Sunday, December 31, 2006

sleepless nights ...


Salam 'eid mubarak to all. Hoping everyone had a pleasant 'eid at home or anywhere you are fi hifzillah. We celebrated 'eid in S'oton last Saturday and seems like it was merrier than 'eidul fitr, as told by the others. There were even more Malays attending the 'eid prayer and there was 'makan-makan' as usual at Kg. Broadlands. Seems like everyone's back from the winter holidays. And people back home in Malaysia celebrate it today with Qurbans and a wedding soon InshaALlah. Kak Diana is already married to a Kelantanese guy and they'll be having a reception at the groom's hometown on the 2nd day of the New Year InshaAllah. Barakallah lakuma wa feekuma wa jama'a bainakuma fil khayr. That's a very merry 'eid isn't it? :)

But, the three of us celebrated 'eid "quietly" at home, all because of the false alarm! ;)

We slept really late on the night of 'eid after cooking some raya delicacies when I started to experience discomfort and pain. MashaAllah, We thought the little fella was about to 'come and celebrate' 'eid with us three. But he/she didn't turn up. Nope. Not yet. It was just another 'drill' I guess. We stayed home all day and life goes on with a lesser 'eid feeling. Too restless and tired. Nobody had enough sleep. And too excited in a way, not knowing what's up next.

Nevertheless, we had three visitors in the evening. Lucky them and us too Alhamdulillah, there's food to be served and enjoyed by everyone. Not to forget the special 'pink' ketayap/kuih dadar with white coconut filling : well, we didn't plan to make any and there were no green colouring nor brown sugar to make it look the way it should. It was our first trial which was a success, hamdanlillah! :) Taste matters, right? It's abuhandzalah's favourite and I'm happy that at last, I can prepare it from my own kitchen! Err, of course with abuhandzalah's skillful technique of spreading the dough (men'dadar'kan bancuhan kuih) in the pan, as I'm a bit 'tak gheti guano' to make it nicely round and thin. Huhu, just like the way we made English pancakes. I'll get all the ingredients ready mixed and he'll do the rest. He's even better at handling the really really thin popiah skins the first time we made our own too. Aiya, I need more training with my hands-lah ;)

Poor Handzalah who hasn't been anywhere much lately. The weather hasn't been good for walks in the park and ummi hasn't been that well for long journeys. He had so much fun after my last visit to health center last week, when we stayed at the uni's park for a while to let him run around and watch the ducks enjoying the cold flowing water in the pond! One of those flying creatures flew on top of our heads and Handzalah was really stunned! He was laughing and mentioning "duck", "duck" all the time. He likes it so much whenever we walk down to the university (and up home) especially during these holidays when there's not many people around; dunia ini aku yang punya! He'll be running around without anything to worry about. We usually let him free on his feet which usually capture's the public's eye with all smiles and sometimes "HI". Well, he's that friendly little guy that passes a bit spark to everyone, the person you'd like to run into during the gloomy days with dark skies. :) There's one time he walked pass an old man and he told us with a loud voice and a big smile, "The little man is marching" ... aha, he is! "Marching" ahead with all positive thought in his head and heart, I think, and I do believe. Isn't it nice to be like a kid, with the least to worry about and the most to be happy of?

Lately, Handzalah has learnt not only to give cuddles and kisses upon requests but he's offering and requesting them from us! Usually before he falls asleep or if he's up before bedtime ends and he needs to sleep back, he'll call for ummi and abi, saying "pewuk" (peluk/hug) or "shium" (cium/kiss) with his two hands and cheek ready for action. I'm thinking of the moment I'll need to leave him with his favourite 'kakak-kakak', that's when we'll be in labour ward! Will he be fine? May ALlah ease everything and make him happy always. I hope we won't need to be in the hospital that long. Though, I know he's always excited and will have so much fun with them around. He'll always fall asleep in the car after we left their place because he'll be all busy entertained and entertaining! He'll be playing here and there, this and that, calling their names and forget ummi's there too ;). We just gave 'kakak-kakak' a raya visit before maghrib today and we stayed until 9pm! Simply fulfilling his everyday request - wanting to see them! :) Hoping to keep him occupied and happy having another little fella around. Thinking of a proper timetable to get him to the library and playgroups when I'm all well InshaALlah. I don't think the little playtime and learn we're having at home now is adequate for his development. Well we do mix around with other families and children, but as he's growing I just hope I can cope and do enough things (if not more) for his growth.

Sleepless nights ... I think it's very much usual for new families to have them or everytime there's a newborn. Or in some cases, married life requires you to stay awake for a lot of reasons and most of them - to care for the people you care most about! Well, during pregnancy it's quite a normal syndrome, where mothers-to-be experience sleepless night and restless mornings. Sometimes you just can't sleep and most of the time the discomfort deprives you from a good one. That's part and parcel of motherhood, and parenthood too. Mothers and fathers will be 'zombies' for nights and weeks before they adapt to their new roles and responsibilities. But it's not something that starts or ends during early babyhood, those sleepless restless days might recur whenever any of your beloved ones - especially the little helpless fellas - fall sick or had trouble sleeping. We had that problem with our little boy before. He slept well during the first two weeks but we still had to wake up for changing and feeds and nurse him in the hospital when he had jaundice in the 2nd week. It continued non-stop through weeks and months as he was colicky and later on developed a problem of adjusting his sleep in the proper hours at night. My husband had to buy us lunch everyday because we never had the chance to sleep well at night and therefore in the morning, I'm all tired and exhausted. He'll be going to work with a tired sleepy face. Only until he's weaned off the breastmilk totally that the sleeping problem really went away but alhamdulillah it was better after hist first birthday. I would say the colic had an effect on his sleep and so did our journeys and travelling. I remembered reading and listening to the Health Visitor's/GP's saying that he'll never be able to settle until we settle down - from moving - FIRST! So to all parents wannabe, plan well please :). I know it's not easy, we've had changes in our original plan due to things happening beyond our ability to discard them and therefore THE CONSEQUENCES!

Nevertheless, I hope our countless, sleepless, restless nights will be accounted for as good deeds that will be rewarded with pleasure in the eyes of the Almighty ... Ihfadzillaha yahfadzka!

salam 'eid mubarak to all and forgive us for our weaknesses and wrongdoings.

* read about colic

4 comments:

bAiTi said...

Hope everything will be fine for the three of you, insya Allah. Dah bersalin dah kut Nurin skrg ni.. Tahniah from us se'family';).

lukluk said...

kak baiti, jazakillah. BUT SERIOUSLY, baby masih happily moving inside :) ALlah Knows Best.

fahdrazy said...

salam kunjungan...tahniah atas kejayaan dalam sayembara. moga terus menulis!

Salam Tahun baru (hijrah!)

lukluk said...

salam ukhuwwah fahd. terima kasih atas kunjungan serta bantuan melanjutkan karya ana ke sayembara. I would have withdrawn my entry without ur help. Moga istiqamah mencurahkan dakwat pena demi da'wah :)