Akmal In The Hospital

there's so many updates missing but its been pretty hectic at home. typical, on my last couple of weeks at home, suddenly there's just not enough time in the day. akmal's cukur jambul will be updated later as i'm still waiting for the pictures from kakak.

akmal's been having on and off flu for a couple of weeks now. we took him to the nearby clinic 2 thursdays ago. gave him piriton and nose drops. it didnt work much. so we went to see his pead. he asked us to take akmal to the a&e for nasal suction, give him nose drops, administer suction at home and monitor him for the next 4-5 days.

when the flu didnt go away, we went back to dsh. this time, one look the doctor said...i think he needs to be admitted. he listened to akmal's lungs, he's already wheezing. hubby and i quickly planned our next couple of days. while he settled akmal into his room, i went back to pack clothes for akmal and me, enough until friday, and for the 3 boys to be left in school until thursday.

akmal had to be given nebuliser 4 hourly and the nurses had to do the nasal suction as often as possible.

















akmal after 2 nebuliser & 1 suction...


















and after 3 nebuliser, all ready for bed...

















the next morning he looked better. i certainly hoped so since he was woken up 3 times over the course of the night to be given the mask.

















the doctor made his rounds at 9am and stayed almost half an hour with akmal. he wasnt happy with akmal's development, especially when his oxygen level dropped so low, so akmal was sent to the high dependency unit (hdu). there he will be constantly monitored, nebuliser will be given and the nasal suction will be done more often.




















after 24 hours there, he looked better and the doctor gave the all-clear to return to the ward. alhamdulillah. now we just wait to see how long before akmal is discharged.

for now, i'm at home at the peak of my multitasking - doing laundry, airing clothes, another load of laundry and airing, folding clothes hubby washed yesterday, packing extra clothes for akmal and myself, cleaning the kitchen, charging my phone, clearing my inbox, praying, blogging and...watching american idol. all within 2 hours!!

Sports Day 2009

this is the first school event for the year. there's a couple more in june and towards the end of the year. we were excited this year because of asyraf. we already know amir's personality and capabilities but we're always left wondering with asyraf. he doesnt share much except for his tears. but we know he's fast. asyraf runs...he literally runs like the wind. hubby and i are amazed at his ability to just zoom off, bending and twisting his body to avoid running into anything in his way. because of that, we were excited for asyraf's first sports day.

















he did not dissapoint us. not one bit. he was calm and collected among the sea of screaming children. he was fine walking under the hot sun, holding on to his green pompoms, wearing his tweety mask (it was supposed to be wonderpet theme but i couldnt find any wonderpet mask).

















when it was time for him to perform his 2 tasks - collecting sweets & collecting plastic fruits - he was all ready. asyraf flew...he flew so fast he missed his baskets a few times. kak ida had to call him back, laughing because he over-shot his run. asyraf went away with a gold and silver trophy for his second and first game, respectively.

















amir, as usual, is more of a talker. he talked about his sports day preparations for over a week. we knew what he was going to do. come the day, he was so engrossed looking at his friends, laughing with them that he finished last in his first event. he performed better with his team though, they got first prize for walking with a bean bag on their head.

















ariff was upset. he was upset because he couldnt take part. i think he felt that they go to school together so they should participate together. okay...the 'brotherhood' in his name is showing. he kept wanting to cross the line into the tracks. next year lah mok.

















akmal was wonderful. since he's having flu, i gave him his flu meds before we left the house. he slept in the car, he slept during the event, he slept on the way back and continued to sleep an hour after we got home.

















the boys (and their parents) came back hot, sweating, thirsty and a shade darker. but we had fun and look forward to the next school event.

Coming Weekends

the next couple of saturdays are a bit packed for us.

the boys have their sports day this saturday. we're really excited to see asyraf participating for the first time. he's pretty coy about his preparations, we still dont know what he'll be doing. but then...that's asyraf. he's shy about telling people anything related to him. amir on the other hand, explains in detail who he's running with, what he's wearing, who's in what house and all.

they've been practising since last week. this week, they've gone back to the rapid office to practise with the children from their old daycare.

















* see my ickle asyraf all bersemangat

next year, ariff will be joining his abang long and abang. i cant wait to see my little mok (or gem as his teacher calls him now) in action. i hope they have an eating competition heh.

next saturday will be akmal's cukur jambul and aqiqah. i need to start preparing the favours. the adult favours need to be tied with ribbons, while the children's favours still need a bit of work. the invitation have been delivered. we're not inviting a lot of people, just family and close friends. food have been ordered, i'm picking up the cuppies on friday. after the ceremony, akmal will finally be 'botak akmal'. i cant wait!

















then its the labour day weekend. i plan to keep that weekend free of any activity because that will be my last weekend at home. i cant believe 2 months is almost up. time flies...

First Month

this entry is 10 days overdue. akmal is a month & 10 days old today.

up til now, he's not a difficult baby. he's pretty on schedule, he needs a bottle every 4 hours - there's good and bad effect to that. i can plan my day based on his schedule. but the bad part is that he only sleep for 4 hours at a time, there goes my sleep.

he's drinking 4oz now. sometimes he would ask for more and can drink up to 6oz at one go. he's put on a bit of weight. during his first month check up, he weighs 4.1kg (up 1.3kg within a month). quite good but you can hardly see it, he still looks thin and scrawny to me.

akmal is strong. a few people have commented he has strong bones. he surprised us by holding his head up while on his stomach. his brothers can only do that after they turned 3 months. his head is still tilted to the right just as it was when he was born.

i've taken his mittens off during the day so that he can exercise his fingers. i still put on his sock, i'm a bit pantang with 'naked' feet.

akmal is starting to use avent teat no2 today. i'm not too confident changing his teat so early as he spits when he drinks. i still dont know what is the cause of this. we first thought it was his tongue, then i noticed his lips doesnt grip the teat properly, maybe that's the reason. whatever it is, its quite annoying. we go through 10 small towels a day, scooping up the milk that flows out of his mouth when he drinks. its worse when we gave him enfalac. now that we've changed to enfalac AR its slightly better. what ever happened to the plain enfalac AR? have the idiots from mead johnson ceased production, are they forcing us to fork out $66 to buy the A+ range when the plain AR had no problems for my boys?

he now sleeps in his playpen at night and in his cot during the day. i'm hoping to get him to sleep in his cot soon. maybe before i start work. its easier because i dont need to sit up when feeding him at night.

akmal doesnt like to sleep in the dark, i noticed this last night. after his night feed at 2:30am, i changed his diapers. he wouldnt sleep immediately so i rocked him for a bit. after an hour, i started getting sleepy. as he was not fussy, not wet and not hungry, i put him back in his playpen, switched off the lights and went off to sleep. not a minute after that he started whimpering and whining. when i switched the lights back on, he stopped. eh...penakut ke?

he sweats quite a bit and i cant wait to shave off his hair. akmal wouldnt look at anyone in the eye. when we look at him, he would look away.

akmal has followed us on a few outings. he's been out to BSC with hubby and me, to the curve with hubby and me and to klcc with me and tizu. not bad for a 5 week old baby. he's well behaved in his car seat and in the stroller, alhamdulillah.

akmal over the past few weeks...










































akmal today...

IOU

i owe a couple of tags.

first is the supermom from mar @ momma-mia.
1.Admit one thing you feel awful about (involving being a mom). Once you have written it down, you are no longer allowed to feel bad. Remember you are a good mom!
i feel extremely bad not being able to cook for the boys. sometimes there's just not enough time in a day. i do try to cook over the weekend, usually making something very simple so that i dont have to slave over the stove. sometimes, the boys would wake up from their naps and ask for food and i cringe because the kitchen is empty. i usually resort to giving them cookies, i know that is an easy way out. i cant wait for the day when my kitchen is constantly stocked up with nutritious home-cooked food the boys can enjoy.

2. List 7 things you love about your kids, you love doing with your kids, or that your kids love about you.
(i) i love the fact that they are so close in age. that way they learn together, they grow together, they play together. they have a very close relationship, despite fighting all the time. they usually ask for one another if the "4 ninjas" are not complete. they associate things with the four of them.

(ii) they actually love my singing. i have the most awful voice yet they constantly want me to sing to them. when they're about to go to sleep i have to sing the theme song from every single playhouse disney shows. and then go into my 'on top of spaghetti' rendition and then make up songs until they fall asleep.

(iii) they are so genuine. sometimes we wear something we havent worn in a long time (for me, it would be baju kurung) and they would just stare with wonder and just go 'cantik nya mummy'. its so simple yet so genuine.

(iv) the 6 of us still share a room. i'm not sure if its because they cant sleep without us or we cant sleep without them. and i'm not sure if its a good thing but i like it and they like it.

(v) i love their individuality - amir the chatterbox (but at times he irritates the heck out of me), asyraf the handsome (of course i cant see that when he starts screaming the house down), ariff the adorable (but now he's getting to be a handful), akmal the kurus (he' still kurus!)

(vi) i like that they want to be a part of each other and a part of us. when we tickle one, the rest would come a running and ask to be tickled too. when we kiss one, the rest would come a running and ask to be kissed too. they always scream out 'amir nak jugak' or 'asyraf pulak'.

(vii) i learn a lot from them. being a mummy is not just about teaching, its also about learning - learning to be patient, learning to take things easy, learning about new medicine, new diseases, new things in the market, learning about children, learning their language, learning their characters, learning what they like and what they dont like, learning to let go of your time, learning to live with 4 hours of sleep. its a journey full of new things and a journey i'm happy to take.

3. Send this to 5 other moms of the year that deserve a reminder that they too are the best moms that they can be. Remember to send them a note letting them know you have selected them, and also add a link to your post that directs people back to the person who nominated you.
i'd like to nominate my mummy's club, everyone of them are supermoms -
(i) dayang nolie
(ii) ila - ni nak balas tag ni
(iii) azie
(iv) salwa
(v) gee
(vi) cujie
(vii) syerah

i know so many supermoms with and without blogs, so here's a big shout out to them - nina, zu@mulan, ana, irma, dott and rafiqah (who no longer update their blogs), zie, afne, inda, erin, zihan, zam, phira.

and another from ila @ cik adik ila @ s2m3r. the tag of 4s.
4 names that friends call U:
(i) nina (family and close friends)
(ii) sally (my virtual friends)
(iii) ina (my primary school friends)
(iv) lina (only uncle khalid calls me this)

4 most important dates in your life:
(i) 11 oct 1975
(ii) 19 oct 1974
(ii) 20 feb 2004
(iv) 8 jan 2005, 20 nov 2006, 8 oct 2007, 3 mar 2009

4 things you've done in the last 30 minutes:
(i) bathe
(ii) had my morning drink
(iii) listen to loud music to wake myself up
(iv) watch a different world on you tube

4 ways to be happy:
(i) blog
(ii) watch my boys play
(iii) cook
(iv) surfing

4 gifts you would like to receive:
(i) ipod
(ii) all expenses paid trip to disneyworld
(iii) a year off work with pay
(iv) a machine that can stop the boys from fighting

4 of your favourite hobbies:
(i) blogging
(ii) surfing
(iii) cooking
(iv) shopping when there ker-ching

4 places you want to go for vacation:
(i) london
(ii) all the disneyland and disneyworld
(iii) new zealand
(iv) london

4 things always found in your bag:
(i) my purse
(ii) my house key
(iii) my inhaler
(iv) tissues

Top 4 u love so much:
(i) my eiseai team
(ii) money
(iii) good food - steak would be nice right now
(iv) smell of freshly cut grass

Top 4 things 'special' for you:
(i) my family (although they are not a thing, are they)
(ii) my home
(iii) my car
(iv) my bank account on pay day

Top 4 who you would like to answer this survey:
(i) azie
(ii) bulan
(iii) salwa
(iv) shani

i also owe the recipe for the burgers i made. too simple to be true.
minced meat
diced onion
egg
herbs - oregano, paprika, salt, pepper

mix meat, onion & herbs in a bowl. add egg and gaul.
shape the meat and leave in the frigde for 3 hours.
then goreng.
very the simple eh?
for recipe of the steak and prawns, please enquire from my hubby :)

In The Mood

hubby and i were in the mood last weekend. mood to cook! we shipped the boys to daycare on saturday (thank god for them!) and went off to BSC for a quiet breakfast and to get the ingredients. we came back with bags and bags, containing items mostly hubby picked out (siap ambik fresh herbs lagi...menyampah!)

i wanted to make burgers and fish cakes for the boys, after seeing michael smith cooking at home. i had forgotten to take pictures of the fish cakes, it was gone in matter of minutes - 4 eaten by mr moks himself, ariff iqhwan (he ate the most!)

hubby wants to be robert ranford when he grows up. he's got the bbq pit in his wishlist now. along with the iphone and that holiday in london (heh...i know his wishlist better than he knows mine).