And so Aiden’s having his Naik Buai event this Sunday morning. What is Naik Buai? The translation into English literally would be “cradling”. Naik Buai is practiced widely by Malays in Perak to celebrate a new born, and is usually held as soon as the baby turns 44 days old. And because Aiden’s proud grand daddy is from Perak, and big on traditions, he was adamant on organizing one for his first grandson.
The cradle is prepared way before hand. According to tradition, for normal babies, the cradle is made with 3 layers of material, for babies from a noble background, with 7 layers of material; and for babies from royalty background, with 9 layers of material. Before the baby is placed into the cradle, the Mak Bidan or midwife would snip a lock of the baby’s hair and the hair is placed into a young coconut shell. The midwife then proceeds to parade the baby around and offers attendees of the event to do the same. Sometimes, if the baby is a boy, the whole head is shaved. Then the baby is placed into the cradle and rocked to sleep with marhaban zikir recitings.
So I am going crazy doing preparations for Aiden’s first big event. At the very least I do not have to worry about the decorations for the buai (cradle) and the preparation of bunga telur (decorated eggs given as favors during the event), as all these are being prepared by Aiden’s stepmothers back in Ipoh.
However, I do have to worry about multiple other small matters:
1) Jubah – this is a type of robe worn by males. Unfortunately, they aren’t usually available in newborn size. And none of the tailors I went to wanted to sew one up for Aiden as he was too small. Minimal fabric but maximum time and effort! I finally convinced someone back in Ipoh to sew a simple jubah for Aiden. As a back up plan, I also borrowed a jubah from a friend’s baby and have altered it to make it smaller.
2) Mummy and daddy’s attire – My dad wanted a theme colour for the event, so we chose white and green. Why not blue you may ask? Because the last time I had blue as the theme colour for my wedding, it turned out to be turquoise blue and all the flower girls ended up wearing their school uniform because the material was turquoise blue. Talk about saving cost!! Anyway… I will be wearing my white baju kurung which I wore only once when me and hubby exchanged wedding vows erm… nearly 4 years back? So I have been dieting like crazy to ensure that I fit into the baju kurung! Oohhh and I need to check hubby’s white baju melayu just in case!
3) Photography – My dad’s not exactly a big fan of candid style photography or those arsty farsty artistic photography, while hubby loves it to bits. So we’ve decided to engage our own photographer for the event. Unfortunately, as the event coincides with the school holidays, our first choice of photographer was fully booked. Fortunately an old friend of mine, way back during school days, does photography for a living and has agreed to record these precious memories…
I really hope that Aiden will behave during his Naik Buai ceremony, as he is quite prone to shouting his lungs out whenever I am not physically cradling him. Blame it on the breastfeeding! He is so attached to me until even dear hubby is starting to take offence with the cute little boy. Haha!
Anyway, we’re off to Ipoh this evening, and I shall post some pictures of the event when I get home! Here’s to Aiden!
Friday, May 29, 2009
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
Friday, May 22, 2009
Bored at Home
And so I am bored at home. My life revolves around Aiden and Aiden alone. I cannot remember the last time I’ve had a good night’s sleep. Haha.. its amazing how my senses are so tuned to Aiden’s reflexes at night, that even when he gurgles in his sleep, I swear – one of my eyes pop open!
Aiden’s actually not too bad at night. He has his days.. sometimes good, sometimes bad. I remember he went through this particular phase where he’s wide awake between 130 – 330 am. Wow.. me and hubby both had eye bags that whole week. And I’ve finally figured out why he’s so cranky when he’s breastfeeding and he’s wheezing at the same time. It is wind or angin as we call it. So I have to constantly burp him. Although that is quite a challenge as Aiden has superb neck control. He’s constantly holding his neck up (usually towards the tv screen… hehehe) and when he’s tired, he slams his head down (usually towards my nose… hehehe).
And hubby’s overjoyed that Aiden loves the water. He enjoys taking his bath, but absolutely hates washing his hair. And with his superb neck control, he’s usually turning his head left and right, causing soap suds to drip into his ears, which usually causes Mummy to scream in panic! Despite his apparent dislike for shampoos, his hair is so so so silky! After his bath, Daddy usually styles his hair into a spiky look. Unfortunately, the only hairstyle I know for Aiden – is the nerdy hairstyle look. Haha.. its easier with girls where you can actually put ribbons and bows in their hair. My sister in law claims that with the spiky hairstyle, Aiden looks like Tin Tin – a cartoon character once famous in the UK. See the comparison below. What do you think??
Aiden’s actually not too bad at night. He has his days.. sometimes good, sometimes bad. I remember he went through this particular phase where he’s wide awake between 130 – 330 am. Wow.. me and hubby both had eye bags that whole week. And I’ve finally figured out why he’s so cranky when he’s breastfeeding and he’s wheezing at the same time. It is wind or angin as we call it. So I have to constantly burp him. Although that is quite a challenge as Aiden has superb neck control. He’s constantly holding his neck up (usually towards the tv screen… hehehe) and when he’s tired, he slams his head down (usually towards my nose… hehehe).
And hubby’s overjoyed that Aiden loves the water. He enjoys taking his bath, but absolutely hates washing his hair. And with his superb neck control, he’s usually turning his head left and right, causing soap suds to drip into his ears, which usually causes Mummy to scream in panic! Despite his apparent dislike for shampoos, his hair is so so so silky! After his bath, Daddy usually styles his hair into a spiky look. Unfortunately, the only hairstyle I know for Aiden – is the nerdy hairstyle look. Haha.. its easier with girls where you can actually put ribbons and bows in their hair. My sister in law claims that with the spiky hairstyle, Aiden looks like Tin Tin – a cartoon character once famous in the UK. See the comparison below. What do you think??
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
Aiden’s 1st visit to the Doctor…
Yesterday was Aiden’s first visit to the Pediatrician. His scheduled first month check up was due on the 15th of May but as Daddy had to work, the appointment was rescheduled. And therefore, we celebrated Aiden’s full moon with a trip to The Gardens with scrumptious beef ribs for lunch at Tony Roma’s. Daddy’s treat with his brand new credit card. Heh…
So on Monday morning, we dressed Aiden up for the first time in his Baby Gap beach short jeans, and a matching blue top. Off we went to PCMC and arrived half an hour later than the appointment time. Sorry Aiden, your parents aren’t really punctual people! So Aiden was measured and weighed. Boy oh boy.. has he gained weight! He’s currently 5.1kg! He gained approximately 1kg in one month. Dr Padma (that’s Aiden sweet doctor, a neonatal specialist) said that Aiden is at the top percentile in terms of weight for babies his age. Apparently breast fed babies gain around 0.5 – 1kg per month, while milk formula babies tend to gain a bit extra. Aiden also got his Hepatitis B shot, and in response he wailed his lungs out. So not macho-lah Aiden! We also told his doctor about his preference to turn to his right, and the doctor thinks that its because of his position in the womb, therefore his right neck muscle may be a bit tense causing him to prefer his right. So starting tonight I would have to breastfeed Aiden while lying down on his left, just to stimulate his neck muscles. If this doesn’t work then Aiden may have to go for physiotheraphy exercises. *sigh*
And while waiting for Aiden’s medication, we met my boss – yet again! We met Hugo and his lovely wife and adorable daughter, Zainah on Saturday at The Gardens, and now again at the doctor’s office?! Wow, is this a sign that I’m sorely missed at work? Or purely a coincidence?
After that we ran errands around town with Aiden in tow, comfortable in his car seat! Fortunately, he does not really mind being strapped down (although there were a few bouts of crying in between). I think it’s the fact that the car seat fits snugly around him, making him feel like he is being hugged.
So on Monday morning, we dressed Aiden up for the first time in his Baby Gap beach short jeans, and a matching blue top. Off we went to PCMC and arrived half an hour later than the appointment time. Sorry Aiden, your parents aren’t really punctual people! So Aiden was measured and weighed. Boy oh boy.. has he gained weight! He’s currently 5.1kg! He gained approximately 1kg in one month. Dr Padma (that’s Aiden sweet doctor, a neonatal specialist) said that Aiden is at the top percentile in terms of weight for babies his age. Apparently breast fed babies gain around 0.5 – 1kg per month, while milk formula babies tend to gain a bit extra. Aiden also got his Hepatitis B shot, and in response he wailed his lungs out. So not macho-lah Aiden! We also told his doctor about his preference to turn to his right, and the doctor thinks that its because of his position in the womb, therefore his right neck muscle may be a bit tense causing him to prefer his right. So starting tonight I would have to breastfeed Aiden while lying down on his left, just to stimulate his neck muscles. If this doesn’t work then Aiden may have to go for physiotheraphy exercises. *sigh*
And while waiting for Aiden’s medication, we met my boss – yet again! We met Hugo and his lovely wife and adorable daughter, Zainah on Saturday at The Gardens, and now again at the doctor’s office?! Wow, is this a sign that I’m sorely missed at work? Or purely a coincidence?
After that we ran errands around town with Aiden in tow, comfortable in his car seat! Fortunately, he does not really mind being strapped down (although there were a few bouts of crying in between). I think it’s the fact that the car seat fits snugly around him, making him feel like he is being hugged.
Aiden fresh after his shower (with the nerdy hairstyle, thanks to Daddy!) and wide awake on the way to PCMC.
Aiden after the doctor check up. The orange sticker was to indicate that he went through the H1N1 screening before entering PCMC.
Aiden fast asleep while Mummy & Daddy went amok running errands around town...
Sunday, May 17, 2009
Epidural
Heh... it wasn't as dramatic as this, but yeah - the epidural was a life saver. Definitely getting it for any future birth labors!! But, let me forget about the labor pain from delivering Aiden before you mention about having a second baby...
Friday, May 15, 2009
Aiden is Here! (And already a month old!!)
It has been more than ONE MONTH since I last penned (typed) my thoughts. Such is life. Who would have thought that having a baby would take up so much time and effort!
Yup, so we did induce labor. Even in the afternoon of that fateful Tuesday, I still could not make up my mind. Hubby came home from work, and I told him – “let’s clean the house up and pretend I’m checking into the hospital tonight”. So we did some gardening, rearranged the furniture (post baby shower!), cleared all the dishes, packed our luggage (yup, I brought 3 bags!) and finally I said “fine, let’s do it!” I guess the decision was also influenced by a few factors:
1) Went into the office in the morning, and my boss came up to me – not to ask me about my pregnancy, but to talk to me about the latest payload for our project. Freaked me out quite a bit to think about work, I rather have a baby!
2) One of my gal pals was heading to Langkawi for the weekend, another was heading to Bandung on Thursday while yet another was due for Hong Kong the next week and I didn’t want them to miss the delivery!
3) I am actually obsessed with a particular drama on Astro Prima - Mertua vs Menantu (Mother in Law vs Daughter in Law) and made hubby call up the hospital to check whether they have a subscription to the channel, as I didn’t want to miss the final episode (due to air on the day I have to induce labor). And they did! (When in fact they don’t – but that’s another story…)
4) I could see from darling hubby’s face that he is really darn excited about the baby, and am so looking forward to his paternity leave. He even had his work handover early in the week just in case!
And so we called the hospital, told them that we would be checking in and went for dinner. We wanted it to be a romantic dinner, unfortunately with all the luggage, we only managed to leave the house at 9pm. My sister and his fiancée joined us for dinner. It was only a simple dinner, but filled with all my favorite dishes (which also made me gain a grand total 25kg throughout the pregnancy).
Series of events in chronological order (note, some entries may contain too much information, thus if you have a weak stomach, I suggest you skip this):
1130am: Texted all my close friends and family to inform them that I was on the way to induce labor.
12am: Arrived at PCMC. Met up with my in laws at the emergency room. After registration, was wheeled to the labor room on a wheel chair.
1230am: Hooked the CTG to my tummy to check fetal heart rate and contractions. Was given medication to make me clear my bowels. Boy, was it a colon clean up!
1am: Fetal heart rate looked normal. Was brought to the ward, where I requested for some time for myself for a longgggg shower. Scrubbed myself silly, from top to bottom as some hard core confinement believers believe that you should not wash your hair at all during the 44 day confinement period.
2am: CTG was hooked up again. Pill was inserted in my vagina, to soften my cervix and kick start contractions. Immediately could feel some discomfort. However, was distracted by the pain from an allergic reaction between the lacerations between my thighs and the disinfectant swab used by the nurses.
3am: Could not sleep even a single wink! The midwife repeatedly reminded me to rest, as I was going to be using a lot of energy during labor. Contractions continued, though the pain was still bearable but irregular.
4am: Woke up due to extreme contraction pain. It was so painful that I could not sleep anymore, therefore kept myself occupied by watching the CTG machine. CTG was recording contractions up to 85! Hubby still sleeping….
445am: Called the nurse, told her that my contractions were painful and less than a minute apart. She was a bit doubtful, but started to time my contractions. She was shocked when it was less than a minute apart, and contractions were high (read: painful) as well. However, as the contractions were still irregular, she told me to just relax and try to sleep. Yeah right. I told her I wanted to watch TV and wanted to walk around the room so they took off the CTG. Hubby still sleeping…
530am: Midwife came to check on me again. I was walking around the room like a mad woman… even sat on the toilet bowl because I felt like I wanted to pass motion.
6am: Nurses came to prepare for my transfer to the labor room. Hubby finally woke up!
630am: Was quite pissed off as my doctor was still MIA.
7am: Midwife offered epidural. I said no as I wanted to wait for my doctor to arrive. Midwife took blood for stem cell purposes.
730am: Dr Aziz finally arrived! He wanted to check my cervix opening – but I was in so much pain that I could not bear having his fingers anywhere near me! So he suggested epidural.
8am: Dr Ghazali arrived with his 12cm long epidural needle. He asked me whether I wanted an explanation on the epidural. I told him, no thank you! He had given me an hour lecture on epidural during antenatal class, and I have seen the needle so I sooo do not need a reminder. Curled up in a ball on the bed, hubby held my hand and I could feel the pressure of the needle going into my spine, looking for the space to insert the catheter. Uurrggghhh… do not want to go through that again!
830am: Dr Aziz performed a cervix check. I was 2cm dilated. If it takes an hour for my cervix to dilate 1cm – I would only be ready to deliver at 6pm or 7pm. Therefore I told hubby that maybe we should tell our relatives to come in the afternoon…
845am: Midwife hooked up a urine tube as I would not be able to feel my legs just in case I needed to pee. Contraction was at full blast, CTG recorded contractions in the range of 130s. But with the epidural, I was finally able to sleep…
9am: Drifted in and out of consciousness. Vaguely remember hubby going for some breakfast and meeting up with my aunt who had arrived to visit.
1020am: Told hubby to call the midwife, as I felt as if my urine tube was going to fall out. Midwife did an external check up and said that everything looked fine.
1040am: Told hubby to call the midwife again. There was definitely something wrong with the urine tube! Midwife suspected that the baby’s head was pushing on the tube, so she performed a cervix check – and she was shocked because she could not feel my cervix anymore. She could feel the baby’s head! She called in another midwife who confirmed the same thing. I was 9cm, maybe 10cm dilated! They immediately called Dr Aziz and then suddenly I had a flurry of nurses running around preparing for the delivery. Immediately my legs started to shake (I was panicking!) and I remember asking the midwife “dah nak keluar ke?” (is he coming out now?). They never had the time to answer my question. The bed was dismantled, and my feet were hooked up to a pair of stirrups. I could see that hubby was holding the camera nervously, so I told hubby that he could take pictures, but only when I wasn’t going through a contraction, as I wasn’t in the mood to pose when I’m in pain. A total of 3 midwives attended to me, all of them encouraging me – telling me that they could see the baby’s hair and all. Another midwife stuck a finger in me, and told me to push towards her finger everytime I feel a contraction. Hubby was also motivating me to push, he started counting and telling me to pant and push as I was in too much pain to coordinate my reflexes. I also remember pushing and asking the nurse whether I should be pushing hard since I couldn’t see my doctor around. Heh… apparently my doctor was waiting just outside the door. A few minutes after that, my doctor came in and took over. He even told me off for making heavy sounds in between pushing and told me to channel those sounds into energy for pushing. Then I heard him snipping “snip, snip, snip”, then a flood of water gushed out, flooding the room and suddenly “plop!” there was a bloody mucusy Aiden Irfan on my tummy. He wasn’t crying, but looked more like a mangle of limbs. After his umbilical cord was cut, a midwife immediately took him and started sucking out the gooey stuff out of his nose and mouth… and finally I could hear a faint cry. Boy, was I relieved! My doctor then delivered the placenta and started stitching up the episiotomy tear.
And that was how Aiden Irfan arrived in our arms on that fateful Wednesday morning...
N.B: Aiden Irfan was safely born at 1141am on Wednesday, 15th April 2009 at Prince Court Medical Centre. He weighed a healthy 4.07kg. No forceps were used during the delivery. Mummy and baby were detained at the hospital for 6 long days due to jaundice. The damage incurred during those 6 days amounted to RM10,600....
Yup, so we did induce labor. Even in the afternoon of that fateful Tuesday, I still could not make up my mind. Hubby came home from work, and I told him – “let’s clean the house up and pretend I’m checking into the hospital tonight”. So we did some gardening, rearranged the furniture (post baby shower!), cleared all the dishes, packed our luggage (yup, I brought 3 bags!) and finally I said “fine, let’s do it!” I guess the decision was also influenced by a few factors:
1) Went into the office in the morning, and my boss came up to me – not to ask me about my pregnancy, but to talk to me about the latest payload for our project. Freaked me out quite a bit to think about work, I rather have a baby!
2) One of my gal pals was heading to Langkawi for the weekend, another was heading to Bandung on Thursday while yet another was due for Hong Kong the next week and I didn’t want them to miss the delivery!
3) I am actually obsessed with a particular drama on Astro Prima - Mertua vs Menantu (Mother in Law vs Daughter in Law) and made hubby call up the hospital to check whether they have a subscription to the channel, as I didn’t want to miss the final episode (due to air on the day I have to induce labor). And they did! (When in fact they don’t – but that’s another story…)
4) I could see from darling hubby’s face that he is really darn excited about the baby, and am so looking forward to his paternity leave. He even had his work handover early in the week just in case!
And so we called the hospital, told them that we would be checking in and went for dinner. We wanted it to be a romantic dinner, unfortunately with all the luggage, we only managed to leave the house at 9pm. My sister and his fiancée joined us for dinner. It was only a simple dinner, but filled with all my favorite dishes (which also made me gain a grand total 25kg throughout the pregnancy).
Series of events in chronological order (note, some entries may contain too much information, thus if you have a weak stomach, I suggest you skip this):
1130am: Texted all my close friends and family to inform them that I was on the way to induce labor.
12am: Arrived at PCMC. Met up with my in laws at the emergency room. After registration, was wheeled to the labor room on a wheel chair.
1230am: Hooked the CTG to my tummy to check fetal heart rate and contractions. Was given medication to make me clear my bowels. Boy, was it a colon clean up!
1am: Fetal heart rate looked normal. Was brought to the ward, where I requested for some time for myself for a longgggg shower. Scrubbed myself silly, from top to bottom as some hard core confinement believers believe that you should not wash your hair at all during the 44 day confinement period.
2am: CTG was hooked up again. Pill was inserted in my vagina, to soften my cervix and kick start contractions. Immediately could feel some discomfort. However, was distracted by the pain from an allergic reaction between the lacerations between my thighs and the disinfectant swab used by the nurses.
3am: Could not sleep even a single wink! The midwife repeatedly reminded me to rest, as I was going to be using a lot of energy during labor. Contractions continued, though the pain was still bearable but irregular.
4am: Woke up due to extreme contraction pain. It was so painful that I could not sleep anymore, therefore kept myself occupied by watching the CTG machine. CTG was recording contractions up to 85! Hubby still sleeping….
445am: Called the nurse, told her that my contractions were painful and less than a minute apart. She was a bit doubtful, but started to time my contractions. She was shocked when it was less than a minute apart, and contractions were high (read: painful) as well. However, as the contractions were still irregular, she told me to just relax and try to sleep. Yeah right. I told her I wanted to watch TV and wanted to walk around the room so they took off the CTG. Hubby still sleeping…
530am: Midwife came to check on me again. I was walking around the room like a mad woman… even sat on the toilet bowl because I felt like I wanted to pass motion.
6am: Nurses came to prepare for my transfer to the labor room. Hubby finally woke up!
630am: Was quite pissed off as my doctor was still MIA.
7am: Midwife offered epidural. I said no as I wanted to wait for my doctor to arrive. Midwife took blood for stem cell purposes.
730am: Dr Aziz finally arrived! He wanted to check my cervix opening – but I was in so much pain that I could not bear having his fingers anywhere near me! So he suggested epidural.
8am: Dr Ghazali arrived with his 12cm long epidural needle. He asked me whether I wanted an explanation on the epidural. I told him, no thank you! He had given me an hour lecture on epidural during antenatal class, and I have seen the needle so I sooo do not need a reminder. Curled up in a ball on the bed, hubby held my hand and I could feel the pressure of the needle going into my spine, looking for the space to insert the catheter. Uurrggghhh… do not want to go through that again!
830am: Dr Aziz performed a cervix check. I was 2cm dilated. If it takes an hour for my cervix to dilate 1cm – I would only be ready to deliver at 6pm or 7pm. Therefore I told hubby that maybe we should tell our relatives to come in the afternoon…
845am: Midwife hooked up a urine tube as I would not be able to feel my legs just in case I needed to pee. Contraction was at full blast, CTG recorded contractions in the range of 130s. But with the epidural, I was finally able to sleep…
9am: Drifted in and out of consciousness. Vaguely remember hubby going for some breakfast and meeting up with my aunt who had arrived to visit.
1020am: Told hubby to call the midwife, as I felt as if my urine tube was going to fall out. Midwife did an external check up and said that everything looked fine.
1040am: Told hubby to call the midwife again. There was definitely something wrong with the urine tube! Midwife suspected that the baby’s head was pushing on the tube, so she performed a cervix check – and she was shocked because she could not feel my cervix anymore. She could feel the baby’s head! She called in another midwife who confirmed the same thing. I was 9cm, maybe 10cm dilated! They immediately called Dr Aziz and then suddenly I had a flurry of nurses running around preparing for the delivery. Immediately my legs started to shake (I was panicking!) and I remember asking the midwife “dah nak keluar ke?” (is he coming out now?). They never had the time to answer my question. The bed was dismantled, and my feet were hooked up to a pair of stirrups. I could see that hubby was holding the camera nervously, so I told hubby that he could take pictures, but only when I wasn’t going through a contraction, as I wasn’t in the mood to pose when I’m in pain. A total of 3 midwives attended to me, all of them encouraging me – telling me that they could see the baby’s hair and all. Another midwife stuck a finger in me, and told me to push towards her finger everytime I feel a contraction. Hubby was also motivating me to push, he started counting and telling me to pant and push as I was in too much pain to coordinate my reflexes. I also remember pushing and asking the nurse whether I should be pushing hard since I couldn’t see my doctor around. Heh… apparently my doctor was waiting just outside the door. A few minutes after that, my doctor came in and took over. He even told me off for making heavy sounds in between pushing and told me to channel those sounds into energy for pushing. Then I heard him snipping “snip, snip, snip”, then a flood of water gushed out, flooding the room and suddenly “plop!” there was a bloody mucusy Aiden Irfan on my tummy. He wasn’t crying, but looked more like a mangle of limbs. After his umbilical cord was cut, a midwife immediately took him and started sucking out the gooey stuff out of his nose and mouth… and finally I could hear a faint cry. Boy, was I relieved! My doctor then delivered the placenta and started stitching up the episiotomy tear.
And that was how Aiden Irfan arrived in our arms on that fateful Wednesday morning...
N.B: Aiden Irfan was safely born at 1141am on Wednesday, 15th April 2009 at Prince Court Medical Centre. He weighed a healthy 4.07kg. No forceps were used during the delivery. Mummy and baby were detained at the hospital for 6 long days due to jaundice. The damage incurred during those 6 days amounted to RM10,600....
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