Thursday, August 29, 2013

compare

Now that I have another child, I tend to take things slower. One step at a time.

I used to rely on the existence of checklists. Developmental milestone checklists to see which developmental area Reena needs to work on.

I used to rush Reena to learn and unknowingly,  might have forced her to grow up sooner than she is supposed to.

I wanted so much for Reena to challenge her cognitive skills to its limit. I suceeded in a way; Reena is quite brilliant for her age, she can recognise and name quite a few things via flashcards and concrete materials.

I did however lose out on one thing, the only chance to really enjoy Reena in that particular phase of life. I can't ever get that back.

I worried about how her hair was not thick enough, how late she decided to finally walk, how 'small' she used to be (even now).

I did not (not) worry for a minute.


Therefore with Irman, I am not as winded up as I used to be. I treasure all the little things that he has.

I have never applied any form of oil or cream on his head that "promotes" hair growth. I want his hair to grow at its own pace. I want his head to smell exactly how it is without having the faintest scent of any hair growth cream or oil. I have had people commenting on how his hair is not growing fast enough, but it didn't bother me the slightest bit.  I love the very smell of his head. Quite odd for a baby but nevertheless, a unique 'Irman' scent.


I have had feedbacks from others saying that I should allow my baby to combine breastfeeding with formula feeding to enable me to engage my daily activities  or to make babies 'full'. I used to do that with Reena. But with Irman, I let him latch as long as he wants to. That feeling that you sometimes get, that nobody needs your presence anymore; evaporates when your baby cries FOR you. I had that in the hospital, Alhamdulillah I was able to breastfeed irman, the nurse would wake me up hourly to feed him. I do not mind that at all, in fact; I enjoyed having my baby close to me.

From the mistake that I made, Reena gets frustrated very easily if she can't achieve something :( we are working on that now, asking her to try again slowly.

Irman on the other hand, is now a very happy baby, perhaps due the very fact that I am not 'expecting' too much of him. My ultimate goal is to observe and enjoy his every phase in his growing up years. Having said that, the same rule applies to his cranky sister, I must admit that her constant baby talk and screams does get onto my nerve at times, but I am learning to treasure every single memory of Reena at her current phase.

Insya - Allah I have learnt from raising up my first born. And again insya - Allah this will groom me to be a better mother to my children.








Thursday, August 22, 2013

Irman Bin Muhammad Idros

I have given birth to another pumpkin. At 35 weeks old. It's true the second one tend to come out earlier than the first birth especially if the gap between them is pretty close (like mine, 15 months gap). 

I gave birth to my son on the 8th June 2013. After I have finished all my parents-teacher-conference. 

He weighed a surprising 2.7kg which evaded him from entering the ICU. He was tiny but the motherly feeling just came through as I saw  him for the first time. First thing I said to him was "hey you. So that's how you look like." 





I didn't get Dr Chan as he was on leave. He did tell me to try and wait for his arrival back. But my back hurt crazily when the contractions seeped in. From my experience,  if the pain has reached to that level, the next thing that would happen; inability to walk. It has ever reached up to that stage. 

The other gynea, who took over Dr Chan, only told me that I had excessive blood loss the next morning. 

I was overwhelmed with fear after the operation.  My bed sheet had to be changed every 5 minutes as my mences over flowed. They had to inject me with some medicine to stop the bleeding. 

The next scare was the temp gynea telling me that I had to possibly do a blood transfusion as I lost blood during and after the surgery. Praises to Allah, that did not happen after they checked that my blood count was not too drastically low. 

During my stay at the hospital, I missed my daughter very, truly, crazily much. I cried as I watched her videos and pictures over and over again. Requested my husband to video call me endlessly so that I could talk to her. I have never been away from my daughter. Neither has she, she had fever while we were separated for 3 days. The only companion I had to keep my mind off things was my son. 

Breastfeeding was a breeze after the previous year. The nurses brought my son in every time he was hungry. That really helped, seeing him in my arms reminded me why I have been separated from Reena for a while. 

It took a while for me to recover this time. Longer mences, 2 months mind you. Bleeding on the incision.  

My husband and I, were geared up for another round of sleepless nights when we brought our newborn son home just like what his elder sister put us through. But alas, he did not. In fact, he slept through the night. 

Irman Bin Muhammad Idros, is his given name. In persian his name means, "wish" or a  "potential leader". 

Irman is an easy baby as compared to his witty sister. The only problem he has is that he can't control hunger. He is capable of drinking milk every 20 minutes. Despite that,  he brought joy, laughter and happiness to our little family. 

I can't give birth for the next few years according to the temp gynea who also concluded that I will be anaemic for a few months (thanks!) due to two c-sections that have been carried out for two consecutive years. There are risks that I might stumble upon if I were to give birth the coming year. 

I have allowed my uterus to "rest" for 3 years. 

Irman had his circumcission done at 23 days. It healed really well. Within 4-5 days the plastibell device came off. 

And Reena has been a great sister to Irman. I can't thank Allah enough for the beautiful bond that they share. Reena is usually very gentle with Irman. Kissing and patting him when she sees him. This was not taught by me. She is growing up too fast :(