b3 b0rn.. c0nf0rm, b3 si|3nt .. di3

so.. pejam celik pejam celik – anaqi furqan nurul amir will turn one (1) on sunday.

this date last year – i was at home – counting the days before my 2nd born will be delivered to the unsuspecting world…. his EDD was supposed to be 8th.. then it moved earlier to the 5th.. and the latest date during final checkup was the 4th of feb 07..

i took off the week before – not due to any doctor’s advice – more to me being lazy to come to work feeling like a whale… plus wanting to spend more time with kakak prior to her bro’s arrival.

.. it was a good 1 week’s time off – kakak especially loved the fact that mama picked her up from school .. and went shopping every day… but also got tired of getting questioning looks from me mum – who seemed like she’s the one who’s delivering from her anxiety about me delivering… and the rest of the family…

on the day itself – 3rd feb 07 – the sign finally came… and anaqi furqan was delivered safely into the hands of capable doctors and matrons @ maternity ward hkl…

confinement was confinement – me going crazy with the mundane routine of staying at home but knowing fully well that i’d miss those times once i get back to work… but seeing kakak being all obsessive with her adik… the grandparents doting over the lil’ boy…kakak handling her new pre-school and of course, the breastfeeding… kinda made the days pass by tolerably.

then came the stressful days before the return to work..

having decided after kakak was weaned that i’ll give my next baby a better go at extended breastfeeding, i’d purchased my avent isis out and about set online due to my utter lack of confidence in amir’s ability to get me one – but as karma would like to have it – some setbacks occured (i was quite pissed off with the proprietor – even til now) and i only received my set 5 days before my d-day.

now for most moms who’d continued breastfeeding after their confinement … you would normally start building a stockpile for emergency purposes a few weeks before returning to work. the recommended timeframe is 2 weeks prior – to also acclimatise the baby - but some start even 1 week postpartum to store their breastmilk.

i had 5 days..

around about the same time, we had also decided that the master bedroom of my parents’ place was getting too small for the amount of junk we’ve collected and the new addition to the nucleus family and amir had sourced for a place in wangsa maju… so in addition to trying to stock up on breastmilk in between feedings… i was also helping out with the packing… and trying to figure out the best arrangement for anaqi and kakak’s care when i get back to work

as expected – this resulted in me not being able to build the stockpile as i had intended too.. just becoz stress causes reduction in breastmilk production… which in turn, got me stressed out… and it became a vicious cycle… it didn’t help that the males in the family would sometime out of the blue utter a comment like ‘ehh angah, kenapa ari ni ko pump mcm sikit aje kuar?’ … thank you for stating the obvious!

anywho… managed to move out on the appointed date. needless to say – nenek was quite heartbroken… she’s gotten used to having kakak around and is getting used to anaqi being there… when we moved out… she actually cried when she was jolted awake in the middle of the nite and thought she heard anaqi crying.

fast forward 10 months… anaqi has had two close-shaves (hair cut laaa) and one major oopsie, i’ve cried over spilled expressed milk, have worried on whether anaqi’s experiencing developmental delays and on whether he has developed asthma… and celebrated each and every milestone achieved!

here’s to another year as a awesome four-some family…. and to more adventures.. within and outside our house (soon to change status from rented to pwn!!)…