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.