my precioussss…

Fatin and Aisyah (my daughters)

I caught these two sisters sleeping next to each other while I had lunch just now. Couldn’t resist snapping this beautiful moment.

an expensive investment

Not quite a month over confinement yet, and I’m already obsessed on how to lose these flabs around me. Due to breastfeeding, I’m not on any weight loss programme per se..nor am I on jamu or on a strict meal intake so my only other alternative is to bind myself – literally. Already I’m using the bengkung modern – one made for c-sect aftercare and I can see a miiiiild improvement but not quite there yet. I still couldn’t fit into any of my jeans. Just the other day I had the fabulous nerve to try on my baju kurung but end in tears because my bum couldn’t fit through…oh gosh, and I’m supposed to start work in a month! I guess once the initial thrill of having a baby wears off, many women gets fixated on losing their post-pregnancy weight. I’m not alone, and thank God I have friends who shared their woes with me along with solutions to it.

Yesterday, thanks to an old friend who I have not been in contact for almost 10 years (bless Facebook!) I got to know about a special undergarment made for postpartum care. If you noticed in my previous post I’ve bought myself an abdominal binder which really helps but I need something extra to help support my thigh areas too. My mom told me to get Beautiful Lingerie (another intimate apparel for body contour) but I was advised to consider it 6 months after for fear of breaking my incision wounds etc. I made a call to the sales rep that my friend had introduced and they both came by today for me to try on the caesarean support girdle. There are 5 sizes to accommodate – and I’m a size 2. When I had it on it felt good on my skin – it was lightweight, covers all the essential part and it wasn’t as expensive as I thought. I could wear this everyday and was told many people gone down to their pre-pregnancy size in matters of weeks, well, ok that’s a tall order but I could settle for a few short months! They had the product featured in the Pa&Ma December issue (page 27) and well, I was convinced enough.

If you think it looks like any commercial girdle you can find in stores, it’s not. Now I’m having it on and going around my routines feeling very comfortable. I don’t know how my own results would turn out yet but watch this space for more feedback yeah; I will give my own testimonial after 2 weeks. Meanwhile, if you’re interested in the same product you can contact Sajaratul Ambar (+6019 2273657) who’s representing Alpha-Health, the sole Malaysian distributor for DesignVeronique Maternity. (click on the link to view more products)
I’m a firm believer in usaha tangga kejayaan… he he. Wish me luck!

a new theme and header..whatdayathink?

Now that I’m in another phase of life, I feel the need to revamp some stuff – like my blog for example. In Qahina’s Words (my old blog title) would still exists but with a new header I suppose. I still like a white background, I find it easier on the eyes. When will the new header turns up? Well, that is subject to pending lack of creativity, but till then, please hold on to this temporary theme.

Hm…I’m still adjusting to babyhood and motherhood. Can’t remember my last good night sleep since I gave birth? Anyone?

and a week post delivery photo

Although this pic was sometime ago…(now Aisyah is almost a month old) I would like to dedicate this post to my gynae, Dr Patrick Chia of FMGC. Even during surgery (while I was conscious and watching everything) he talked and joked with me to keep me calm. At the end of the ordeal, I still managed to tell him – ‘Make sure you stitch me nicely!’ and he replied ‘don’t worry, I give you a Hollywood scar.’ Well, Hollywood or not, he is still a great doctor.

Mr Hubby asked me to keep photos of all our recent development because the baby will grow so fast, and hopefully – the Mommy will slim down as fast too! he he…I bet some people can’t even stomach their post-partum photos..depressing huh? LOL I’m not depressed just yet – more motivated to eat and feel and look better from day to day especially whenever I see my baby’s face. I know all that pain is worth it.

my ‘pantang’ experience

One thing that I was determined to follow after giving birth was a proper pantang ritual. Sadly, after ceasarian birth and breastfeeding, many things were limited to just proper diet. No massage, no bengkung (a traditional abdominal binder wrap made of 6m cloth), just a bit of tungku here and there, no jamu, air akar kayu, etc… my mind began to wonder ceaseless when would I be able to get my figure back. Right after birth, I was fortunate enough to meet some friendly nurse who introduced me to a special bengkung for post-abdominal surgery patients.

Image taken from dalemed.com
(Minus that urine drip) I think this is literally godsent for caesarian wounds because it expedites recovery – whenever you walk or talk or cough, even laugh…you don’t have to hold your tummy for fear you might induce complication to your stitches. I don’t know how much it costs outside but I paid the nurse RM160 for it. The binder seems to help reduce that post-surgery paunch. Well, it’s been only 3 weeks since I gave birth and I don’t expect miracles ala Heidi Klum abs, but I can feel my tums looking slightly flatter than the 5 month-preggy-look I was lugging around 5 days after I came out of hospital.

The lactation nurse at Pantai Hospital also reassured me with breastfeeding I would reduce my uterus to its normal size and lose weight naturally so I’ve been quite religious and punctual in breastfeeding my baby. I noticed that I don’t have milk leaking or dripping out like some of my friends do and when I pump I only managed to get 1 oz or 1 1/2 oz at most (if I’m lucky) so am quite hesistant to introduce formula milk to Aisyah but I guess when the supply dries up I have to cross that bridge someday. I’m not even being judgemental about those who breastfeed over those who don’t because milk supply is subjective, and would feed my baby accordingly. Other than that my pantang is only confined to my food intake – boiled oats in the morning, hot milo and crackers in between meals, white rice with steamed or fried fish or chicken with bits of sawi here and there..yeah, and that’s about it. It’s boring as hell but as long as my wounds recover well and no drugs trespass my breastmilk, I’m quite content for now.
Remember some Chinese herbs I had featured previously? I put them aside for a while – Aisyah had a bit of a diarrhea when I started taking those herbs so I stopped. Was thinking I will consume my jamu, herbal drinks etc after baby is more stable – like after pantang.

My mom says can only massage after a month – hmm…can’t wait! I feel my whole body needs a whole lotta TLC after birth-trauma!

i’m smitten!

I know she won’t understand it yet, but this is what I hum to her everyday …

Happy birthday 0.0 Aisyah Nur!

My baby. Finally.
On 25th October, 8.30 am, I gave birth to a healthy 6.6 pounds baby girl. I was on epidural, concious from waist up and saw the whole surgery through the reflection of the lamps above me. I saw how my baby was practically ‘plucked out’ from my gut – it was worth everything when I heard her first cry. Mr Hubby was next to me all throughout – a definite warm comfort. Alhamdulillah, everything went well. They showed me the baby – she was perfect! I couldn’t ask for more.

I would like to wish to all, my deepest thank you for your kind wishes and visits. Now I’m at home recuperating and learning the ropes of breastfeeding my baby. Will update whenever I’m fit. Stay tuned…

head full of designs

It’s every new mom’s dream to provide the best crib for their newborn…I wish to decorate the baby’s room into a lovely nursery, bring my baby to my new home on her first day but here I am stuck amidst the moving boxes of our rented house. I think Mr Hubby has been unbelievably kind and strong on my behalf by reassuring me that it will soon passed. Had a long chat with a friend last night and seems like we shared the same problem with our house renovation. Yes, indeed, both of us are like headless chicken now (bertempiaran all over the place trying to solve our home reno probs before year end).. by being stuck with very slow contractors. My house is not that big – it’s just an old semi D but we fell in love with the space and the location, which is in the middle of KL with all the right road access. It took us almost 1 year to get DBKL’s approval, and by the time we hired our contractor, he promised us another 6 months. Plus minus, it’s been a 2 years of long wait..even our children got tired of us talking about it. But seriously, I hope they would understand and love the home as much as we do.

Initially, my contractor has included kitchen and interior designs in the plan, but due to his delayed work I’ve scraped the ID and kitchen designs so he can complete the physical structure of my house faster while Mr Hubby and I personally search for ID and kitchen people. I’ve actually hired Casa Impian once out of my naivety for better ID and their so-called ‘reputation’ but wasn’t happy with their sloooow service, so figured to do it on my own. I’ve bought tonnes of design books out of excitement but every time I saw the delayed house work..my spirit just crashed a little. To sort things out faster, we’ve settled with Signature Kitchen at Taman Tun and guess what, my friend also enquired for the same service a few weeks earlier! What a small world eh? They say Signature Kitchen is a tad expensive but I like the storage compartments they offer. I’ve seek other kitchen designers and their price is ridiculous. Plus, Signature has what I wanted for my kitchen look – all classic and timeless white! Mr Hubby wanted something modern at first but I told him since I’m the one going to spend time there, I want something cosy. This is similar to what I had in mind:

img taken from imagedecorweb.

I hope the my kitchen designer could emulate this..maybe not as close, but immitate its cosy appeal.
I’ve actually sorted out my kitchen, now my head is full with wardrobe designs. We probably use whatever we have first but for my wardrobe, I have to plan on how many shelves and compartment I need. After culling away my baju the other day, I could actually foresee the real stuff I need to store.
It takes my mind off the worry about labour pain etc…I have not work on ID yet because I want to see all my new house walls plastered first before I settled on certain colours. My daughters had fun choosing what they want before for each of their rooms so that part is settled. There’s a lot of wood in the house…it’s going to be tough to go a bit contemporary. I think after reading tonnes and tonnes of ID books, I could speak their jargons already! huh….well, a number of my friends are also renovating their homes too so maybe it’s just a phase you know, at this time..building a nest.
Well, when the house is ready, I’ll come up with more photos..

a teary bye bye to Sultan and Suri

This is a hard one to write about.
When my cats – Sultan and Suri gave birth to 3 lovely kitties, we were ecstatic because we’ve kept them since they were kittens and get to watch them develop as parents. Suri as usual are so loving to her litters, and she’s not awfully protective of them when we picked the kitties for inspections, etc… However, as the kittens grow they become quite a hazard to first: me..because being pregnant doctors don’t allow me to get near cats in case of toxoplasma infection, and second: our problems with various maids affect the quality of their care. We have 6 cats to take care of and it was becoming too much – with food, sand and litter. It was only fair to let the cats go to better caretakers, no matter how much we love them. We seek the help of my nephew Murshid to advertise them on the Internet and within a few days, we managed to get a couple of interested buyers. Last night was the fateful farewell of Suri, Sultan and their kittens.

Suri and her kittens

memories of Sultan

Mr Hubby didn’t allow me to see the whole ordeal because of my condition. I saw them being packed away onto this guy’s van…cage and all..and that was the last I see of them. I didn’t want to show how sad I was to Mr Hubby because I know he’s actually more sad than I am about it. It was him who’s so adamant to buy the pair at the cat’s farm. It was him who love Sultan the most and took him for walks in the evenings – just like a dog. Sultan is so tame and obedient. The kids in our neighbourhood would cry out – “tiger, tiger” whenever he passes by because he has this amazing brown and black marble stripes, just like a mini tiger.

However, we still keep Rajah. It was our only penawar hati.

my last and only cat for now

I hope Mr Azhar (the new owner of the cats) will care and love for them the way we did. Goodbye Sultan and Suri.

culling away

The hardest part of moving house or having gain/lost weight for that matter is culling away your treasures. Clothes, shoes, stuff – I realised I’m such a hoarder. My closet rail is almost on the bent from so much weight of unworn garments. Not to add shoes…oh, I saw 4 stilletos that’s never seen the light of day just because there was no matching dress. For the past 9 months I’ve totally ignored my wonderful frocks (I’m a dress-girl) and happily plod along with my maternity wear. Even those are packed away now because I won’t be using much of them anymore. Last night I spent 3 hours sorting out my goodies – I wish I could create a sales blog but tak sampai hati pulak nak jual barang kita dah pakai banyak kali. Plus each piece has a sentimental value! ha ha… so it was a real tug-o-war moment with me and my items. At last, the more practical side of me won and I managed to reduce a quarter of my wardrobe. Hmm…(quarter only???)

These shoes will go to my sister Abby. I’ve tried to wear these a number of times but they hurt my feet – I don’t know why certain brands ranges eventhough they share the same numeric size. Fortunately, my sister and I share the same size, but not the same taste. She’s more of a sneaker-type so I don’t know what she’ll do with these but hey, these are leather shoes (a.k.a not cheap!) so I’m going to make her wear!

so hard to part....:(

Most of my nice tops I’ve given to my daughter, and the rest I’ve given away to my ex-helper Titin. I told myself, I’m not going to shop anymore after an emotional affair last night with my baju. Can’t even snap photos of it…sob sob…(drama!) Teaches me a good lesson not to buy excessively. Just lose weight and wear them to death. That’s my number one resolution after child-birth, mind you! LOL
Pity we don’t have nice charity shops like those in the UK -yeah, we do here and there but our society has not gone high up on charitable values as much to donate goodies that are worthy for display. Most offer very sad items…

Today my project would be culling away my books…I have my mind on the school library now. What a sad sad day …..hmmm…