Falala lalaa la laa la laa...

The Christmas trees are decorated, the Christmas lights are on and the presents are all wrapped up. People of Sutton are all in their festive mood with a sense of excitement in their eyes... ahhh yes, it's that time of year again. The Christmas holidays have officially started.

I love the Christmas holidays because it means that Hubby will be home 24hours for the whole 2 weeks. Hoorrayyy!!! This means that Haidan gets to spend quality time with his Papa (a.k.a me can finally have the time to colour my hair and shave my legs in peace!).

Christmas holidays also spell BOXING DAY SALES- double Hoorrayyy!!! As it’s the only time of the year when Hubby and I allow ourselves to shop till we drop! Every year on Boxing Day, we’d be well prepared to travel all the way to UK’s premier outlet stores and kiasu-ly queued up before the shops open to grab whatever we can get at good bargains. However, this year we’re not going to be as aggressive because of little Haidan. We vowed to not let our precious son see how crazy his Mama and Papa can get when it comes to succumbing to the boxing day sales. We wanted to set a good example and to not let him witness how violent we can be…. thus, we have unanimously agreed that Haidan tak boleh ikut Mama and Papa shopping at Bicester Village, OK? Eheh...(But we promise to be home early and buy you something as well, can ahh???)

Also, a huge thank you hug goes to little Azmarea (she's so adorable to the max, OK..) and Marisa & Alan for the lovely scrapbook page for our little Haidan, when they came visiting us in Sutton. We love it! Thank you!

Thank you Soffya & Areef :)

Dear Haidan,

Today you turn 1 month old (already??!! Oh my god, how time flies!). And just perfect timing, you received a very special surprise present all the way from Malaysia. It was your very first parcel- and it comes from your friends (and fellow scousers.. hehe) Soffyya and Areef... Yeay! Yeay! Thank you!!! (Errrmmm.. as you can see, your Papa & Mama yang ter-over excited pulak.. )

To Soffyya & Areef (and Uncle Dil & Aunty Eza), thank you so much. Remember, "you'll never walk alone" ;)

Hope to see you all soon!

My pantang experience

I am struggling to stick to a strict pantang routine because I don't really have a lot of free time for myself nowadays. Seriously, this motherhood business is no easy task. Believe me, after a routine of feeding, changing nappies and putting Haidan to sleep, there's usually less than a 2-hour window left to do anything else, before he wakes up again.

This is when being in the UK made me realise how lucky new mommies in Malaysia are. My cousin, Nurul, gave birth a few weeks before I did and she was treated like a princess. Every morning and evening she goes through the traditional malay akar kayu/ daun herba bath, then di-urut, di-tungku and then di-barut/ bengkung and finished off with di-pilis and di-param. Then she rests until evening before she washes herself off. She doesn't do a lot of moving around coz she's got assistance to help her with the housework, cooking and babysitting.

Me on the otherhand have to struggle with the pantang routine as I have to do it all on my own. My mom's got her hands full in the kitchen with the cooking, cleaning and laundering. It gets a bit messy and complicated you know trying to put everything on yourself and then not being able to move for the next 4hours with all the pilis and param on me. Imagine standing alone in the bathroom trying to tie a very long bengkung with all these messy smelly pastes all over your body and forehead and just as you are about to tie halfway, your baby dah start melalak lapar! Therefore, it proved to be too stressful that I have given up on the total traditional routine. I've now resorted to mandi with sabun Dove and then putting this supposedly miraculous heaty Slimming & Toning Gel and then wear a M&S girdle.

On food pantang, there's bad news and good news. The good news is that Mama did make sure that I have a healthy menu with no frying dishes whatsoever. My daily menu will usually consists of a half portion of nasi putih panas, with either ikan bakar or tofu jepun or sup ayam and a serving of steamed vege (usually brocollis or asparagus). The bad news is that Mama now is going through this phase in her life where she’s all so excited on experimenting on making deserts and kueh. Yup, I may have a 10 calorie meal but then I screwed it all up by finishing it with a 1000zillion calorie desert. Plus, having a Hubby who loves to share his jar of Nutella after dinner with me proves to be a bit too difficult to live with.

Therefore, I have concluded that I have failed miserably in my pantang routine. I realized that this critical 40 days confinement period (mat sallehs call it the 6weeks-postpartum period) is originally to make sure that the new mommy gets the rest she deserves after all she’s been through. Since sticking to this pantang business proves to be more stressful than not, I shall not beat myself up for not following it exactly. However, I will promise myself that once I’m stronger, I will go all-out on my aerobics exercise regime again. In the meantime, I will forgive and forget my sexy size 8 jeans and devote all my free time (if any) to get myself a deserving rest. Heck, I’m going to follow exactly what the midwife told me before I left the hospital: “Don’t stand when you can sit, don’t sit when you can lie down and don’t stay awake when you can sleep!”

My Labour Drama

Yes, I’m alive again.. after a week long of heavy doses of morphine (with added ibuprofen and occasional paracetamol for extra uummph!), I’m now back on my slightly-swollen-feet, but am feeling a lot better.

It has been a little more than 2 weeks since Haidan arrived and I can still remember the drama I was going through to have him:

Friday, 16th Nov
My last day at work before I go on leave. After my colleagues threw me a big farewell do, I was busy the whole day packing stuff to bring home. Did quite a lot of heavy lifting- files, folders, books etc. My boss siap tegur, “Careful with that, we don’t want you to give birth now do we??” I looked at him and coyly replied with my ‘Don’t-be-silly-lah-My-baby’s-due-on-1st-Dec-only’ grin on my face.

Saturday, 17th Nov
Spent the whole day in bed, with my lazy mode on full. Hubby tried to convince me to wake up and start kemas to prepare the baby stuff. Dengan nada bongkak, I responded, “Alaaa… relax ah bro… lama lagi lah nak beranak…” and pulled the duvet over my head to continue my journey into slumberland..

Sunday, 18th Nov
Suddenly had the urge to makan besar, especially tetiba teringin sangat nak makan pengat durian. So, forced Hubby to drive 3 hours worth of traffic up to Oriental City in North London, where we all melantak dim-sum, nasi campur, roti canai planta, teh tarik etc. Managed to bungkus fresh durian, so that Mama can cook me my pengat. Was smiling ear to ear with a full tummy on the way home. I woke up in the middle of the night and ‘curi makan’ 2 ulas durian, hoping that Mama won’t notice.

Monday, 19th Nov
At around 4am, my water broke. Panic.
Midwife advised us to come in to the hospital and said that I should be in labour within the next 12 hours. My reaction, “Huh??? Alamak, camana nie.. We haven’t prepared anything yet. Damn the durians!”. More panic. Gobbled up a handful of Ferrero Roche to calm me down.

Tuesday, 20th Nov
After 24 hours, still no major contractions yet. The obstetrician came in and ordered me to be induced. Hubby was quick to suggest that I have epidural before the induction. The sight of the needle literally sent shivers down my spine… (thank God I had my Ferrero Roche to help me forget and relax). Within 20 minutes, I was all numb waist down (due to the drug) and a bit high waist up (due to Ferrero Roche overload). We were to wait until I was readily dilated to start labour. Hubby and I (and a couple of the midwives) resorted to watching Desperate Housewives on our laptop. It seemed to be the longest wait ever…

Wednesday, 21st Nov
After more than 8 hours of waiting, I wasn’t doing much progress at all. The obstetrician came up to me and said that Baby Bubble’s heart rate is slowing down and suggested that we opt for a caesarean. After much persuasion that it’s for the best (plus she promised that she’ll do the most perfect incision with dissolvable stitches), I succumbed and was then whisked away to the surgery theatre. After that, it was more drugs and I can’t remember much, (except the part when I can see Hubby all excited putting on his ER costume and sempat posing bergambar lagi!). They put up a screen so we can’t see the works. At 2.39am, the surgeons announced “It’s a BOY! Congratulations!!!” and soon after I heard my baby’s cry - it was the most beautiful thing I have ever heard.

And thus, begin a new chapter of my life.... motherhood. Cool...