo-ing. That only meant that the baby's head is trying to make it's way through. I started crapping a lot like I mentioned in my earlier post. My back felt as if it was breaking into pieces. I remembered Zarith Sofia sharing her birth story where she breathed her baby out for 5 hours in the water. And I thought, 5 hours of bone crushing pain?!!! I looked at my husband and said to him,"Screw hypnobirth! I'm pushing the baby out!". Oh I must also add that me being such a demanding drama queen, I made a nurse stay after her working hours because I was very pleased with her and was scared of the other nurse who was a little rough in my point of view. But really, all the nurses there were very helpful. At about 7.30am, the doctor arrived and labor went on for about an hour. One thing about not taking epidural or pethidine is that you can practically feel everything. When the head came out, I was like, "OMG! Is it really that big?". At 8.37am, ta-daa!!! Say hello to Lil Chica!

We named her Zara Aliya after googling online for the characteristics and meaning of the name. A noble princess who radiants as bright as/since dawn and keeps on ascending. A name for a leader who is an achiever and strong willed. We want her to be the kind of person who doesn't give up easily especially when life holds a lot of challenges. It is important to know that it doesn't matter how many times we fall but what matters is that we never give up and keep on picking ourselves up. True enough, she came into this world just when the early morning sun is up and at it's bright. We then got our 1 hour (actually it was almost 2 hours) of skin to skin time with our little bundle of joy. Lil Chica was very calm when her Babah Adzan and Iqamah at her ears. He also recited Al-Qadr and Al-Ikhlas prayers at her ears. Almost 2 hours later only Hubster cut her cord. We delayed the cord cutting to ensure that all the goodness was absorbed before we cut it out. Cord banking? Nah! That wasn't an option for us. Sure, they store the stemcells but there's really no guarantee that the stemcells will actually work in time of need. All these stuff we learned at our Hypnobirth class. Alhamdulillah, our little princess is a very healthy baby. Fair skinned but will turn as red as tomato whenever she cries. LOL! I guess she takes that from me. 

A combination of both medical and hypnobirthing method were used to bring our little bundle of joy to this world. Of course, faith in God was always with us throughout the journey. Both Hubster and I would like to thank everyone for your warm wishes, visits and presents. We are still adjusting to our new roles as parents and pray that our little princess will be blessed with lots of love. 

Sneak Peek!!

"I love you, Ma"

"I rasa mcm nak poopoo"

"Susah nye nak beranak"

"I nak mandi lepas ni. Can I mandi lepas ni?"

"Sorry, Ma"

"U ni.. You tatau I sakit macam mana.. Cuba kalau you are in my shoes.."

"I terberak ke?" 

"Zara tolong mummy k.." 

"No, don't go.. Stay.."

"Jahit elok elok ek"

Words that came out while I'm in labor.. 

Alhamdulillah... Lil Chica is now out and healthy... 

8.37am 8th September 2013...

Weighed at 3.35kg..

More to be shared later when I'm settled.. Will be discharging really soon.. Just waiting for the paper works..

Thank you all for your warm wishes.. I apologize for not making a proper announcement.. There's really so much to do when the baby is finally here.. Adjusting to our new life also takes time.. Hope everyone can be patient with us.. We hope that we have the patience too... 

InsyaAllah, with God's Will and Blessing, everything will be OK... 

Difficult Customer? Weird behaviour? A friend or an acquaintance? Wait this is seriously confusing...

I don't always ramble about my dissatisfaction towards others on my blog. Honestly, I strongly believe that it is a rather unprofessional way of doing things. I've given a very hard thought of what to make of this and yet, I find myself very confused and do not know how to proceed with it. I end up finding myself rather confused. If I had a choice, I would definitely talk to the person directly. Weird thing is, after considering this person as my friend for years, I was only considered as a mutual friend, an acquaintance. So, do I say anything or do I not?

Hmmm....

Spent time coming over my house and asking for favors, had the same treatment as a friend gets like for birthdays and special treats yet consider us as only mutual friend..
We've invested in showing support for her to pursue her dreams yet, we are just friends of her friend...
Consider us as only a mutual friend, yet asked for a spa treatment for her bachelorette...
Was given business support, yet mock that person....
Not interested in being friends yet made a fuss when we mind out own business and want nothing to do with her..

I know that talking to the person directly is the best thing to do as a friend but really, what do I do when I'm not considered as a friend?

I guess the answer is pretty clear. NOTHING~ But don't expect me to not be offended.. After all, I'm only human..

#ootd

Sing it with me now.. G-L-A-M-O-R-O-U-S yea..... 

Say hello to my outfit of the day (ootd)! 

Thanks to the rashes, I'm only to wear airy outfits till it cools off.. Which some people say when the baby is out! 

Come On LiL Chica, Mommy's waiting... We're all waiting for you.. Whatever date you've chosen to come out, hope it's soon.. Doesn't matter what they say, or whose special date it is, it will always be special to both your babah and me because it's the day you enter this world...