What's with Ashraff?

2009..a challenging year for Ashraff indeed..

Twice he was hospitalised. One, in June..due to dengue fever. He was hospitalised for seven nights..seven miserable nights for both Ashraff and us.

And on 15 December 2009 (Tuesday), sharp at 12.00 am midnight, Ashraff had to undergo an operation to take out his appendix, that by then has ruptured. Alhamdulillah, we (Hubby to be exact) took him to the specialist immediately or else he might not be around to see the world anymore..nauzubillah.

It all started on Monday morning where he complained that he has stomach ache. I was on leave that day. But because Ashraff usually has stomach ache, I did not take him seriously, plus I thought he uses that strategy to persuade me not to send him to school (his daycare was opened during school holidays). Boy, was I guilty when I got to know he had an appendix problem!

I took him at about 6 pm that day and the teacher told me that Ashraff is not feeling well and kept on complaining about his tummy. By then, I was worried. Well well, nak dijadikan cerita, Aliff and Aqieff pun demam on the same day. So as Hubby reached home at about 6.30 pm, I immediately told him about Ashraff problem..and he rushed Ashraff to the clinic, get a referral letter and sent him to Ampang Puteri. At 12 am sharp, Ashraff was brought to the operation theatre to had his appendix removed. I was not there to witness the event as I was at home to take care of the other two sick boys. But Hubby told me all about it. How he as a man, felt like crying holding Ashraff hand and giving him motivational words.

But Ashraff was a strong boy. That morning he has started to walk to the toilet. He said he can do it and he will walk slowly. And by the next day, he can walk around the paeditric ward. He was hospitalised for about 3 nights. And one week after that he can jump and run like before.

Well, I still fell guilty over what had happened.not only of my silly negligence..but about what I fed my 5 year old until he suffered from the pain. Maybe Ashraff loves to eat spicy foods. Sambal and asam pedas are his favourite dishes. But because he is such a picky eater, so whatever he wants to eat, we just gave him. Now, we had to control what he and Aliff are taking (and soon Aqieff). It might be one of the reasons, only God knows...

Paddle and paddle

Unlike Aliff, Ashraff is kinda slow when it comes to motor skills. I've been trying to show him how to paddle a bicycle before but it never works. I lost my patience half of the way. Come on, shouldn't paddling comes of naturally? Guess not with Ashraff.

But alhamdulillah, at the age of 5, finally he grasps the skills of paddling, thanks to Ayah who has all the patience in the world to guide him. Yippee!

He was so busy with looking at his feet while paddling, he has no clue on how to manouver the handles, so he carries the bike everytime he wants to make a u-turn..

Anyway, talking about the boys, Ashraff is finally wean from bottle. Now he takes his milk from the cup. Aliff is toilet-trained (diaperless during the day), thanks to his babysitter. Two kids - none of them trained by me!

Aqieff is somehow or rather using pacifier to make him sleep, especially during the day. It all started when he suffers from colic right after my confinement, so the only thing that can ease him down is the pacifier. Plus, it makes our job easier to train him to use the car seat. After all, Ashraff is using pacifier and it's pretty easy to wean him from that thing, so we thot no sweat in trying to use it with Aqieff. We tried with Aliff too but he refused to suck on the dummy.

Anyway, my fellow blogger readers, Selamat Hari Raya Aidilfitri! And mintak maaf banyak2. And this raya, after 7 years, we are celebrating our first raya in KL. Nak menziarah Abah's kubur di pagi raya...I'm expecting Mak to outburst with sadness as 20th September will be her first raya and first birthday without Abah. Poor Mak...

1 month old Aqieff

Aqieff is one month old on 8th August. He weights 4.3 kilos, an increase about 1.2 kilos from the day he was born.

Yesterday we had a small makan-makan at our house just to celebrate Ashraff's 5th birthday. Hubby was the master of the kitchen where he cooked meehoon goreng. I'm just his helper, making sandwich and chicken roll crackers as per instructed by him. All recipes are from him.

I'm glad Mak decided to come to our house (it's her first visit after the house is fully furnished. Arwah Abah couldn't make it.). Since she's still in her tempoh idah (edah?), it was a short visit, makan2 and terus balik.

We bought a cup for Ashraff in conjuction with his 5th birthday to make sure that he weans from bottle. No more bottle for a 5-yr old boy! He took the fact well this time around, unlike our first effort about 3 years ago..

Now, satu job settle. Next will be to toilet train Aliff..

I will always love you...

I will always remember this date...26th JULY 2009.

This is the date when Abah passed away...peacefully...at 8am in his own bed.

Now, I will never hear him calling my name.
Will never see him watching CNN or Discovery Channel...or reading newspaper.
Will never hear his word of advice.
Will never see him playing with his grandsons.
Will never see him sending us to work at the frontgate...together with Mak.
Will never see him jog in the morning..or gardening in the evening...or going to the surau.
I will never hear his laughter..or jokes...or merely his voice.

All that is left is his photos...his handwriting...the clothes that he wears...and all the good memories of Abah...

I miss him...dearly...

Abah, I will always love you...forever and ever...
I wish I could tell you this before you leave...

Introducing..our latest addition...

For the first time in my life, I have internet connection at home! Yippee!! Now I'm happily blogging at the comfort of my home.

Alhamdulillah, I've safely delivered a new baby boy on 8th July 2009 (exactly 2 weeks earlier than my EDD). The delivery went out smoothly and less traumatic as this time around, I opt to use epidural. Believe me, after going through twice the labour pain plus the stitches downunder(with very minimal pain killer), I got a bit traumatise to go through it all again. Thus, that is when I decided the epidural thingy. Wow! No wonder people opt for that. It's a pain-less labour!!
Anyway, on 7th July 2009 which was the day of my check-up, I had to be admitted to the hospital due to high BP. The reading was 140/90. I was monitored throughout the night but it turned out my BP was still at the border line (the lowest was 120/85), so my gynae decided to induce me. Yeah, it's Ashraff all over again.

So at about 5 am, they induced me, but I don't feel any pain at all (just slight discomfort). Gynae was suprised to see me sleeping after the induction took place as she came and checked my dilation at about 10 am. I was dilated 3 cm only. Ain't suprise me, coz I don't feel any contraction going on at all for the past 5 hours after induction. So they decided to put me on drip to fasten the labour. To the labour room everybody!

At about 10.30, the anaesthetist gave me an epidural jap. I was freaking scared of the needle going through my spine. But it turns out to be not too bad. Labour pain is million times more painful than that. At 11.00, they put me on drip. I could feel my belly harden every now and then so I presumed that was when the contraction took place. Other than that, just like I mentioned before, it was painless and I slept all the way till I felt the urge to push, which initially I thought the epidural effect has worn off. But it turns out I'm fully dilated and ready for the active labour i.e the pushing game..."Cepatnya!," I thought.

Then at exactly 1.10 pm, our new bundle of joy was delivered...

Name : AQIEFF BIN MOHD FITRI

DOB : 8th July 2009

Weight : 3.13 kg (the smallest among three, maybe becoz he was born 2 weeks in advance)

Length : 52 cm

Story behind his name. If you can see, the name rhymes with Aliff which wasn't our criteria in choosing a name for our 3rd boy. But, Abah likes it. This is the first time he (or any of our parents) intervenes in choosing a name for our baby. With him in that kind of condition, the best thing for us to do is to follow his choice so Aqieff it is...meaning "seorang yang fokus."

So now I have three boys in the family..plus Hubby, four. I'm definitely outnumbered! But I'm blessed. Blessed with God's gift.

"Kita ada four boys sekarang. Kesian Ibu takde kawan...," said Ashraff. Geee...who cares...I feel so special surrounded my boys. Plus, that's one thing I have in common with Victoria Beckham...hahaha...

Aqieff was so far an easy baby, alhamdulillah. Ashraff adores his brother very much, which was different when he got Aliff last time. Aliff has no sign of jealousy so far. So it was easy to handle the boys this time around as compared to handling Ashraff when we got Aliff. Maybe due to age factor. Ashraff got Aliff when he was 2yo3mo, while Aliff got Aqieff when he was 2yo8mo.

As for confinement, this is the first time Mak couldn't take care of me so I have to survive on my own. Thank God, Mak Pontian was here for the first two weeks to help. And I hired a confinement nanny to help me with the cooking, urut, tungku, tangas, bengkung, lulur, mandikan baby..and other general help she could. Kak Nor is a major helper. And I was treated to everyday spa at home!

Despite that, confinement still means confined between the four walls..so you tend to get bored. Jadual Astro pun dah hafal..hehehe...Everyday I make a mark at the calendar. Bila nak habis 44 hari ni...Today will be my 18th day of confinement. Another 26 days to go...Time moves very slowly...

Now some updates on Abah. He was weaker than the last time I blog about him. He is now on diapers, few people have to lift his body to make him stand and walk and not only his leg but his hands are now swollen. I never got the chance to see him everyday now that I'm in confinement. The last time I saw him was when Aqieff was admitted due to jaundice so as I visit Aqieff in the hospital, I visited Abah in another hospital as well. Tomorrow I shall be going to Mak's house to stay overnight as Hubby is going to Singapore (to watch Liverpool game live there). So, I got the chance to see Abah...and massage his legs and hands, talk to him, keep him company...

I wouldn't blog about his actual condition coz only Mak and me knows about it. Let just say, only miracle can cure him now..We keep on praying for this miracle to come...

Oh by the way, just to share. For this confinement, I'm using Nona Roguy's product. For the first time, I have no constipation problem during my confinement. Thumbs up to the product!

Heii banyaknya benda nak blog...Another thing, the boys are finally sleeping in their own room! But Ayah got to put them to sleep first. It was a pretty easy transition period for the boys. Now we only have 1 boy to share the room with us...

"Home Sweet Home"

I haven't got time to write long entry..what more to post some photos...

But I got to mark this date down...

27th June 2009...is the day we finally moved in to our new house. A house which insyaAllah will be our permanent house till bercucu-cicit. Unless, we strike a gold somewhere which allows us to upgrade our house to let say, a mansion..:)

If I have the time, I'll share you more story on this..and post some pictures. You see we do not have a camera (camera rosak!)..and all photos are taken with our so-so handphones which does not come with a cable to 'sedut' the photos to our PCs. Jadi faham-faham sajelah...

Oh, lil more update since ada time lagi before Hubby arrives...

On the not-so-nice news, my father is diagnosed with unknown cancer about 1 1/2 months ago. 'Unknown' because the cancerous lumps happens to take place in between his stomach fats, which according to oncologist is a rare case because cancer should start from an organ. Initially, the whole family was sad and shock at the same time. I cried for days (almost every prayer), but after a while, we learn to accept it as fate and most importantly, to encourage and motivate Abah to take it positively. Abah lost lots of weight. Hanya tinggal kulit dan tulang sahaja from waist above, as from waist downwards was blotted with water. His feet, especially, is swollen so he couldn't walk far. He just stayed upstairs sebab once he go downstairs, he needs help from at least two people to carry him upstairs again (one to papah dia, and another to help him lift his feet so he can climb the stairs). My used to be healthy father is sick and it is sad to see him suffer. So far, he has undergone 3 sessions of chemo..so about 5 times more before the doctor does a full body scanning to see if there's any improvement. Now, we can only pray to see him recover cause not all cancer is fatal. Many survives.

Ok, Hubby is here..so long...

A helping hand is here!

Alhamdulillah, our new maid has arrived last weekend. When we say 'our' it includes the whole Fitri's troop and Mak Abah i.e the maid is shared with Mak and Abah. No, she does not earn double income. Instead, the maid's monthly salary is paid from two different pockets - mine and Mak's. She is just our part-time maid who does the basic household chores for us - ironing, washing, folding the bajus and cleaning the house. Tugas dia lebih kurang sama macam those maids you hire on weekends.

We still send Ashraff and Aliff to day care centres. And when we moved to our new house, we shall not bring her with us. She stays at Mak's house. That's the arrangement for the time being.

I'm happy and less tired now. Kerja dah lah melambak kat office. Balik rumah nak iron, basuh baju, lipat baju lagi. Hey, I'm not a super-wifey and super-mummy. Plus, I'm getting heavier. Paling tak suka buat is gosok baju. Berdiri lama-lama gosok baju boleh buat tapak kaki I jadi sakit..and peluh tak payah nak ceritalah.

Now, I have more time to look at Ashraff's homework, read them goodnight story books and berborak. That is if I'm still not stuck in the office at 9 pm lah kan..(mcm hari ni). Got to go now!

P.S: Sofa, checked. Curtain, almost checked. Target to move: by end of May.

P.P.S : Still hasn't choose a name for our 3rd boy. What's a good name that starts with an "A" and ends with "FF" and does not rhyme with Aliff? Or on a 2nd though, "FF" kat tengah pun takpelah:)

Money, Money, Money...

Alhamdulillah, I've just received the back-dated salary adjustment that I've been waiting for since last year. Since it's back-dated, kembunglah bank account. But not for long because this money shall now goes to the furniture shops. Sofa, dining table, king-size bed..and curtains...errr..don't think it'll be enough to cover all..

We also have to allocate some for the maid which I've been negotiating with Mak to pay half of the agent fees and monthly salary. And let the maid stays at Mak's house so we can have some privacy at our new house...and to make sure I'm at my toes on whereabouts are the children's things sebab kalau ada maid ni I tend to take things for granted. Mak seems to agree to let the maid stay with her at this point in time. Basically we want to have a part-time maid. At first, we thought of hiring the maid who came during weekend but then we are in the dilemma on sending the 3rd baby to nursery at 2-month old age. So negotiating with Mak is the next best thing to do since Mak is also looking forward for an extra helping hand.

The plan is to send both Ashraff and Aliff to full-day programme at school and only the baby will be taken care of by the maid at Mak's house. Kena review jugak budget takut quite costly. Hey, we both don't earn that much...:)

Oh, it's Maghrib time. Gotta pray coz Hubby is fetching me right after Maghrib to watch movie together after so long...Confession Of A Shopaholic..wuhuu!

What's up RafiqahEliza?

Hehehehe...where have I been for the last 5 months?

Well, I'm still alive and kicking..but very (3x) busy..mengalahkan PM.

For the past 5 months, there's been a lot going on in my life I just don't know where to start. So I better make it into point form to make sure I do not miss anything.

1. Work - I'm out of Branch, thus no longer doing branch operation. I was transferred to HQ on 1 December 2008 into credit department, doing regional work for loan applications received by the Bank. This includes vetting applications done by the branch and presenting it to the committee. The hard pard is of course presenting caused you are high likely to be bombarded by committee should you miss out some important facts or worst case, give them the wrong information altogether. But I've learned to become 'muka tembok' and put everything behind you as you walked out from the committee's meeting room. So far I love this job but it gave me no time to blog or surfing. Well, well.

2. Hubby - Alhamdulillah, he received his CPA Australia certification last month. I'm proud to see him walk up the stage to receive his cert. Now, he's pursuing MBA, thus he has to forgo half of his weekends with the family to attend classes. Not only that, he has to wake up at 5am to do his assignment and help me with doing laundry at the same time now that we are maidless. Talking about maidless...

3. Life without a maid - Tired but satisfied. I'm happy because I have a helpful helper i.e. hubby. The kids weren't too hard to handle as they can be left unattended (provided they stay in a room) so I can do some household chores before putting them to sleep. We send Ashraff to a full day programme at Islamic kindy while Aliff was sent to the nursery. So far we love to see their development.

4. New house - kita hanya merancang, Allah yang menentukan. We are still staying at my parents'. Apparently we are facing cost overuns..hahaha..Nope, adalah reason yang lagi concrete. Lihat di bawah...

5. New family member - Alhamdulillah, I'm 5 months preggy. Due in July this year. And it is quite a hard first trimester for me as I was admitted to the hospital due to dehydration. So now u can figure why we can't move in to our new house. Who wants to help hubby to do the cleaning and unpacking job? Hehehe...but I'm okay now. In fact, kitaorang dah tau gender baby ni. Jeng, jeng, jeng...Another BOY! Seriously if u asked me, I don't mind, but what frustrates me is because I dissapoint Ashraff who keeps on telling me he wants a sister so tak payah berebut-rebut nak main his toys as she can play with her Barbie (siap bagi reason tu) and my mom who wants cucu perempuan from the very beginning. Tengok diaorang frust, kita pun frust. For me, just as long as sempurna dan sihat, alhamdulillah. Lagipun I feel special to be the only female in the family. Kalau gambar raya I sorang je pakai baju kurung, yang lain pakai baju Melayu. How cool is that!

6. Business - As abandoned as this blog, the same goes for CMOG. I do take orders but very limited due to my time constraint. I need to spare some ME time to take care of my physical health sebab kalau Ibu dah stress, susah nanti..hehehe..

The next point I think I better make it into another sub-heading because I'm gonna talk about the boys...

ASHRAFF:-

1. He is 4 years and 7 months. His baby brother will come just in time for his 5th birthday.

2. He is attending Islamic kindy school and alhamdulillah he attended the school without much hesitation.

3. On the 1st day of school he cried because he has to stay till evening while most of the kids go back in the afternoon. But I managed to convince him to stay dengan alasan "Kalau Aliff boleh duduk nursery sampai petang, kenapa Ashraff tak boleh." That's when his ego strikes in...and he kept quiet after that.

4. I love the activity they had for the full day programme. They have prayer time, doa time, makan time, nap time, mandi time and khalifah circle time. So basically now Ashraff knows the basic prayer movements and bacaan-bacaan yang senang. He also knows when to doa - nak makan (yang ni dari dulu lagi), nak tidur, keluar rumah, masuk and keluar tandas. And the best part is tak semua doa dia hafal so at home he asked me or Hubby to recite. Gosh! Frankly speaking, banyak yang kitaorang tak hafal, but to fulfill his demand, now both me and Hubby terpaksa hafal some of the doas, which is also beneficial for us. Kalau tak kena macam ni, sampai bila pun tak hafal.

5. I also love to see the positive changes in his behaviour. He helps me a lot especially when Hubby is away. Some of the things he helps me is to pack his and Aliff's things for school and nursery. He make sure that his pajamas and Aliff's are ready on bed so that Ibu can change them into pjs without much hassle.

6. I'm yet to see him read...and to see him wean from drinking milk from bottle.

ALIFF:-

1. He is 2 years and 4 months to be exact. Will be brother when he's 2 years 8 months. But in terms of year, they are 3 years gap.

2. Still chubby..and cheeky too.

3. Kuat makan, kuat berlari, kuat main, kuat tantrum..

4. A chatterbox. Can ask question perfectly. Cepat warm up to stranger as compared to his brother.

5. Suka buli abang. Abang being very good brother selalu mengalah, unless he's damn angry like this one time, Abang dah penat-penat buat tower with blocks, tetiba datang Aliff dia saja je langgar and the whole tower just collapsed. Abang was so pissed off, dia tolak Aliff jatuh terhentam kepala kat lantai, and then dia cakar muka Aliff. Berceloreng muka Aliff..

6. He no longer breastfeed. I've tried different methods like slow talking until to the extend of putting benda-benda pahit kat tempat yang sepatutnya, but nothing works. Until one day, I wean him cold turkey. I let him cried for one hour..berguling-guling atas lantai. Tried that before but my heart cepat cair and gave up. But that one fine day, hati I memang cekal. I couldn't take it anymore as it's very painful when he breastfeed and dah takde susu pun. He finally gave up trying and opt for susu Milo instead (susu Milo = chocolate flavoured formula). The next day his crying shortened and finally he stopped asking.

7. He love to sayang-sayang baby. He will hug my tummy and say "sayang baby"...

Opps...Hubby is coming. Gotta sign off. I'll post some pictures later...insyaAllah..