School Holiday 2017

5 weeks of school holidays totally just flew by. i had no plan whatsoever for the boys, just some quality time with their ps3 so that they'll leave the girls alone & not disrupt their afternoon nap time.

i started the holidays doing i usually do at the start of holidays - reorganising wardrobes. since i need to move uniforms around - hand down some, replenish some, throw away some, give away some - i also looked at the boys other clothes. the guestroom downstairs was full of boxes, some empty some full. i asked the boys to put aside the clothes they have outgrown and i went through them to see whether they should be handed down or given away. once i have sorted those piles, i brought down those to give away and reorganised the boxes in the guestroom. ariff and akmal helped me pack and label 9 boxes and are awaiting to give them away.

i also reorganised everyone's personal file. amir brought home a lot of certificates on his last day of primary school and i had put them aside until i find the energy to file them (yes, filing takes up a whole lot of energy). currently, i have sorted out all documents into 2 files - baby & kindy and primary school. i'll be adding secondary school files soon. amani's documents are at the moment in a plastic folder as i have not gotten hers ready yet.

with amani being so small, we had no holiday planned this year. we did, however, slot in a quick 4-day weekend getaway down south to jb and singapore. it was a good drive to test the car we got a few weeks earlier. it was also still early in december and the roads and universal studios were not packed with cars and with people. it was actually a nice drive down and a nice drive back and a pretty ok time at the theme park. the jb-singapore trip entries can be found on our travelblog.

as for the school stuff, i went quite low key this time around. amir needed new uniforms, of course, since he'll be changing schools. ariff needed new uniforms as well, since he's gotten much bigger the past year (and because he was wearing last year's uniforms and they've been eating his tummy and sides). akmal's uniform had been ordered and he'll be recycling his sra uniform. asyraf's wearing this year's uniform for sk and getting new sra uniform as he too have outgrown his.

as usual, i buy uniform really early, as soon as the holiday begins because i need to get the name tags and badges sewn and then iron them. i buy early and procrastinate on the other 2 tasks, usually. this year, i had to settle the badges and name tags on my own, as my late mom would do them the past few years. i couldn't be bother sending them to a shop so i used to uhu glue method. i used this method on some uniform last year, especially those with name tags that i had received after school had commenced. i don't particularly like this method as its difficult to take the name tags off at the end of the year. i prefer the name tags to be intact as i'll use them again for the upcoming years.

but this time around, as asyraf & ariff will only have one more year at sra, i chose the uhu method as i dont need to use their name tags again. ariff will also probably be wearing the same sk uniform for the next 2 years so i don't need to take them off. or maybe i'll just get more when the school commences so that i'll have back-up if i need to get him new uniforms. so the day after getting the uniforms, i settled the name tags and badges and ironed them.

we bought the boys' shoes and socks the day after we bought the uniform. it wasn't even december yet and we've settled uniform, socks and shoes. the lady at the shoe store said its a good move to get them early on. but of course...

next on my list were stationeries. i actually planned to get them at the stationery warehouse shop nearby. but we had vouchers from the uniform shopping spree so we went back to the same shop and got stationeries there. i managed to check almost all using the voucher (plus some cash). i've got a bit left to buy but generally they're all settled. i also got some school sets online from mph and that sorta settled their basic stationery needs.

the boys are quite lucky this year to be getting really good text books. i went through their stack of books and practically all don't require re-wrapping. i was about to jump up high until i saw ariff's stack. i went through the core subjects, ok...i expected them to need re-wrapping because of the usage, then i realised all his books were not wrapped. and ariff broke his wonderful surprise, he helped un-wrap the old wrappers for me. oh ariff!! ok ok...only 13 books, not too bad. i managed to do them all in less than an hour.

i went to the school bookstore on the third week of school holidays. i get this done quite early usually - right after uniforms. but this year i wasn't in the mood. i really don't like the school enforcing this activity book culture because there have been many instances where the books were not used, or only a portion used, and you can't recycle them as they change publishers every single year. and then of course the book wrapping (urghh!) so i was really not into buying books at all. i opted not to wrap the activity books this time. after 6 years, i just don't care anymore about wrapping books haha! so its just labeling them and writing names, which was a breeze!

we'll only get sra text books once school commences so i can put them off for now. i don't normally wrap sra activity books, so there's not much more left to wrap.

after much dilly dallying, we finally went to amir's school to get his starter kit and books. amir has loads of writing books but only a small number of reference books, which can be used until he is in form 3 so that's a refreshing change.

we spent the rest of the school holidays at home basically. we did some movie outings - justice league, the long-awaited star wars sequel no 8. the boys had a few outings with friends and went bowling with tiza. we went for a couple of birthday gatherings.

we also had a staycation over the long christmas weekend and registered amir, asyraf and akmal in a kids marathon in sepang the same weekend. that's about it, actually. pretty low key holiday this time around.

after 6 years of spending hours at the agama school on the first day of school to settle fees, i'm so happy that this year parents are invited to pay fees during the school holidays. alhamdulillah, thank you ustaz and ustazah for doing this. so happy we'll have a much more calm first day of school for the first time in 7 years.

we ended the holidays with amir's secondary school orientation. not my first choice of a secondary school but oh well, i accept and i move on and i hope and pray for the best for him at this place.

Happy Six Months Amani

i know people always say...dont be too fast growing up. i'm the opposite at the moment, hurry up and grow babies, that's my chant everyday.

i've been worried about amani's development. she's been on the relaxed side a lot. not moving much, not making much noise, other than her cries. not looking very active. i keep looking back at amira's pictures and going...why is amani not doing this, they're the same age. i dont take it too seriously and dont dwell on them much but at the back of my mind, i keep asking...why?

then she turned six months. and she held her head up. and she pushes her head back while being carried. and she's sitting on a high chair. and she entertains herself in the jumperoo. and she raises her chest and elbow when she's on her tummy. her feet are slowly pushing when she's on her tummy. and she mumbles a lot. and her hair grew. and i cry tears of joy. thank you baby. its like all the 6 months developments happened in just one week.

amani's started on solids a week before she turned 6 months. she's been looking at us eat. and opens her mouth when we feed ourselves. so we thought...ok, maybe she's ready. so we gave her carrot puree. she loves it, she gobbled down a bowl full and was asleep within 10 minutes. i monitored her the next couple of days. she was eating find (a bowl a day in the evening) but she wasn't passing motion. so i held off her food and gave her diluted milk for a couple of days and she was back to normal.

then i gave her smaller portion of 2 bowls a day and continued her milk for the next couple of days and she loves that the best. she would eat late in the morning and late in the evening and have 2 bottles in between and 1 full bottle at night.

amani's a bit behind on her immunisation as her pediatrician's on leave so i dont know how much she weighs currently. but i know she's getting more lean and less chubby, which is wonderful to see.

Week 36 - Baby's Arrival

because of the long Raya leave, which means all of the doctors related to my delivery will be away - the gynae, the anesthetist and the pediatrician, my gynae and i planned the delivery properly. not too early so that at least the baby will be at a good weight and good age yet not too late so that she will be looked after by the pediatrician post-delivery. so we decided on the 20th, that would be the day the baby turns 36 weeks on the dot.

honestly, i was a bit sceptical about the date. yes, i love the fact that the delivery is brought forward and will be soon but i wasn't feeling any major labour signs except for the occasional but not strong contraction. will anything happen from that, i wasn't too sure.

hubby and i sent the boys and amira to damansara after iftar on monday. then we made our way to the a&e of damansara specialist hospital. admission didn't take too long and before we know it, i was unpacking in the room and getting ready to hooked up to the ctg machine to check the contraction. 30 minutes and no contraction. ok, i was all stressed up. i kept thinking i'll be wheeled into the OT for a c-sect, at this rate. it would be the second sleepless insight for me, i couldn't sleep the night before thinking about the delivery prep and thinking about amira away from us.

while for the previous deliveries i was sent to the labour room around 8-9 am, for this, i was asked to prepare myself at 6.30am. i don't mind the time, actually, i had enough time for subuh and solar hajat, hubby was wide awake after sahur, so there's really no harm in starting early. i was the first in the labour suite, the labour room was still locked. once in there, the nurse gave me enema, checked for dilation, hooked me to a drip and to the pitocin and asked me to wait for the anesthetist for the long-awaited epidural. for amira and for this delivery, i had butterflies (more like eagles) in my tummy thinking about epidural. but alhamdulillah, this was probably the best epidural shot i received out of the 6 times. it was quick and simple and not at all scary (yes, i was super scared).

before long my legs were numb and i was was having contraction every 2-3 minutes. those piton really for to work fast! last night i had nothing and now i was having constant contraction.

while the room was alive with commotion, the nurse walking around checking all the machines and stats, hubby was talking about the movie we switched on, i was shaking from the epidural effects, it suddenly felt weird. my heart was beating fast and i felt really hungry and thirsty and then i felt all confused and weak. i called out to hubby and said, i don't know what's going on but i don't feel good. he quickly called the nurses who came in, looked at the machine and moved me around the bed. they asked me to lay down on my left, propped a pillow behind me, gave me water to sip and did things to the machine.

before long, i felt much better and was able to talk again. hubby said it was a scary moment was my blood pressure fell down to 40 and i was pale. the nurses said the baby's heartbeat dropped and when i was moved on the bed, her heartbeat picked up again. that was undoubtedly a very scary moment.

once i was stabilized, hubby went back to the room to take a short nap and a shower. during hubby's absence, my gynae came to the labour room, she broke my water bag, and ensured me that it will be a lunchtime delivery as i've dilated to 5cm within the 3 hours of being in the labour room. when hubby came back, we just sat watching the movie on the telly and occasionally calling the boys and amira in damansara.

the next couple of hours passed by quickly. the anesthetist came in every now and then to check on the epidural, the nurses kept assuring that it would be soon and hubby and i kept looking at the ctg machine because we couldn't seem to see any contraction. when the nurse came in, we asked her why there was no contraction. she checked and said, ok…its time. err…ok, i wasn't ready actually. it was only 2 hours ago that i was 5cm dilated and now i was 9cm. they called my gynae who ran up the stairs from her clinic.

at 12.30pm, everyone was encouraging me to push but after 3 tries, my gynae said this requires vacuum as the baby's head was tilted, making her head diameter seem bigger than it is. well, asyraf seem to prayed a bit too hard for the baby to be born on the 20th like him, she also tilted her head like him. my gynae used kiwi vacuum to push the baby's head down so that i can push her out. took me 2 pushes and the baby was out at 12.54pm.

for the next 2 hours, we were in the labour room, bonding with the baby, eating, took pictures, updating the boys in damansara. the baby stats were taken and hubby recited the azan to her. then i was wheeled back to the room in the maternity ward while the baby was taken to the nursey to be cleaned and given hepatitis b shot and waited for the pediatrician to give her her first check-up.

while we waited for the pediatrician to come, hubby and i took a nap. i prepared myself to take my first step once the epidural wore off and hubby went to the pasar in front to get food for iftar and sahur. while i waited for hubby to return, the pediatrician came in, bearing some bad news. the baby's oxygen level was low - at 93%, anything below 95% for a baby is worrying - and she had to be monitored in the special care nursery overnight.

i was grateful to be able to rest the first night post-delivery but i was missing the baby. hubby wheeled me into the SCN to have a look at her, she was so very small, and we said good night and see you tomorrow to her.

the delivery was fast and quick and smooth, alhamdulillah but i was so very worried about the baby, and for the third night in a row, i didn't sleep to well.

School Lunch Box - March, April & May 2017

because of the march exam & school holidays, the laziness of april and the may exam, fasting month & school holidays, i am able to combine 3 months of the #eaislunchbox journey into one entry.

my mood have been going up and down with regards to the lunch box. on days i am so not in the mood, i will be soooo not in the mood. on days i'm a bit energetic, i could fried up things at 6.30 in the morning. because of that, the boys get simple sandwiches or fried noodles / rice or something baked or just good old ringgit notes.

the easy peasy sandwiches, there's tuna, sardines, turkey, chicken, beef and good ol' nutella spread...

quesadillas and wraps that i actually enjoy preparing...

french toasts on days i have craving...

puffs with the assorted fillings of tuna, sardines and cheese...

mini pizza that turns out quite easy to prepare...

they love this but i try not to indulge, once a month is more that enough...maggi goreng...

and fried rice and pasta goreng made their rare appearances...