Sketches of Life|Life Lived in Simplicity

Our family maid left us last Sunday to visit her terminally ill mom in Indonesia. We let her go for a month. Whether she will return or not, only God knows. We have nothing to hold her back because she just worked for us for 8 months. Anyway, this is not the first time, I am maidless. I had it tougher when I only have 4 children coz at that time, I do not have a single helper. Not even my mom. This time, I still have MIL, SIL and BIL with me. Even though they are not well (both just after surgery), they helped a lot in keeping an eye on my children when I am busy with housework and homework (my children’s).

The first 3 days was very tough for me. I almost broke down but thank God, He strengthen me. With only 4 hours of sleep on Sunday, followed by 5 hours on Monday and finally I got my 6 hours on Tuesday, I almost fall sick due to lack of sleep. When I need my husband the most, he is always not there. Why lar? I am not a superwoman you know. A thought came to my mind; will it be easier if we look for mobile homes for sale, buy one and stay in it? Less space, minimal cleaning. With 5 kids, I think we will suffocate.

When I am driving and an MPV passes by, I often hope that one day, I will drive one too. Not just drive one but own an MPV. As you all know, we are a family of 7 now. Soon, our sedan can no longer fit all of us unless we drive 2 cars when we go out. Knowing our financial status, we can never afford an MPV with the current unpredictable income. I should be grateful with whatever we have and I have made up my mind that we will travel in 2 cars when the children are older. I can drive what; don’t be so pampered lar. If we need to travel out of Melaka for a holiday, we will just rent an MPV. It is way cheaper than paying installment of RM1k per month for 7-9 years!

Yesterday, when fetching my 2nd daughter from her piano lesson, my eldest tag along. She took a peek inside the piano teacher’s house. She said, “Wow! Che Che Prisca is so rich, Mommy.” right infront of her and her dad. Yikes! Later in the car, she asked when can we be rich like them. I told her to pray about it. She then told me that she wants to study to become a doctor, earn a lot of money, give to mommy and daddy, buy a big house with swimming pool and a nice car. Kids and their dream.

Hubby on the other hand is quite optimist about this. He believes that one day God will bless us and we can afford to buy an MPV. Let’s wait and pray. I’ll tell you when our prayer has been answered.

A few days ago (on Tues if I’m not mistaken), I was given the opportunity to feel what my baby felt when he got a bump on his forehead. Can you see the scar on his right forehead? I think, that’s the 3rd scar at the same place! I wonder why each time he fall face first, he will get knock at the same spot.

I got almost the same scar at the same place as his but mine is vertical. It still hurts even after a few days. How did I get mine then? I did not fall down face first like he did. I knocked my head on the door right at the place where the door latch (metal) is. Ouch! All because of him lor.

I heard him fall down from the bed so I rushed in after hubby. When I saw that hubby already pick him up, I turn around to leave the room without realising that the door was half way closing. Bang! I see stars floating on top of my head. Surprisingly, I did not cry! Looks like I have toughen up after going through 5 child birth. Aiya! Small matter, give birth more pain.

Now I know how my baby felt when he got a bump on his forehead. I feel you, Baby!

On the February 12, we celebrated our 19th year Dating Anniversary. We did not give each other any anniversary gift though. Maybe next year on our 20th year together.

Tomorrow we will be celebrating our 10th year of marriage; legally. Earlier I asked hubby to plan something special for us and I will try to surprise him with unique anniversary gifts for men but he has to work this whole week because his part-time staff is not available to work at the CC this week. Furthermore, my baby is still small and I can’t leave her with my mom while we go out celebrating. I can’t plug out my boobs and leave them with my mom.

Anyway, we still have another anniversary to look forward too; our wedding anniversary on May 12. By then, my baby will be 4 months old. I am sure she can survive 3-4 hours without Mommy’s milk.

I am serious! I am planning to do threesome because both of them wants me at the same time. Dei! I’m talking about breastfeeding my babies lar.

I am tandem nursing my babies but one at the time. Lately both wants to nurse at the same time. So it has been, either one will be left crying while I nurse one of them (that is when hubby is at work) or hubby has to take one away and distract him/her until we are done.

I just browsed through the images of tandem nursing and I roughly got the idea of nursing both at the same time. The only way of nursing both at the same time is for me to sit down which I don’t really favor; tiring you know. I like to nurse lying down because I do not have to hold my baby and I can doze off too or play games on my mobile phone.

So, threesome or not? Let’s see how things go these few days.

When it comes to teaching my children to read and write, I had it easy with my firstborn. She could write, draw and colour very well when she was 4. Unfortunately, it is not the same with my 2nd girl. She is totally the opposite of her eldest sister. Many times I got very frustrated, upset and lost lots of temper when teaching her. Many times I gave up too. Hubby kept reminding me to give her time and let her be. But, she is already 6yo by then and she can’t even read. I panicked because she is going to Chinese school soon.

I blame it on myself for not eating well when I was carrying her. I blame it on the nurses at the paediatric ICU when she was hospitalised for jaundice for not covering her eyes tightly which I think is the cause of her eye problem. I blame it on hubby’s genes; he was like her too.

Now into the 2nd month of Primary One, I see progress in her reading, writing and memorizing skills. I am surprised that she could spell simple consonant. I am surprised that she got 100% for simple spelling. I am surprised that she can memorize words quite fast. Her handwriting improves a lot too. She writes neater than her eldest sister!

Surprisingly she has no problem understanding how to solve the Maths problem. That she got it from me.

She is a late bloomer and I must remind myself each day to give her time and not to push her up to her sister’s standard. Every child is different and every child is unique.

I thank God that she has understanding teachers; I told her class teacher about her learning and eyesight problem. I thank God that her class consist of 13 students only including herself; she can get lots of attention from the teachers. I thank God for the new school syllabus; it is what my daughter needed; more interaction and group projects than homework.

So far, I receive no complaint from any of her teachers (except homework not done!), so I guess she is like any other average student.

My daughter is not stupid!

Do you send thank you cards to your wedding guest? I know some of you do and I am going to get a thank you card from the recent wedding that I attended soon.

As for my own wedding, I did not send any thank you cards because we had a low budget wedding. Our wedding was planned in a very short time. So, we did not get the chance to save much for the wedding.

Her due date according to Due Date Calculator by BabyCentre and also ultrasound at 12 weeks is 11.01.11. Oh! We really hope that she will be born on that special date. But the government clinic where I go for my monthly check up gave me another due date that is on the 15.01.11. Don’t ask me why, I have no idea how they calculate my due date. It could be that I was not sure whether my last period was dated on the 6th or on the 8th so I gave the later.

Anyway, she decided to come out on the 13th! It was kinda good that she chose that day because the labor ward was kinda empty. I was the last person to give birth during that hour so I got all the attention. During labor, I was attended by 4 midwives! Because everyone was so free. hehehe.

Let’s start from the very beginning…

11.01.11 – Hubby was very anxious the whole day coz nothing is happening to me. No sign of labor at all. He was home the whole day too doing nothing except asking me, “any pain yet?” “why not we just go to the hospital?” Hello! I’m going to give birth in a GH. No labor sign, they’ll kick me out. Lots of expecting mothers who are really in labor need the labor room.

12.01.11 – Still no sign of labor. Carry my day as usual. Get children ready for school, send them, fetch them and make sure they finished their homework. Somehow, I did not manage to breastfeed my 4th child at all today. I got the feeling that this baby gonna come tomorrow.

13.01.11 – The moment the clock strikes 12, I started to feel a very mild contraction; just like period cramp when I was about to sleep. I was contemplating whether to sleep it off or check myself in. The contraction interval was half an hour apart. I tried to sleep but every contraction woke me up. Since this is No.5 already and we are worried that this baby might come out faster and easier than the rest, we left home to GH at around 2am.

2.25am – We arrived safely at the Labor Ward and I was told to change into the pink maternity gown. I don’t like wearing them; they are so huge especially the sarong.

2.45am – They need 1 hour to monitor the fetal heartbeat. New procedure I heard; they need the fetal heartbeat chart to prove that I came with an alive baby in my tummy. But then, if you come in pain; like very very painful, the doctor will check whether your OS has opened or not. Since I hardly show any sign of being in pain, they strap my tummy and left me alone listening to my baby’s heartbeat.

3.45am – After they got the reading then only the doctor inserted his thin and slender fingers (he is a skinny Indian male doctor) into you know what to check whether I have dilated or not. Opened already by 4cm. The nurse gave me enema then asked me to go clear my bowel. Then go get my stuff from the bag; baby’s clothing, diaper and pads. Then a nurse wheeled me off to Labor Room No.7. I can still walk but they insisted that I sit on the wheelchair. I think they do not want me to wander off peeping into other labor rooms. You think I want to see meh? Hear also I don’t want. Make myself even more terrified.

4.00am – A young Chinese doctor came in to clear my bladder. Thank God he was gentle and I hardly feel any pain. Then he broke my water bag to expedite the dilation of the OS. Then they called my hubby in to give me comfort when the real contraction pain starts to come.

5.00am – Started to feel some real contraction but the interval is like 20 minutes apart. OS opened by 6cm.

5.25am – The contraction is more intense but still bearable. Only need hubby’s hand to squeeze when the contraction come; 15mins interval. OS opened by 7cm already. The midwife told me to try to push whenever the contraction come to make the OS opens bigger. Then she left.

6.00am – Contraction gets more intense. I squeezed the metal railing beside my bed instead of hubby’s hand; don’t wanna his hand to turn blue black. hehehehe.

6.15am – After 3 rounds of squeezing the railing, I don’t want to bear the contraction pain anymore. Told hubby to call the midwife telling her that I wanna try to give birth. They came; 4 of them. Hubby was no where beside me coz one of the midwives is quite big size and hubby was made to stand behind her. Hubby was not able to get the full view of the birth process.

6.25am – A pale baby girl was born into this world after one continuous push. It was easy, fast and painless when she came out even though her head is 2cm bigger than her other siblings. I love the warm feeling when she slides out from my down under. This is the first time I did not cry after giving birth.

I really thank God for answering all our prayers. Fast and painless childbirth, perfectly healthy baby and extra ordinary strength to push the baby out. I also got a baby just like how I prayed that she will look like.

A few funny incident in the labor room and maternity ward which got to do with my Malay looking hubby.

1. When he entered the labor room, one of the nurses asked another nurse whether hubby is entering the correct room.

2. After I gave birth to our baby girl, one of the nurses/midwives showed hubby the toilet telling him that he can take his “air sembahyang” there to “Azan” his newborn. Hubby did not hear the nurse clearly and blur blur opened the toilet door thinking that the nurse asked him to help take something from there. After hubby left, all of them had a good laugh.

3. Before they send me to the maternity ward, we stopped at the registration counter at the labor ward to take my belongings. As hubby was carrying my bag out, the nurse at the counter asked; “Betul ke suami dia ni?”

4. At the maternity ward, one of the patients (Malay) did not believe when another patient (Malay) who has had a chat with me told her that my hubby look exactly like a Malay. When hubby came to visit, she came to take a closer look at hubby!

Anyway, this is not new to us. It happened each time I give birth there. They always got a surprised when they call out a Chinese name and a Malay man appeared.

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Here’s a link to the birth story of my other 4 children : The Birth Story of My Children.

And photos of my last 3. As for my 2 older girls, have not buy digital camera yet.

Can’t afford to buy myself sony tvs but I can afford to sew a nice shoulder bag for myself. All this while, all the nice ones have been sold. I also want a nice bag. Since I am so bored, and I need my time to fly faster, I sew 2 bags yesterday. One for my mom and one for me using the same fabric but different design. I sewn for my mom a reversible bag and for me, below…

Nice or not? I have the same design but of different fabric. Got bored using the same ones every time I go shopping.

Unfortunately, my old shoulder blade injury came back coz I over exert using my right shoulder to spin the sewing machine. Never done 2 bags in a day before but most importantly, I am satisfied and happy with the outcome of my sewing. Pain will go away slowly but surely.

This Mommy woke up late! As late as 7.03am where by she should leave home with the children by 7.15am.

My alarm went off at 6.15am but I was way too sleepy because I slept after 2am on the same day. So used to sleeping late during the school holiday. Can’t get myself to sleep early. When the alarm went off, instead of pressing the “Snooze” button, I went to press the “Stop” button. Thank God hubby’s watch alarm was set at 7am. His alarm woke me up.

Unfortunately, my children do not understand the meaning of “late for school”. They still take their own sweet time to wake up, brush teeth and get dress. I have to wake hubby up to help me hurry them up. So on the first day of school, each of us (hubby, maid and I) got them ready for school.

We managed to arrive school on time! Without breakfast though which they do not mind coz they are very excited about going to school.

Since my eldest is already in Std 2 and my 2nd girl has many friends from kindy that goes to the same school, I did not hang around or come back during recess like what I did with my eldest. I paid the fees and informed my 2nd girl class teacher about my girl’s eyesight problem then I left to send my 5yo son kindy.

My 5yo son is another independent boy. After paying the kindy fees and books, have a chat with the principal, I brought my son to the playground while waiting for others to arrive. To my surprise, my son told me, “Mommy, you can go inside the car and go home now.” I asked him whether he is serious. He nodded and told me to go home! So, I went home lar. I felt unwanted! hahahaha. My children is growing up fast.

When I went to fetch him home, the first thing he said is, “Mommy I want to go to the kindy again tomorrow. It is so fun.” Then he started telling me everything that he did on that day. My girls never do the same when they were in kindy; I have to ask then only they tell.

Oh ya! I also discovered that my eldest girl has outgrown her Size 1 school shoes. We bought 2 new pairs of Size 3 shoes for her just now.

That’s my first day of school story.