Four Weeks On

its been four weeks since my stint in the delivery room. alhamdulillah, things have been progressing pretty ok so far. good planning helps, good help...well...helps.

the first week was a bit hectic. my time in the maternity ward was relaxing. akmal was a good baby, sleeping most of the time. if he's awake he would be feeding, then fall back asleep easily. hubby managed to dash home to settle the placenta, register akmal's birth in town and meet up with his friends during our 3-day stay at the hospital. the boys were in safe hands and, while we missed them terribly (hubby even managed to get a peek of amir sleeping one of the days), we were grateful we didnt have to worry about them (they actually came home chubbier).

when we came back from the hospital, it was a bit hectic. we were dischaged on thursday and i only managed to rest on friday before facing a 3-day weekend. 3 days with four boys and me at 20% of my normal level. akmal was difficult to handle the first night at home. he kept waking up every hour, until i switched off the air cond. he couldnt take the cool air and i was sweating. amir woke up at 3am to help me change akmal and prepare his bottle. come morning, i was exhausted.

amir was taken off our hands on saturday by tiza. i took care of akmal while hubby handled asyraf and ariff. good thing they got along (they always do when there's only 2 - like they say, two's company, three's a crowd). after lunch we decided to bring akmal to the hospital as he's a bit yellowish. we spent a good 3 hours there, just to get a blood test done (marah lah ni). after the 3 hours, we left akmal in the safe hands of the nurses in the SCN.

akmal was admitted for 2 days, he was discharged on monday. it gave me to opportunity to rest and recuperate. hubby handled the 3 boys. meal time was a bit difficult, the rest wasnt too bad. when hubby went to work on tuesday and the boys went off to school, i could finally rest. it was great being at home for 12 hours with just akmal. he was wonderful, not too difficult to handle. akmal is very on schedule, he would sleep and wake up every 3 hours for his meal. i timed it...perfectly on schedule. of course that means only getting 3 hours sleep at 1 time for me. but its ok, better than the time we had with asyraf.

even until now, as 4 weeks passed, he's still nicely on schedule. there are times he would wake up after 2 hours, and there are times he would sleep for 4 hours. but overall, he's been ok and relatively easy to look after.

for the first 3 weeks or so, hubby took care of akmal's bath - as he did with the other 3 eais. i would give akmal his morning clean up on the changing table. i wasnt comfortable bending down too early on and wasnt too confident carrying akmal into the bathroom. now i take care of his morning and evening bath. akmal would fall asleep after his bath, that's when i would have my breakfast and air the laundry. on days he didnt feel like sleeping immediately, he would be watching his mobile that i can sneak down for 15 minutes or so to grab a quick bite to eat.

as planned, i dont do any housework except the laundry. we actually planned to send our clothes to the laundry nearby but we have so many clothes that it didnt seem a good idea. it turns out i needed to do laundry every single day, i cant imagine going over to the shop on a daily basis.

my meal was sorted before i was admitted. i prepared and marinated chicken, beef and fish for my lunch and bought boxes of cereal for my breakfast. all the food i bought before i gave birth lasted for four weeks, and then some. my routine of not having dinner continued during my confinement. hubby bought rice for dinner a couple of times and it didnt go down well with us. i havent had a big dinner for almost 2 years and couldnt bring myself to have rice as my last meal for the day. i turned to toasts and sometimes a bowl of cereal. that was better. meal wise, it was easy.

so for 4 weeks, i rested and had good (most of the time, uninterrupted) meal. i regained my strength and felt great. it didnt feel like i gave birth merely a month ago. the only drawback is that i havent had my urut session. yes...i know...very late. my plans been shelved a couple of times because the urut lady had personal things to attend to. i would feel even better if i could get it over with, i'm dying to get rid of the knots and tensed muscles and trapped wind. but other than that, i feel fine.

so that's my confinement so far. not too difficult being in confinement by myself and taking care of akmal and myself. akmal has been an angel. one of the reason why i feel rejuvenated and not lethargic. alhamdulillah he hasnt shown the "asyraf" traits that i was worried about. the boys being in school until after dinner also plays a part. i cant imagine having to handle their dinner and bathtime and noise (big thank you to their teachers). hubby is a great help too. for once, i wish there's early morning football games so that i can sleep longer because akmal would be under his care.

now we have to start planning how our day would be like once i start working again. i would probably have to get up slightly earlier than normal to give akmal his meal before we leave the house. i'm considering enlisting the carer's help to bathe akmal in school so that we only handle the elder 3 when we get home. i'm starting to tune akmal to sleep more than 4 hours at a time at night by keeping him awake longer during the day. if i can get 5-6 hours of sleep, i'd be fine.

i've got 5 weeks to plan and start putting things in motion. wish me luck.

Last Weekend

we rested, we relaxed and we stayed home. what else is new. ever since we became a family of 5, we hardly ever went out. now that there's 6 of us, the chances of anyone bumping into the whole eiseai team outside on a weekend is slimmer than akmal's thigh.

breakfast on saturday was simple. the boys had corn flakes and fried meehoon hubby grabbed at 7-11 and we had toast with curry imported from kota damansara. hubby rested for a bit after breakfast while i bathed akmal. then he surprised me by summoning a bit of energy and taking the elder 2eai for a hair cut. i've been bugging him to shave asyraf's hair.

asyraf inherited hubby's very thick hair and i cant sit still if its not cut every month. this time hubby just trimmed the side, back and top and its looks quite nice. amir and ariff has got my thin hair and they just need to visit the barber once every 6 months. amir's hair has been growing out of sorts a bit so hubby decided to cut his as well. amir wasnt too pleased because he's in the 'rambut pacak' phase. he keeps bugging me to 'letak minyak, buat rambut pacak' everytime after taking a bath. good thing akmal slept the whole time they went out, so i spent some time with my gomok ariff.

when they got home, we gave them a bath then brought them up to their room, gave them a bottle of milk and forced them to sleep. it didnt require much coercion since its a hot day and they were all knackered.

i managed to do 2 loads of laundry - the boys' clothes and our towels. by mid afternoon the boys' clothes have all been folded and kept (sure mar menyampah je baca line ni...hehehe)

the boys and i participated in the earth hour on saturday (only the boys and i, hubby couldnt care less about things like these - cr sangat konon). we didnt switch off all our lights, we left the boys room lit, for safety. amir had fun watching the tv in the dark. quite a few of my neighbours participated. some were in total darkness, some lit candles, some held torchlight. there were also families that took the opportunity to go for a family walk around the neighbourhood. it was nice to see a lot of people taking part in this good cause.

sunday breakfast was french toast - amir calls it roti bread. i wanted to rest after breakfast but hubby suggested we visit giant to give the boys some exercise. wow...a rare public appearance from the 6 of us.

we first took the boys to the play area. not a good idea. as we were about to enter giant (i needed to stock up a few things) they were not in a good mood. akmal who was happily sleeping when his abangs played, now wanted his meal. so we abandoned the still-empty trolley and went different ways. i took akmal to feed him (terrible place, there was no chairs anywhere) while hubby took the boys to another play area.

we were not in the mood anymore after that. we bought some food for the boys' lunch and went home. while the boys munched, i made rice with seriously simple lauk for lunch. now my freezer's empty and i cant think of what to eat this week.

akmal contradicting...sleeping on "my little prince pillow" showing off messages like "boys are trouble" and "100% mischief"...

What I Want

i always come up with all kinds of wishlists but i never seem to get any of the things listed. the last wishlist i made was back in august last year. we got our mpv and some of the things i planned for the house were achieved. but i'm still short of time to cook for the family and i have yet to go on this 'balik kampung' trip that i've been planning since 1997.

being in the house the whole day (its been 5 weeks now - i was on leave 2 weeks before akmal arrived) makes me look at every single corner of the house, thinking what needs to be done, what needs to be upgraded, what needs to be removed.

so the first thing i want is - a home makeover! there's just so many things to do. first of all, we need to repair the repair-able. that's the bathroom connected to tiza's bedroom. with that, we can start doing up tiza's bedroom -soon will no longer be tiza's bedroom but ariff & akmal's bedroom. i want to do up both the bedrooms at the same time. paint the walls, put up stickers, put up nice lights, maybe change the blinds. not so major but a nice change.

then there's the balcony, the unused balcony. i want to close that up. that would make our tv area bigger. maybe we can put up shelves there for the boys books or put up a linen closet. nothing much can be done for the upstairs as we have been utilising most of the spaces.

but downstairs...geez...there's so much we can do. plaster ceiling, hack the back bathroom and turn it into my laundry area, hack the back bedroom and extend the dining, maybe change it to a tv area and move the dining into the boys' current playroom, cover up the courtyard and turn it into a deck. so many things...so little ker-ching.

secondly i would love a smaller car. now that we've got the mpv, i would like a smaller, second car for me to take when i do the grocery shopping, for hubby to use when he goes for his teh tarik sessions, so me to use on my days off. maybe i should talk to tssc again. or...maybe we can have a look at the new city, that looks nice.

clothes. one can never get enough of clothes. clothes for me, clothes for the boys. for the first time, i think hubby has more clothes than me. nah...i dont think that's true, actually. my 9ft closet is filled with clothes (note - the 9ft is all mine, hubby's is the other 3ft) but not all of the clothes are wearable. i need to visit the shops to add on to my working shirts & working pants collection. shoes...not much of a fan. i like a pair of shoes and i'll wear them till they falls off. maybe weekend shoes since mine was stolen (hate them!). clothes for the boys. i'm into pajamas at the moment. i love pajama shorts but hubby's not too keen on them. i bought amir and asyraf a nice set of pajama shorts and hubby made them wear during the day. he said its too nice to wear to sleep. mothercare's got a lot of nice pajamas...

holiday. yes...the 'balik kampung' trip that hasnt materialise. will this year be the year. i cant say
this enough...i want, i want, i want!!

err...that's it really. wow...not bad. only 4 things on my wishlist - 4 extremely expensive things that i doubt will materialise in the short term, but hey...at least its not long and ridiculous.

oh...there's one more thing on my list. something i've wanted ever since i was a young girl of 19. i saw tssc wearing one and i thought...if this can make tssc look good, then i want this! what is it...a burberry trench coat...sigh!!

Answers

not that i'm obligated to provide any but...

"i'm prefectly happy with my boys and dont feel i'm losing out not having a girl. if i'm given a girl, i'd be as grateful as i was welcoming each of my boys. i'm not about to dwell on what i dont have and would rather be happy with what i do have"

"as long as hubby and i can manage without a maid, we will not be getting a maid - and right now, we can manage"

"it doesnt matter who you like better because you seriously dont mean anything to any of my children - it also doesnt matter whose name you prefer because their names dont mean anything to you"

our four pride and joy...the four boys who mean the world to us...who will our lives with happiness (note - its 'us'...hubby and me, their parents, not anyone else, thank you very much!)

to auntie zu...akmal & arsyad

Comments And Questions

some that i remember...
"you really should plan for a girl"
"when will you be getting a maid?"
"you shouldnt call him mok"
"you shouldnt smack your him"
"arent you feeding amir?"
"i like ariff better than amir" (i extremely despise comments like this)
"pick him up, pick him up...dont let him cry"
"pity them all tied up in the car seat"

my reply is simple...shut the f*c* up!!

on that note...have a great weekend...

Changing School...Again

here we go again. the last time the boys had to change school, we werent too happy. it wasnt a major change as the teachers were the same, the school administrator were the same, the students were the same. but we werent too happy because we prefered the 'school' environment compared to the 'house' environment of the then-school. after 2 months we requested to move back to the boys' current building.

it was too good to last. we received a letter last wednesday requesting that the boys be moved back to the school they went to early last year. they cited the reason of the employees of the company where the boys' current daycare is located, not happy with non-employee sending their children there. so, hubby being ex-employee of the company, we have to take the boys out.

the school pacified the move by ensuring us 2 of the boys' teachers would be moving to the new school as well. it did make us feel better. but still...it will be in a house and the boys will lose the segragation by age that is currently practised, which we really like. another thing i prefer with the current school is that its fully air-conditioned. no mosquitoes, no unfavourable-smelling boys come 7pm, no moody boys as well.

but i guess we have to accept this request. aw man...just when the current school is being refurbished...drat!!

oh well...some pictures of the boys over the weekend.

amir

















asyraf

















ariff

















akmal

















my babies

















picture time




















play time

















bath time

















nap time

My Team

ei is hubby. i can safely call him my (almost) best friend. almost is because there's some things you just need to share with a girl (guys would just go...yeah so?) above all, hubby and i are friends who share a lot of thoughts and opinions. during our early years together we would get into huge fights because of our info sharing but over time, we know when to say what so that we dont step on each other's toes.

people sometimes think we're arguing because we get very animated when we talk. amir especially gets very sensitive and would quickly ask us to be friends again (when actually its just us talking above the volume of the radio)

hubby is very helpful in the house, the main reason why we can survive without a maid. i dont think i would be able to handle the boys and the housework, if not for him. usually we divide the work - he would take the boys and i would take the housework. he's not fussy when it comes to food - as long as its salty. he's ok with trying new food, although it takes him a bit of time to get used to them. for now, he sees himself as jamie oliver or the 'bob' guy from license to grill. he's aiming to get a big bbq grill and i'm all for it.

hubby is excellent with the boys. strict when he needs to be, soft-hearted when he needs to be. he would entertain them when they want to have a run around or a swim in the garden. he would bring them to the playground to let out some energy. he's already planning activities he would like to have with the boys when they grow up - football training, camping trips (yes please...let me have the house all to myself).

hubby likes to have all the family together. he hates it when i'm on leave and he drives the boys to school alone. he would quickly text me saying - its not nice to not have everyone together. emo sikit kan?

one of hubby's drawback is that he takes things too seriously, be it the housework or the boys. he finds it difficult to meet in the middle. sometimes it doesnt require him to go all out but he would until he gets all tired and refuses to do it again. he used to do the cleaning in the house. but when he cleans he would sweep, vacuum, mop, clean windows (we have a lot!!), clean the cobwebs on the high ceiling, move all furniture when i would just say 'buat simple-simple je lah'. he would spend up to 4-5 hours cleaning until he needs to sleep for 4-5 hours.

hubby also procrastinates. a phone call to the plumber would take weeks to be made (opps...it still hasnt been made!). on weekends he usually have a couple of chores like putting up picture frames or changing the bidet in the bathrooms. one weekend would pass by without him doing anything. he would say 'make a list of what i'm supposed to do'. come the next weekend, with a list in his hand, he would say 'banyak nya...nanti lah'. so another weekend goes by and the courtyard still hasnt been cleaned.

note to hubby - take it easy lah...but not too easy!

s is mua. ihatetalkingaboutmyselfsoiwont. haha...okay, okay.

i'm a happy (read - stressed out) mother of four delightful boys (read - terrorists).

i hate depending on people and want to do everything on my own, much to hubby's dismay. sometimes i dont realise i cant do everything on my own.

i wish i can sleep during the day because the boys need attending to at night, but i cant.

i have this urge to cook and bake for my boys - something i couldnt do when i was pregnant due to swollen ankles. i'm not a great cook, i have a lot of recipe books and i just need the time and the ability to get away from the boys for a couple of hours to be a ble to cook for them.

i honestly dont go by the name 'sally'. i'm more known as 'nina', a name i used to hate when i was younger because there's no N in my full name. but a lot of people call me 'sally' so i guess...its ok. but you wouldnt catch me addressing myself by that name.

hubby and i hold on to the believe of its 'us against them'. when handling the boys, we're united (opps excuse the word used) and we dont do the 'bad cop-good cop' routine. we dont have one parent scolding and the other pacifying. to us, if one scold the other supports. the boys cant run to the other parent and whine.

eai#1 is amir iskandar. amir is our abang long or pot or just plain amirrrr (as asyraf would call him).

amir talks a lot. if he was a superhero he would be mr-mouth who talks his enemies into surrendering. even when he's crying he'd still say things. irritating, honestly! just cry lah, nak cakap-cakap buat apa.

amir is extremely loving with his brothers. from the time we brought asyraf home to ariff and now akmal, he's always been very loving with them and very attentive and very helpful. he's the epitomy of a big brother - then! now that his younger siblings are older he's rough with them. he would push, shove, kick them when he feels like it. he would rile them up, especially asyraf because he wants to see them cry.

amir is close to hubby. being the eldest, hubby would take him out when doing grocery shopping, when washing the car, when visiting the barber. in the car hubby usually tells him what he like to see him do, what we dont want him to do which gets a nod from him and quickly goes out the other ear.

amir over-uses the word 'kita'. everything is 'kita' to him. 'kita nak makan nasi' 'jangan marah kita' 'kawan kita tak' 'tapi kita best sangat' - which is his favourite line when asking for something (translated to 'but i like it very much').

amir is reliable. during parties, he would be the one helping me distribute the party favours. at home, he would help put together clothes to be washed. he's also helpful in the kitchen and can put away cups and plates in the sink to be washed.

he's got a very good memory. he would remember what asyraf wore the night before and would question why he's wearing a different pajama pants come morning (night change). he used to remember routes to different places when we was as young as 18 months. hubby would say he used to cry everytime they passed the honda showroom in taman tun because he knows he would be dropped off, and he would squel with delight when he sees the lrt track because he knows that mummy is back from work.

amir is doing pretty ok in school. he can recite a lot of doa, he remembers a lot of words and pictures, he knows his ABC 123 alif-ba-ta, he can perform the solat, he can colour pretty ok. but he tends to daydream and needs to be called back to earth. he tells hubby and i what happens in school and is quite accurate in his story-telling.

eai#2 is asyraf izzuddin. asyraf is known as abang (because hubby doesnt like the word 'ngah' to be used on boys) or acaaa. i just love asyraf's name and i remember lobbying for it to hubby for months.

asyraf wouldnt utter a single word for the longest time. now he talks a lot. he would talk in the same manner as amir and uses the same words. ask him a question and his answer will always begin with '(se)bab...' and ends with '...lah'

asyraf loves cleaning up toys. he would clean up 3 times when he's playing shouting out loud 'masss...masss' (kemas...kemas) then he would throw everything back on the floor. good thing we only have 2 boxes of toys at home and all stored in one room.

asyraf is still the same even though he's already 2 years old. hubby and i have said we would never wish a child like asyraf on anyone. we still feel the same. we love asyraf to bits but he tests our patience all the time. he would scream and scream and scream his dissatisfaction, he would throw things and jump to show his anger, he would cry out for hours (literally...he can cry for hours). we would always get amir and ariff to let go of what they're playing with or stop what they're watching and leave the room because asyraf all of the sudden wants to play with the toy or decide to watch a certain dvd. what asyraf wants, asyraf gets...if not it will be a "blue in the face, screaming" asyraf.

when asyraf gets angry even hubby and i have to leave the room. if not we'll be thrown with bottles or trains or whatever asyraf's holding. talking to him nicely will get a scream back in your face, shouting at him loudly will also get a scream back in your face. we have come to accept that is asyraf and just need to approach whatever tantrum he brings with patience. it really gets very bad at times and we do get frustrated and angry, but he's asyraf and he's that way.

the bad thing is that at times he isolates himself from his brothers as they too cant take his tantrums. in the car, amir and ariff will sit together at the back and bond while asyraf would sit alone, staring outside holding his bottle.

despite that, asyraf has the most angelic face, the sweetest smile, the loveliest eyes, the fairest skin. he's just a beauty...i know all mummies say that about their child but asyraf is beautiful. asyraf is shy, he's animated, he's listening and he's watching. when he sees us watching him, he would get all shy, covers his mouth and laugh. asyraf smiling is a rarity and is wonderful to see. most people say they like asyraf because of his looks and because he's so active but no one knows how asyraf is like behind closed doors.

asyraf and amir are always fighting. maybe because they both have preferences and are able to show their feelings. asyraf and ariff gets along. ariff is slowly giving asyraf a piece of his mind when asyraf takes ariff's things but we would always be the moderator and take ariff away telling him 'biarlah abang ambik dulu, nanti ariff main pulak'.

asyraf just had his first test two weeks ago. he surprised us with his performance. asyraf scored well in english and bm and maths and came out no 3 in his class. there's a boy with a lot of potential underneath the screaming facade.

eai#3 is ariff iqhwan. ariff is my little mok, my anak mummy, my anak manja, my mat hitam, my mat busuk. ariff is abang adik but mok is being widely used in school and at home. he really is...he's just so gemok walking around with his chest out like he owns the world.

ariff is patient, very relaxed. maybe because i desperately tried to be patient and relaxed handling asyraf in his first year.

ariff is so easy to put to bed. he would walk around, doing everything and anything by himself while we attend to asyraf with his milk and diaper changing. then we would switch off the lights and call out to ariff. he would come waddling, throws himself on the mattress, takes the milk bottle and doze off just like that. on nights he feels like staying up, hubby or i would raise our voice and say sternly 'ariff...sleep!' he would get all motionless and not look at either of us (konon merajuk lah tu). then in 2 minutes, he's asleep. he's just so cute!

(note to tiza) ariff has perfected the 'throw your head back and laugh' action.

ariff is more mature than asyraf in terms of action and the way he talks. asyraf uses baby language while ariff is quite defined when he speaks. he can say abam, nak, tak nak, tutup. and can call out to us...bapak to hubby and mamak to me. wherever did he learn that? ariff loves animals and would imitate the sounds of dog, cat and bird.

what ariff loves the most are buses. he loves buses. he would turn his body towards the back to follow a bus driving next to the car. i have to get him a toy bus soon.

initially ariff did not want to see akmal. he gave me a tough time the first 2 days. he wouldnt look at me or come to me when i call him. he was a very jealous abang adik. but now he's warmed up to akmal. coming home from school, he would give akmal and i a kiss before going off to look for bags to play with. he's also into backpak now.

eai#4 is akmal izzat. akmal's name is much 'simpler' than his abangs because we ran out of names with the same initials. before we left the maternity ward with akmal, one of the nurses said...if you get another baby, it will be a boy. my first thought was erk...no more, i dont have anymore names.

we're still learning about akmal, obviously. but he's got a lot of ariff's traits. he's quite relaxed and patient. he can sleep for 5-6 hours straight except at night. he hates the air-cond and we can get him to sleep for 3 hours if we switch off the air-cond (we tried last night for the first time and it seemed to work).

we think akmal is going to be slim and tall, maybe good looking as abang. although i still hold to the notion that he looks more like ariff than asyraf.

so here's the eiseai team...
the coach

















the manager

















the captain

















the striker

















the defender

















the winger

Missing Akmal

even with 3 loud, screaming, attention-seeking boys at home, i miss my ickle akmal izzat.

he's been in the SCN since yesterday and needs to be there another night.


















amir's been bugging to bring akmal back but he was pacified with a visit earlier today.