Re-learning Arabic

I learnt Arabic before. When I was in Form 1-3, Arabic was one of mata pelajaran wajib (sekolah agama kan..). I changed school for F4-5 and took science stream so Arabic was not compulsory anymore. Now how I wished I have kept on studying Arabic.

My interest to relearn Arabic surfaced for the past few years. I am also seeing people close to me learning Arabic on their own - my brother and sister in law, a colleague, even my husband has expressed the same wish. I am truly humbled by their passion coz it is not easy learning/ memorizing something new when you are already in 30s-50s.

Hubby suggested buying the Rosetta Stone Arabic Language software. While checking the website, I found a forum which suggested Arabicpod.net ie learning through podcast. Rosetta Stone is very pricey (USD179 for Level 1) while Arabicpod.net offered free lessons for beginners and USD 198 for full access until Advance level. So I'm dropping the stone and getting into the pod.

Tgh maternity leave ni, I might start the ball rolling. A colleague of mine is subscribing an online Arabic class which I find quite tedious (assignment, tutorial etc). Apa2 pun, both of us ie encouraging each other. Syok sikit :) Harap2 ni bukan hangat2 tahi ayam nye initiative.

Medical checkup and other agendas

Went to hospital today for a follow up. My pantang will be over soon OH YEAAHH! I fidgeted while waiting for my turn at the clinic, coz I did not bring the baby along and wished to be home as soon as possible for next feeding. Did not have to wait long and when the check was over (everything is A-okay), I rushed to the parking lot.
Saw a banner in the lounge area on Diabetes Walk and baru teringat about Terry Fox Run shirt which can be purchased at CARIF. Nasib baik tak masuk kereta and keluar parking lagi. Bought the t-shirts for both me and hubby. Mission accomplished!

There was another mission, to buy 1901 hotdog. Today is 19th so macam biasa ada cheap sale RM2.99 for small one and RM3.99 for large one. Not that I crave 1901 that much, it's just that I never had the chance to buy it cheap elsewhere coz the queue would be soooo long. Kat spital nye 1901, lengang je la. Angkat satu!
By the time I got home, I asked bibik about the baby. The baby was still asleep since I left for the hospital. Hah! Syukur alhamdulillah. If all went well, today will be genap seminggu berjaya BF baby 100%.

Hubby's Penang Bridge Run

I started running first. Then managed to get husband to join. So we've been running in events together. The events that he ran alone, usually because I was out-stationed last minute. That happened during PBIM12. We were supposed to run the 10K together. This year, I was on maternity la pulakkk.
For PBIM2013 we registered for 21K...hah amek kao. He's driving to Penang this evening with another friend, also running HM. Another 2 friends will rendezvous tomorrow at the event.
Worrying thing is, hubby running activities also dwindled down the drain when I'm on maternity. Ishh...tak sustainable langsung. His last event was 10K in PBSN Nite Marathon and he did a 7K last weekend. Itu ajeee? Apakahhh..
Good luck to you abang. Kalau rase mcm tak larat in the midst of run, surrender je lah heh? DNF tak pe lagi. Jangan la dah sampai Penang, DNS la pulakk. Lagi kelakar.

Post Race notes :

He did it ehehehe. He ran like 11-12KM then brisk walked all the way. Patutnya tak dapat medal lah sebab qualifying hours is 3.5 tapi agaknya byk medal lebih, officer bagi je la kott. On Sunday itself, live tracking system did not even register his total run but only indicated estimated finish time. Time-out I guessed. However, Monday showed that the system got corrected and hubby's timing was registered properly this time.

Hardcore runners may laugh or even ridicule the time, but who cares? My body, my kaki, my time eh? Hubby was happy enough, siap bawak medal to his office for bragging. He sustained no serious injury except swollen left ankle. First time jadi ni. An evidence, if he were to run HM or longer, need to loose weight or strengthen the ankle. The ankle was an old injury. He broke it while playing football like 10 years ago. For 1 year or so he had a metal with a couple of screws in his ankle bone (a nuisance everytime walking through metal detector in airports).

Baby meet Terry?

A colleague of mine queried whether I will be joining the run or not. Both of us kebetulan tengah on maternity leave but definitely the pantang will be over by then. She'll be joining, pi hangkut sumer anak, suami and baby baru.
Last year, my hubby ran alone. I was out-stationed last minute, hangin la jugak sebab tak dapat join. So this time, I am...contemplating..hmm... to jalan2. I will angkut my baby jugak lah kan, tu je yang buat pikir 2-3 kali nak join ke idak.
T-shirt is sold in several places. Lo and behold, CARIF SDMC being one of them. And I am going there early next week for my follow-up medical checkup. Macam kebetulan ke aper.

21 Dec

Just to note that we did not go for this. Balik kampunnnggg. Anyways, dapat la menyumbang by buying the shirt.

Time2 ni la nak tengok drama :)

Mengambil kesempatan cuti bersalin untuk menonton drama2 ni. Haish...time keje, takde masa nye nak nengok. Balik lambat, penat, nak layan anak lagi, waktu tayangan tak kena. I've been watching, Love You Mr Arrogant (M'sia, dah abiss), Sungkyunkwan Scandal (Kdrama), Legend of Kublai Khan (Mandarin, cerita bibik follow. Kita follow gak le). Janji Adam, Msia pun dah abis.
Tapiiii...dalam byk2 drama ni, my favourite is...

Soooo cute laa this story. It's currently phillipines hottest teleseries, has been running (still running) since July last year. Lotsa 'kilig' moments. It's a simple family story about a girl trying to be a stewardess but ended up striking a deal with a rich and handsome guy to take care of his youngest daughter, and she will be sponsored to study by the guy later on. Kelakar nengok kerenah si Maya (heroine) developing a crush on her boss. I shall miss this series bila dah setat keje, nampak gaya kena resort to pinoytube, youtube etc lah to watch this series.
Apa lagi cerita baru...hmmm. Playboy itu Suami Aku, yg ganti Love You Mr Arrogant. Baru tgk semalam. Macam kayu je hero tu...kecewa..kecewa..

Mission for Mom's Milk

By end of this week, Umar will be 6 weeks. I'm currently directly BFeeding Umar yey ! However, my milk is not yet enough. Still need to supplement with formula milk. Dah masuk 3 tin formula weh..Before this, since Umar gelojoh (mengamuk2 hokay) and my milk flow was selloww melloww, terpaksa la fed Umar with formula. Concurrently I had to pump (using Medela Pump in Style) and once amount of EBM (expressed breast milk) cukup, baru bottle fed the EBM to Umar. Terkejar2 nak pam susu. Awal2 tu depressed ooo..nangis 2-3 kali. Dah pam tapi tak seberapa yang keluar sampai bengkak susu. So bila feed baby dgn formula dgn empunya diri tgh bengkak susu...sedey la. Haishhh..

Truly, those mothers yang practice exclusive pumping (EP), tabik spring lah. Dah lah kena menyusu baby, lepas tu nak kena mengepam. Kalau nak jimat masa terpaksa la sambil bottle feed, sambil pam susu.

Now on average, I'm supplementing Umar with 2-3 bottles of formula. Once in the morning after dia mandi, maybe once late noon and once before he goes to sleep.  Kalau Umar lapaq, mau nak kena double formula feed another one late night.

Terasa geramm la jugak..eeee..I just need to cut down/ cut-off those 2-3 bottles of formula. Sikiiit lagi. 

So, tgh gigih nak meng'up' kan lagi BM. I start to take oats with my Milo during EP days. Siap beli Kjeldsen's oat cookies. Ok, ada laaa half to 1 oz milk increase everytime pumping session. I even took fenugreek for 2 days. Huhuhuhu...this one I buat sekejap je and stopped doing since I was gassy and experienced stomach cramp. Tak sempat tgk whether fenugreek berhasil ke idak. My fren tried and it worked for her very2 well..susu byk sampai tersedak2 la pulak baby dia.

Latest galactagogue I'm taking is alfalfa. This one I just started taking on Monday - Shaklee product, coupled with its Energizing Soy Protein. Tgh saspen la ni whether this will help increasing my BM.
On Monday itself, I managed to BF the whole night. Tuesday morning, managed to cut-off the FM down to only a single 2oz FM feeding at 10pm. Ughhh...so close. Maybe I need to add alfalfa dosage during dinner time.

Beli at Empire Tower. Thaks to Zai, for ID number. Oat cookies tin at the base of bottles.

Wednesday, 100% BF achieved. I'm cautiously happy about this. Hopefully this can be sustained. The 3rd tin FM still there (dah nak habis). I even bought the 4th tin. Hopefully remains unopened. Susu formula mahal ooo, tapi alangkah bahagia nya walaupun rugi tak terpakai the 4th tin tu.
Reminder : Trying to pump at night, 1-2 sessions. Umar sleeps like 2-4 hours between feedings (belum consistent lagi). Let's get a pumping session every 1 hour after he feeds, shall we? Cmon...kena gigih sikit lagi. Tapi dua mlm dok fully BF ni, tiap2 1-2 jam dia bangun menyusu. Soooo...susah sikit laa nak mengepam. Ngantuk weii plus takde susu nak dipam kut. Nyusu je takes like 30-45 mins, sometime can last until 1 hour, campur dgn masa nak menidokan dia.

16 Nov
3 days 100% BF..yey! today wud be the 4th day in shaa allah. ya allah, murahkanlah rezeki amiin. Yesterday got some scare. Umar menyusu tak henti during the day, like every 30min-1hr. Nighttime, marah2 lagi coz milk run dry? But did some reading, most probably he's into his 6weeks growth spurt. So that's why extra demand kut. Tabaaaah...! Preservere..!

9 Dec
Weeheehee..happy..happy :) Soon will be 4weeks Umar on BF 100%. I really have to thank Shaklee product. It works although with a side effect. I really believe the product helped to increase my milk but I developed itchiness on my hands and legs few days after consumption. The itch progressed into rashes - largest rash almost covered my right calf. Gatal oooo. Had to stop using them after being advised by dermatologist (yep..siap jumpa dermatologist). Funny thing is, it still itches but thankfully it's reducing.
Nasib baik susu maintain. I luuuuv my Medela PISA. Berbaloi lah beli although mahal ~RM1800. My previous pump was Avent hand pump. Why do I love this PISA? Kalau dgn Avent, I managed to get 1 letdown je and jaraaang2 dapat 2nd letdown. With this PISA, I can get 2 letdowns or ever 3rd letdown if I extended the pumping session.
So now I'm building up stock, as a preparation to go back to work. So far, I pump once a night, carca marba timing. Kalau terbangun tido and rasa penuh dada and Umar macam nyenyak je...pam le. Depending on duration of pumping, I can get 3oz. 2oz if I pump right after feeding Umar or if I have to cut short the pumping sebab Umar bangun.

MWM2014 - 16 March is the date

March...I'm hoping it would be a biiit later. Sebabnya nak join lah kan and I want to do a 10K. 6 months after delivery and doing a 10K. I'm sure super fit mom boleh je buat but saya idak le super fit.
Hmm..kena muhasabah diri aka self-assessment before I go for this. Barang nak pakai lama ek? Better safe than sorry. Early bird registration is unitl 20th Jan. Pikir2 kan lah. Alah...apa susah sangat. Don't complicate things. Kalau risau sangat, run half of the distance and walk the other half. Hokay?

I missed this year's event, so...nak jugak masuk next year huhuhu

7 Nov 2013
Registered for 10K wakakakaka. Emmm...pay attention to the left knee ok. Niggles at the kneecap (inner side) if I walked a lot ie grocery shopping je punn..

20 Jan 2014
Wooohoooo!! 10K pun dapat pendant. Makcik sukeee gilerrr !!

Mode : Berazam nak kejar limited medal jugak !