a baby's welcome...

i was spring cleaning my iphoto pics and came across these from three years ago. i just remembered i actually had a draft blog post which i had started but never completed!

these are pics of ilaika's "potong jambul" ceremony*. the theme was anything baby and the colours were yellow, orange and pink...

* in the malay culture, the "potong jambul" ceremony is traditionally a ceremony whereby a baby's head is shaven to "cleanse" him or her. nowadays the ceremony, held forty days after the baby is born, seems to signify a thanksgiving ritual and a baby's welcome. literally translated, "potong jambul" means "cut hair" which is exactly what the ceremony is about. in my family, the ritual also includes giving the baby its first taste of "sweet" and "salty" and a "merenjis" ceremony (perhaps a malay version of the baptism ceremony) as well as placing the baby's feet on a tray of sand somewhat similar to marking its footprint in the sand...possibly to signify its first step? am afraid i am no expert in the malay culture so perhaps i should find out more from my mum...!

- the venue -

- the lovely teak cradle, a present from my mum -

- the "equipment" -

top row from L to R :

1. the "equipment" laid out on the table; 2. a decorated coconut to place the hair once it's cut.

bottom row from L to R :

1. a tray of sand for the "footprint" part of the ceremony; 2. mini scissors to cut the baby's hair.

- the "equipment" -

top row from L to R :

1. the sweet & salty "porridge"; 2. the leaf to "merenjis" the baby.

bottom row from L to R :

1. the "bunga rampai" for "merenjis" - it's a malay-style potpourri made of thinly sliced fresh leaves, fresh rose petals and rose scented fragrance; 2. silver cradles, the favours for the vip guests.

- the decor & gifts -

top row from L to R :

1. baby mittens sewn with ribbons and buttons, which we used to place the "bunga rampai" as favours for the guests; 2. mini pink cradles for the table decor.

bottom row from L to R :

1. more table decor; 2. pink balloons were placed all around the patio.

- sweet stuff -

top row from L to R :

1. pink, yellow & orange ribbons for the baskets that held the cupcake favours; 2. mini cupcakes with frosting to match the colour theme.

bottom row from L to R :

1. jelly in shapes of baby things; 2. cupcakes topped with frosting and fondant in shapes of safety pins, rocking horses, rattles and bibs.

oh and here's a pic of us as proud first-time parents...

time sure flies...a part of me still can't believe that it's been three years since i first held ilaika in my arms...and looking at her now, it's hard to believe that she was ever that tiny!

hug me kiss me love me pinch me...

about a month ago, i put up a post about invites that i had been asked to design...and now i'm finally getting around to posting the pics with the matching biscuits...

after a few minor tweaks here and there, this is how the final artwork turned out...

- the front of the invite had the angelic baby boy's picture and on the back of the invite, each corner said: hug me, kiss me, love me, pinch me -

 

using the same colours of blue and brown as well as beige and white, i designed matching biscuits to announce the name of the baby boy...

...with matching quotes from the invites...

...as well as sweet and funny quotes for laughs...

this is my personal favourite...

so true in my books...especially the smaller bankroll and shabbier clothes ;p

a trip down memory lane...us three in singapore circa 2007...

zain put this comic strip together back when ilaika was still a baby. it was just after our first trip as a family of three. ilaika was barely four months old & we had decided to take a break in singapore for a few days. she cried & screamed throughout the whole holiday, except when we were in the hotel room. the pic of her in that baby onesie - will work for milk - makes me laugh everytime.

clockwise from top left:

at a singaporean wet market that zain dragged us to using his gps (hobby of the month that month)...apparently they had the best char kueh teow in town...it took us an hour to get there, only to find out it was closed on that day!

mini me & me in our pj's in hilton singapore. she was so tiny back then & always had that look on her face...

zain & ilaika back in kl. she had an obsession with the tv remote...she still does except now she actually knows how to use it!

i bought this onesie in singapore & it was so fitting as ilaika had been part of a tv commercial just a month before! look how happy she was to be in the hotel room...

it's a boy!

before you get all gooey & excited, allow me to clarify -- no, i'm not expecting another baby. despite the constant "so when's your next one" hints, i think i shall stay away from that subject for at least a few more months. selfish as it may sound, i am not quite ready for yet another bout of sleepless nights & feeling like a dairy cow! this, of course, is a completely different story altogether...one that i shall save for another day...

a couple i just recently came to know, has just been blessed with an angelic baby boy. mind you, his mother will beg to differ that he is only angelic in the presence of other people and is quite a little monster behind closed doors - something many mums will be able to relate to!

this little angel will be a month old soon and his lovely mum has asked me to design some biscuits & matching invites for his naming ceremony. i've only ever made invites for myself & ilaika's parties but never for anyone else. hence, i had quite a bit of fun with my power point* & mac book pro these past few days. 

* yes, am still using power point...i SO have to start using a "proper" design software soon!

i started with a blank "canvas" and two boyish colours - blue & brown. it turns out the mum is like me - we both prefer our invites to be not so kiddish. however, i couldn't completely ignore the fact that this was an event for a baby...so i still had to include childlike elements into the theme. i used some digital scrapbooking ideas -- added some stripes, a few circles & a couple of buttons...here's the initial design i came up with:

- front -

 

- back -

it's no mona lisa but i was kinda proud of this. not bad for a newbie, me thinks ;)

thankfully, the mum liked it too. we made a few changes here & there, added the baby's pic & sent it off for print. i'll share more when the invites & biscuits are ready...

a tale of bears & blocks...

i was just getting used to having this lil baby in my life and before i knew it, her first birthday was approaching. as the date creeped up in the midst of me being in my overwhelming experience as a mummy, i was late sending out the invites so i started with a "save the date" note...

 ...and then the party planner in me went wild ;) the colour theme was brown & pink and the overall decor was based on bears & blocks. i'll let the pictures tell the story...

- the invites -

It's a very special birthday

for a very special girl,

One year ago this day,

Zaleia Ilaika came into our world.

With her happy smile & cheeky ways

She's brought us joy, laughter & love,

Our cuddly Ilaika-bear is a beautiful gift

specially sent from up above.

Now the apple of our eye

is turning one,

With you around

it'll be so much fun!

- the decor -

- the furry guests -

 

- the cake -

- the party packs & gifts-

- mummy me a.k.a. the party planner & the birthday princess -

looking at the pics now, i guess i did go a little overboard with the whole setup up and guest list of 70 adults & 30 kids ;) but oh well, she's only one once!

just a few things to remember for the next party i organise:

• design invites early, especially if it's a complicated block that takes forever to construct & put together...so say, 2 months is a good headstart, to avoid going to bed at 4am for a few weeks before the invites are due!
  
• have a trial run for the birthday cake, especially if it's the first time playing with a type of decor...in this case fondant. also avoid baking & decorating at 4pm the night before the party. much better to start at least a couple of days ahead...
  
• coax family & friends to come early & help with decor!
• a one year old is just happy to have familiar toys around her which kinda defeats the whole party anyways ;) but at least when she grows up & looks at the pics, she'll think she had a fab first birthday! 

last but not least, after weeks of cutting & sticking and calling & planning, make sure friends stick around after the party to help you unwind over that much-needed drink ;)

sleepy sleepy time...

as i lay in bed awake at this godforsaken hour, i am thankful at how lucky we are. ilaika actually sleeps thru the night pretty well, unlike those stories of babies crying thru the night. she feeds at 7pm, sleeps from 8pm til about midnight when she has a short feed and then sleeps again. she doesn't wake up until 6am. early bird, unlike her daddy.

the silly billy in me wakes up constantly to check on her, contemplating if i should wake her up and feed her. however, each time, her angelic sleeping face wins me over. who would have the heart to disturb her peaceful slumber…

baby blues...

and our little angel was born...

At 3am on Monday, less then 24 hours after my last blog, I found myself in the delivery suite of Pantai Medical Centre. Strapped to the bed, there was not much for us to do but wait and wait and wait. Come sunrise, I was still not feeling any pain from the supposed contractions I was having. The only pain I had was the discomfort and numbing of my bum!

At noon, Dr P had me on the drip for induction (the IV needle hurt like hell!) and at 3pm, I started feeling pain. Refusing an epidural (for fear of a large needle and immobility), I took a jab of penthidine, which had me snoring away to Zain’s hypnotherapy music for the next three hours. According to him, as the jab wore off, I woke up in pain every few minutes, only to doze off snoring in between contractions!

At 6pm, the actual delivery process began.

At 10.15pm, after loads of silent pushing, a failed vacuum attempt, a forceps procedure and many many stitches, Zaleia Ilaika was born. She weighed 3.09kg (6lbs 13oz) and was 48.3cm in length. Oddly enough, as they plonked her literally bloody body on my chest, all I could focus on was the large blob of mucus on her thigh! And then it hit me, this was our baby…the little angel we’d waited for. After that, everything was quite a blur. Baby started shrieking (yes, very healthy set of lungs!) as they took her to be cleaned up and I breathed in the gas to distract me from all the “other” activity going on down there. How ironic that I only needed a painkiller after the actual delivery!

At midnight, they wheeled me back to the suite. Shortly after, baby arrived, peacefully asleep. Only then, did both sets of anxious “toks” leave.

At 2am, it was finally just us. Daddy, Mummy and baby Ilaika. We had come a long way for this moment. And it was worth the while for finally, our little angel was born…

third trimester blues...are we there yet?

Come midnight tonight, my baby will be a full 39 weeks. Yes, I have not popped yet.

As the pregnancy ticker says above, “My mummy is bigger than a house…she’s threatening legal action if I don’t come out soon!” – my thoughts precisely! (Disclaimer: I DO NOT have hemorrhoids and the runs...ewww!)

The whole of this trimester has been a waiting game…a very nerve wrecking one indeed. At one point a month ago, I was so nervous about the labour and the baby that I said I’d be perfectly fine to keep her in my womb. Me and my big mouth. Now baby seems quite comfortable there and quite reluctant to leave the comfort of mummy dearest. Problem is, the more comfortable she gets, the more uncomfortable her mummy gets!

During the CNY hols, Zain and I went for coffee with a friend. As soon as he saw me, he laughed out loud and said, “God, you look like shit. I guess the pregnancy finally hit you after nine months!” He was right! I thought I’d escaped the horror stories, when suddenly, I developed eczema-like rashes on my tummy, lost my sense of smell cos my nose was perpetually blocked, couldn’t stop coughing at night, had aching nerves on the left cheek of my butt (!) and walked around like a zombie during the day cos of the lack of sleep. So yes, if you bump into me, don’t be surprised that I look like shit!

After the agonising wait of nine and a half months, at week 38, Dr P said we were on stand by, so we moved to Tok’s house in Kenny Hills (for my confinement period). We got everything ready and in place. A week came and went and I still had not popped.

Yet another visit to Dr P’s yesterday indicated that her head is even more fully and heavily engaged. Again, he said we are on stand by. However, if baby is still in her comfort zone next week, Dr P threatened to induce by the 14th! It was quite funny that as soon as he said that, the baby started squirming, as if she knew she was in trouble! Ha ha..

But for now, we’re back to the waiting game and everyday, we ask the baby – are we there yet?

the "firsts" of the second trimester

They say the second trimester is supposed to be the best among all three pregnancy trimesters – like the calm after the storm, like spring after a long winter. Seeing as I experienced neither “the storm” nor “a long winter”, it would be odd to say that the second trimester was as calm as spring. In retrospect, as I approach the end of the pregnancy (yes, almost there!), I would say it was the most interesting trimesters of all, as there were a lot of “firsts”.

For the first time, my hair was full of body (like I’d gone to the hairdresser's everyday and believe you me, my scalp is usually like an oil field). I also felt more energetic compared to the first trimester, so I started enjoying makeup again. I also suddenly went wild shopping. Well, ok – this is not really a first but honestly, while most people would crave food, I craved shopping (which made me think baby might be a girl).

I even dared venture out late and made a trip to Laundry! Yes, woohoo…well done, Iz!

Believe it or not, I also experienced my first burp!! Yes, Miss Demure here had never had the pleasure of being introduced to a personal burp…ever. And once that first one popped out, it just didn’t stop. There were times, I felt so barbaric (and then this made me think baby could be a boy!).

One of the first obgyn I met, told me that calcium didn’t have to come from just milk alone. Seeing as I’m slightly lactose intolerant, he suggested ice cream and such. That was enough substantiation for me. I suddenly (and very conveniently) developed an extreme, extreme liking for chocolate. And not just any chocolate, mind you. It had to be Starbucks’ Signature Hot Chocolate, Baskin Robbins’ Chocolate Ice Cream or San Francisco Coffees’ Extreme Chocolate (which was the best cos it had both ice cream & chocolate in one drink). Yes, how very convenient indeed :) mmmmm…

It didn’t help as well that my obgyn at that time, Dr N, was very sarcastic about my lack of weight gain. After having overdone the weight gain marathon in my first trimester, my body seemed to have decided to take things slowly. So while my tummy was expanding and my waistline was rapidly disappearing, my weight just maintained at the same mark, plus minus 1kg. I can still hear the doc in her ever so shrill Pollyanna voice, “I see baby’s still eating up mummy this month, isn’t she…!” This, of course, gave me more justification to pig out...oink oink!

Oh yes, we also discovered our little angel is a she. My little princess. She didn’t quite look like a princess the time we found out though. Far from it, she had her legs very wide apart, almost as if she was mocking me! Not very lady like but that’s my little princess for you…

We also saw her sucking her thumb, hiccupping and (this, I could have imagined) talking to us (she looked directly at us and her mouth opened and closed almost as if telling us something). Most definitely teary-eyed moments.

Towards the end of the second trimester, we saw Dr P for the first time and instantly decided to change doctors. He was a lot more gentle, patient and thorough than Dr N, who had a tendency to trivialise things and practised a very hi-bye service. With Dr P, my fears and questions were answered, my curiosity was fed and the spoilt brat in me was happy. Plus, he had a really fancy boutique clinic which was a bonus!

So, all in all, the second trimester was full of interesting "firsts"…

breezing thru the first trimester

I used to occasionally wonder if conceiving would be easy or if I’d face problems. Not that I was asking for it…but I hear tales and it just made me ponder over the possibility. After all, one can never be too sure. And to be fair, we did put it off for two years. What I definitely did not bank on was getting preggers as soon as we thought of trying!

It was a sweet surprise but one that hit me quite hard. There I was – suddenly overwhelmed and faced with the dilemma of making major lifestyle changes, some immediately and some more in the not too near future. One thing that was for certain was that life as I knew it would never quite be the same again. And suddenly, I doubted if I was really ready…

First on the list were the fags and the booze. The latter was easy. Despite being teased as an “alcho” by some, there were no second thoughts over this vice. The former took a bit more courage but my guilt got the better of me and within a day, I ended that ten-year bittersweet relationship. sigh...two thumbs up for me :p

The next thing on my list was to brace myself for all those scary stories of first trimester pregnancy blues – where some are bed ridden for three months straight and others practically move into the toilet!

I must be “one of the chosen ones” though. Ok – maybe not the most appropriate choice of words. You see, apparently only a small percentage of women are lucky enough to not have morning sickness. And surprisingly, I was one of them. Mum didn’t experience it either, so it could be genetic. But still, you can never be too sure so I waited…

and I waited…

and I waited…

and it never came!

The only symptoms I experienced were fatigue (which was a great excuse to sleep!), a bionic sense of smell (I swear I could smell Zain’s sports deodorant miles away – through walls and doors!) and a great big appetite (although I suspect this was more of my sweet tooth using the pregnancy as an excuse to binge…oink oink!).

Of course, being the constant worry wart that I am, I just had to check with trusty mr googles – and lo and behold, I found something to worry about: apparently, women who suffer less morning sickness or none at all, are three times more likely to miscarry than those who did!! Oh great…I don’t know why I find things to worry about. And so, worry I did for those first few months.

And before I knew it, my little blob turned into a slightly more distinguishable blob with a head and a body!

This is the little angel at just over 11 weeks (and 3 kgs on! oink oink again!). Only then did it really hit me that I was pregnant and my angel was here to stay.

And that’s how I breezed thru the first trimester...

first timer

this is my first attempt at blogging my life. yes, a blogging virgin, you might say. well, not entirely true - i started a few times but never got past the design stage. every single time, it felt like it was too time consuming. plus i wasn't too sure that others would really want to read about my life, and even if they did, would they even find it remotely interesting to keep them coming back for more? let's just say, it's not exactly bradelina or tomkat material!

now however, recent events in my life (well, actually just one main one) has left with quite a bit of time to spare. some self-imposed me-time more like, that really has got me thinking about life in general, where i come from, where i've been, where i'm headed, and where i'll end up. and all because of:

yes, that little blob you see is my little angel at 7 weeks, taken on 25 july 2006. i know it doesn't look like much but it's inside me and well...it's caused several changes to my life thus far. both good and bad.

don't get me wrong - this doesn't mean my life is a lot more interesting now. it just means i have a lot more time. a lot more than i did before and i reckon a lot more than i'll ever have again once the lil one arrives.

and who cares if no one reads my blog. it might be healing and do me some good ;)