Mum Of Four

The last time I blogged was back in July 2013, when I was still a mother of 2. And today, I have great news to tell. I am now a proud mother of 4 beautiful children! 

A lot has happened in the last 20 months. Mia has grown into a bright, bubbly colourful little toddler. She is truly adored by her daddy and she wraps him around her little finger. Let’s just say, she is the queen of the house 🙂 I’ll write a separate post about her soon, promise! 

  

2014 was a great year for the family, we were blessed with good health, an easy going pregnancy and plenty of family holidays. I dont know how to sum it all in one short post but I will do my best. 

I guess the highlight of 2014 was when we went for Umrah in April. It has been lingering on our minds for a long time but we didn’t have the heart to leave our very young children behind. Then came an excellent opportunity when mum offered to mind the children in Dublin. Without hesitation, I immediately booked our trip and at the very last minute, I decided to bring Aidan along and leave the other 2 behind. 

  

             Aidan was a complete champ and although he was only 4 at the time, he completed 7 rounds of tawaf and saei with ease. Allah made our journey so smooth that we were even given an upgrade to a suite upon arrival at the hotel. 

  

   

 

Our 307 suite had fantastic views of Haram and Allah made it so easy for Aidan. The hotel was a just a stone’s throw away which made it easy for us to bring Aidan for daily prayers. I hope one day we will be invited again and this time with the whole family. 

Upon returning to Dublin, we planned for another quick getaway with the kids. We took the kids on a roadtrip to Legoland Windsor, kids had a blast and the parents needed another holiday right after it! LOL 

   

     

We went back for raya in August and that was when we found out I was pregnant for the 4th time. When we went for the scan, the baby was already 10 weeks and the doctor gave an EDD of 27th March.

  

It was a complete shock for everyone but I guess Allah has better plans for us. We made the best of our short trip home and the kids had a great time bonding with their cousins, uncles, aunts and grandparents! 

   

 

Despite having nausea in the early weeks, I would say the pregnancy was rather smooth and I had plenty of energy until week 32. Despite feeling heavy and suffering from pelvic pain, I continued to work right up until week 37. I had plenty of Braxton hicks which gave me sleepness nights but looking back, all those practise contractions made my labour  really easy and smooth! 

  

So here we are again, the real reason why I am writing today. Allah has blessed me with another beautiful child on the 23rd of March, 2015. I was admitted into the labour ward 2cm dilated, and although I thought the labour was going to last a few hours, this little one had no patience and was so excited to see the world. He popped out of me with only one push! My labour only lasted one hour and for that I am very thankful to the Almighty.

  

These days it’s all about the kids. Of course there are days that I want to run away from the screams and cries of the children but I am so thankful that I have got great support. Hubby is really hands on with the kids, Mum is here to help me with the confinement and our live-in Nanny takes charge during the day.  Raising 4 kids below the age of 5 is not exactly a bed of roses but I would not trade my role as a mother for anything else in the world 🙂

  

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The Pregnancy

It’s time for another flashback 🙂

I found out I was pregnant some time in October last year, a few days before Aariz’ 1st birthday. I cant remember the exact details except that I kept the news to myself for a few days before breaking it to hubby. I knew he was gonna be in for a shock, so I kept dropping him hints that whole week. When I finally told him, he was ecstatic although he did say ‘I thought we were only planning to have two!’ Hehe. Yes, we were very happy with the 2 boys but I guess Allah has better plans for us.

At the end of October, we held a simple 1st birthday celebration for Aariz and there I was in my early stages of pregnancy with very few symptoms apart from very bad mood swings. In my heart, I couldn’t believe that Aariz who just turned one, is gonna be a big brother soon. Infact Aidan was only 3, in my eyes, he was still my little baby.

We went home early November to Malaysia to be with our families and told them the news. Everyone especially my mum, was praying our third baby would be a girl. I, on the other hand was hoping and praying for a healthy baby, this after having vivid dreams of my unborn baby that still haunts me until today. It was then, in that 3rd week of November, we decided to go for a dating scan to find out how far along I was in the pregnancy. And imagine my surprise when I found out I was already 10 weeks along and saw the little bub dancing on the screen, the pregnancy suddenly felt so real then. It then hit me, oh my! Im going to be a mother of 3 soon. The obstetrician confirmed a healthy fetus and gave me an EDD of the 7th June 2013.

We went back to Dublin and life continued as usual. I went back
to work but kept the pregnancy news from everyone. Mid December my SIL and her batalion arrived. We had a wonderful time showing them around Dublin. I still didnt look quite pregnant at the time as you can see from the photos below.
I think I was about 16 weeks along then.

On Christmas day, we held another party in our home and invited friends over.I ordered a big 40 euro turkey from the halal shop. It was not only big, it was HUGE and took me 4 hours to roast in the oven.

It was during that party, I broke the news to our friends that I was already 4+ months along. No one could have guessed from the belly though. And once again, everyone hoped I was carrying a girl. This was because amongst my close group of friends, we all had boys. All our mummy talk was centered around trains and cars, it would be nice to talk about dolls and ponies instead.

January, as usual, was a very gloomy and cold month. The only thing that was exciting was the winter sales.

Knowing that our 3rd baby was going to be born in the summer, all the winter bargains didnt appeal to me and plus we weren’t entirely sure about the gender. But at the same time, I couldnt help looking at all those tiny dresses and tutus. My gut feeling was, we were going to have a girl but I still played it safe.

By mid January, the growing belly was getting very obvious to work colleagues. They were surprised of course, with this 3rd pregnancy being so soon after my 2nd. Have I ever mentioned I have very understanding employers? I guess working with children has it advantages that they took my 3rd pregnancy ( in 4 years!) very well. I then started planning my maternity leave so that they could get a replacement by May. It was such a big relief to let the cat out of the bag!

On days that the sun was kind enough to come out, we brought the kids out to the park. It was bitter cold but sunny. I wanted to spend as much time with the boys before the baby came out.

February was an awesome month for us because we went on a short, well deserved holiday to Paris. When I told my mum we were going to Disneyland, she nearly freaked out and ask me a million questions. ‘How can you handle the boys’, ‘You’re 6 months pregnant’, ‘Can you stand the cold’ etc. Mum gave me a fright with her questions but I knew my body could handle the stress. My last 2 pregnancies was a breeze and back in 2011, we also made a trip to Disneyland and at that time, I was also 6 months pregnant with Aariz. The only difference was we had an extra toddler to handle this time.

People say go to Disneyland when the kids are a little bit older but I believe you’re never too young to go to Disneyland. Aariz had so much fun watching all the characters at the parades, clapping his hands and singing. Both the boys enjoyed the rides. Thank god the queue wasnt as long like in the summer months.

We were lucky that it was also Disney’s 20th Anniversary so every night, they was a spectacular fireworks display. I insisted we stayed on for the evening parade and also the fireworks at 8pm. We were literally on our feet from 9am to 10pm. I dont know where I got my energy from!

It was definitely worth the long cold wait. It was zero degrees but we came fully armed and prepared. We were warm and toasty, wrapped in 4 layers of clothing, hat, scarf, gloves.

Then came the months of March and April, meaning I was finally in my 3rd trimester. Alhamdulillah. Went for my routine scans and it showed that the baby was growing well although slightly tiny. I wasnt worried, what’s most important is the baby is fine and healthy.

We made one final quick weekend getaway with the family before I popped.

I was 32 weeks pregnant at the time and still had an abundance of energy. My apetite was growing steadily too. A lot of people commented I looked much bigger this time round. I must have been 60kgs in this photo!

Oh dear, baby is waking up for a feed. I think I’ll continue in another post. Besides, this is already very loonngg and my fingers need a break. Trust me, it’s not easy to blog with your iPhone

Until next time, toodles!

ps: And please excuse typos etc. No time to check! 🙂

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2012 – In A Nutshell

Hello 2013!

I have received many requests to update my blog. It’s been 12 months since I last wrote anything here, truth is I have a million things to write but couldnt find the time to do so.

So before I start writing about 2013, let’s do a little recap on 2012.

March

We went back to Malaysia for 3 weeks to spend time with the family and we held a small aqiqah for Aariz. Alhamdulillah, the ceremony went well. Aariz was a star, he didnt cry at all! Thanks to all of you who came that day.

Actually I have plenty of photos to share but unfortunately I’m not sure where I kept them!

April
Back in Dublin. Spring has sprung! We escaped to Fota Island Wildlife for a mini trip, just the 4 of us.

Aidan was really excited to see the giraffes.

It was really good to be in touch with nature again.

May
That time of the year again when the both of us turn a year older. Aidan’s birthday is actually 30th of April but I always take that he is a May baby. Probably because he was supposed to be due on my birthday 🙂 Brought Aidan to watch Mickey live on stage at the new theatre. He was in awe!

We made a another family trip to the Cliffs of Moher. The last time we came here was probably 6 years ago and there were so many changes to the place.

June
We made many trips to the park. We were blessed with a few
days of sunshine so it was nice to spend days out with family and friends.

My 7 month maternity leave was ending and I was due back to my regular job in July so I took every advantage to spend as much time as possible with the kids.

July
Back to my old job. Alhamdulillah the kids adjusted well with the new Kakak and everything went smoothly.
I remember looking forward to weekends because that’s the only time I get to spend time with the family.

Despite it being the month of Ramadhan, we brought the kids and Kakak on a shopping trip to Northern Ireland and Tayto Park.

Alrighty, I better try and post this first. I hope I remember my password LOL.

I will continue with August onwards once I know this post os a success. Till my next post, toodles!

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2012

We are already half way through the month of February and this is my first post for the year. I hope it’s not too late to wish everyone ‘Happy New Year’ 🙂 Truth is, I have been micro-blogging elsewhere and probably that is why this blog is neglected.

It has been a great start to the year. Kids are progressing well and Aariz has finally settled into a rather predictable routine. Daddy began sleep training him since day 1 and I have to admit training him wasn’t easy. In comparison, Aidan was so much easier and more of a textbook baby, follow a routine and he’ll stick to it. Aariz ? He’s more grumpy and it was probably because of his colic episodes. It was a difficult first few weeks but finally we have achieved some kind of success. His bedtime now is at 8pm, just like his brother. So from 8 onwards, I get to keep my feet up after a long and busy day handling the kids. Then the both of us would have a quiet dinner and catch-up on our day.

My maternity leave will be ending in April and very soon I have to start thinking about going back to work. When I left the job last October, they told me they will be looking forward to seeing me back in May and that is just 3 months away, oh my! Probably July would be a better option for us.

Truthfully, I have not been giving it much thought and him being that young, I seriously do not have the heart to leave him at the creche for very long hours. Maybe a live in nanny would be a better option.

Another factor we have to take into consideration is the childcare fees. To send one child is affordable but to send the two of them, it would certainly burn a deep hole into our pockets. So we have to do a whole lot of planning and thinking if I do decide to go back to work. I don’t know how we are going to juggle two small kids and long working hours with no help. Eeeek!

Anyway, the weather has been considerably good this year. So far we have not experienced any snow like last year, which is a blessing. I was constantly praying there would be no snow this year because it just makes life difficult!

About Aidan, he has been showing a lot of interests in animals lately so we squeezed in a trip to the zoo in the middle of winter.

It was still bitterly cold but tolerable. Aariz slept throughout the walk and Aidan kept on running because of excitement. He zonked out immediately in the car and was fully energised when we reached home, just when I needed to wind down after a long day out with the kids.

His favourite animals at the zoo were the elephants and the giraffes.

We are already thinking about making a second trip in the summer and maybe we should consider getting an annual pass for the family 😉 Took me this long to realise how much he loves the outdoors! I can see myself doing outdoor adventures with them when they’re a bit older.

Here’s another photo of him with his all time favourite – the ducks! 🙂

Aidan is doing well for a 2 year old. He knows and recognizes all the alphabets, numbers, shapes and colours. Speech is a little bit delayed but we’ll get there 🙂 The creche has helped a lot in developing his personality, he’s getting less stranger anxiety nowadays which is a major improvement on his part.

So that’s my 10 minute post, all the photos were taken by my phone so I hope the quality would be great when I publish it later. I can’t promise when I will write again, soon I hope. We will be going home in March and I can’t wait to spend quality time with the family. As he was born in the middle of winter, I think Aariz will get a big shock with the tropical heat. This time it will be extra challenging with a toddler and a baby, I just hope the both of them would behave on that long haul flight. I will try my best to update from home too.

Till then, good night all!

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December Happenings

Hello once again!

It’s already December and we will be ringing in the New Year in about 3 weeks. And as of today, Aariz is already 6 weeks old. My oh my, time certainly flies!

Mum left last week after spending a whole month in Dublin with us. She was of great help during the early weeks when I needed her most and my brothers were here too to drive us around & accompany mum. There were some days I wished my father was around to witness the birth of my new baby, had he been here, I am sure he would have been so proud of Aariz. He had hoped that my second born would be a boy but unfortunately he never made it to the day to see his grandson. Allah has greater plans for him and such is the circle of life, we will all return to the Almighty one day. Aariz’s birth has indirectly helped a lot in easing the deep pain of losing a loved one and inspired me to keep on living for his future.

Aariz is growing well and healthy despite suffering from episodic bouts of colic. On some occasions, he has left me sleep deprived with his excessive cries but I was lucky to have mum around to give me a hand, otherwise I know I wouldn’t have coped. I have also tried most remedies on the market, some have worked and some have not but I believe it would be just a matter of time before things start to improve. It’s funny how I used to help other mums and now my own baby has colic!

The daddy is also strictly training Aariz just like he did with Aidan. This book has been our bible and we hope to achieve success in a couple of weeks. I could really do with some proper sleep.

The two brothers are also getting along well now. There was a period whereby Aidan threw tantrums out of frustration for 3 whole days! I think the whole big brother experience became too overwhelming for him that he could not control his emotions. So screaming was his only outlet.

But alhamdulillah now, his meltdowns are much less and under control. Aidan has come to realise that he will be stuck with Aariz forever. Yes Aidan, you are brothers for life!

And did I ever mention how difficult it is to ferry a toddler and a newborn in the middle of winter? I get exhausted trying to bundle the two of them even before leaving the house! We have since ditched our single stroller and bought a tandem. Hubby keeps calling it a tank due to the sheer size of it. LOL

As for me, I am feeling slightly more energetic although not entirely 100%. Looking at the mirror, I still look like I haven’t given birth but the weighing scale is telling me otherwise. Suprisingly, I am now 1kg short of my pre-pregnancy weight. For some reason, I am not excited over the loss as I would love to shed an extra 4kg!

So that’s my life in a nutshell. My energy nowadays is 100% focused on the kids that I find it hard to blog at the end of the day. But I promise to write here on the good days when I have something interesting to tell.

I will be right back folks. Good night!

ps: Thank you for all your lovely
comments in the last post. As you know, I find it difficult to reply from my phone 😦

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The Birth of Baby Aariz

Hello people!

It’s good to be back and I hope to get this blog up and running again. It seems that time is a luxury nowadays that I hardly have time to do anything. The last few months have been really challenging and hopefully I will get the chance to write about the events that have been happening in my life recently.

But let me start with the birth of our new baby. He is already three weeks old today and I can’t believe I have not announced his arrival here.

So let me introduce to you baby Aariz. He arrived at 2.07pm on the 26th of October, on a beautiful Wednesday afternoon.

He's finally here!

I didn’t spend many hours in labour and for that, I am very thankful. My waters broke at 4am early Wednesday morning and my contractions came on full force soon after. I took my time getting ready by taking a really long hot shower. The hospital bag was already packed with my delivery nightgown and robe, slippers, baby’s coming home outfit, Aidan’s gift from the new baby and other essentials. We left for the  hospital at 8am after sending Aidan to school and arrived at the hospital just before 9am. I had the CTG and a VE confirmed I was 3cm dilated, by then the pain was already unimaginable and  I was then whisked to the labour room.

The Delivery Bag

The minute I arrived at the labour room, I was so happy to see so many familiar faces. Jackie was my midwife and I knew her from work,  she was absolutely brilliant with me throughout the labour giving me plenty of encouragement and support. Hubby was kept busy giving minute by the minute update to the family back home via whatsapp and phone calls. At one point, it certainly felt like the whole family was in the labour room with me even though they were thousand of miles away. LOL. Mum did freak out for a while because she was not expected to fly until that Saturday, so I had to reassure her that everything was going to be okay. Now isn’t it supposed to be the other way around?

When I was in labour with Aidan, I barely had any pain but this time I was off the wall in pain that I could barely talk or walk every time the contractions came on. I knew epidural was the only was to go from here on and it was such a big relief  after getting it. Time flew by so quickly in the labour room – Jackie herself was 30 weeks pregnant with her first so we had so much to talk about. Before I  even realised it, I was already 9.5cm dilated by 1 pm. I started pushing and after several attempts, out came Aariz  – arms flailing, wailing loudly at 2.07pm. They put him in my arms and suddenly all the pain went away. He weighed 2.610 kg, tiny and healthy with the cord around his neck just like his big brother.

So let me put photos from now on:

Day 2

Day 5

Day 7

Little Brother

Big brother, who refuses to smile for the camera!

And finally,

Bye bye baby bump! 🙂

I will try to write again soon when I have the time. I am slowly adjusting being a mum to a newborn baby and a hyper active, super demanding toddler. And even though I have not slept well the last few weeks, I still feel lucky, privileged and blessed at the end of a long tiring day. Alhamdulillah.

Happy Ramadhan!

Today is the first day of Ramadhan and coincidently it’s also a public holiday here in Ireland. The other half unfortunately is oncall and busy saving lives 🙂

I last blogged over 3 weeks ago. Work has kept me busy and every day the both of us would rush home to pick up Aidan from creche. The usual routine coming home would be me in the kitchen making dinner and the daddy entertaining Aidan and getting him ready for bed.

Aidan loves his routine so we make sure we stick by it. He’s usually in bed by 8pm and the best thing about him is that he doesn’t need any help falling asleep. Just put him in the cot, give him his favourite bunny, switch off the lights and walaaa! He will sleep right up to 6 or 7 am the next morning giving us plenty of ‘we’ time. Another thing about this boy is he’s not fussy when it comes to food. He eats anything and everything that I have to keep a very close eye on his weight. It really does worry me sometimes that he’s constantly hungry. But other than that, I really hope the next baby is as easy as him when it comes to sleep and meals.

Nowadays I am so tired at the end of the day that I just want to do nothing and that is why I hardly blog. Work is one thing, keeping up with an active toddler and at the same time making sure we eat home cook meals daily leaves me no time for anything else. Some days I wish I have extra help in running the household but to be honest, it really is manageable if you organise wisely.

Anyway, last week we had a break from the daily grind and had a great time entertaining my aunt and family. I owe you those photos too.

Till then, Selamat Menyambut Bulan Ramadhan! It’s 18 hours of fasting for us living in the Northern Hemisphere. Lucky you people living near the equator 😉

Ps: Sorry for not replying any of your comments in the last post. Busy 😦

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What’s New

I’m back working in a 9-5 job which is a blessing for any doctor out there. So no more 30 hour shifts for me! I don’t know how I managed to survive the last couple of months, running to emergencies in the middle of the night and sometimes only having 2 hours of sleep.

But despite having to work from 9-5 today, I still came home mentally exhausted and hungry. I have more responsibilities now so work can be pretty intense in that short period of time.

I know I should be putting up the Disney photos. I was going to put it up over the weekend but the weather in Dublin on Saturday was so beautiful that we decided to go out to the city. It’s been quite a while since we had a good family outing.

We have been having so much ice cream the last few weeks because of the bright sunny weather. And suddenly on Saturday, Aidan decided he’s had enough!

So here I was with a big treat for him and he couldn’t be bothered. Aidan was more interested in watching Pocoyo. Some days I feel like throwing the iPhone away! I’ve been trying to wean him off it but to no avail. He’s hooked! So now, I vow never to introduce him to any games console till he’s done with university 🙂

Anyway, mummy was left with that gigantic ice cream. So as you can see from the picture below, every inch of my body is expanding, not funny.

The daddy however, remains fit and dandy 🙂 He hates this picture I took of him but I’m putting it up anyway.

Anyway, I’m looking forward to next week. My aunt, uncle and cousin will be paying us a visit so, we hope to bring them around the usual spots in Dublin. Can’t wait to meet them 🙂

Till then, night night. Will write soon.

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Busy As A Bee

Ever since we came back from Disneyland, we have been really busy. Everything around us seems to be needing extra care and attention – the lawn, the house, the cat, the 2 cars and not to forget that little active kid, Aidan!

Then at one point, I decided to put all my stress away and watch 24 episodes of Nora Elena and that was when my life went even more haywire. I am so glad I got that out of the way now 🙂

Within the last 7 days I have done 3 back to back oncalls and this morning I woke up feeling miserable even after having a full night’s sleep. So I think I better listen to my body and take it easy from now on. The belly is growing exponentially and finally colleagues at work are coming up to me to congratulate! I find that funny because I’ve been around these people for the last 5+ months. I guess I’ve hidden the bump quite well 😉

Anyway, I will be moving to a more permanent 9-5pm job come July. I hope I’m making the right decision by taking up that offer. I had an informal meeting with the consultants and they have given me a list of my responsibilities for the new job. Hubby thinks I should take the challenge eventhough I will be heavily pregnant towards the end of summer. As I said before, Aidan will always be my number one so it took a whole lot of thinking.  3 offers came up without me applying for any of them and this must be rezeki for the baby in the belly. But then again, the shortage of doctors in Ireland is getting really serious that hospitals are hunting doctors down, hubby too was given 2 similar offers. Things were so different back then whereby foreign doctors struggled to secure any kind of post. I was fortunate to always have a job along the way.

My colleagues heard that I was leaving and they were so kind to give me a card and a little treat.I will be leaving the place with a heavy heart because honestly, it has been one of the best paediatric units that I’ve ever worked in. Brilliant hardworking Consultants that are approachable 24/7 and I aspire to be like them one day, insyaAllah.

Anyway, I came home from work yesterday and found Aidan’s artwork in his school bag. He was so proud of it!

I don’t know whether I should laugh or cry at the picture. He’s only two so it’s not all that bad, I will give him another year to improve 😉

ps: Disney photos coming next!

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Paris Part 6

It was drizzling and gloomy when we left the hotel this morning.

We were hoping to go to Disneyland today but the weather was against us. So Aidan has to wait another day before meeting Special Agent Oso – He’s been muttering Oso all week! Tomorrow’s forecast looks more promising though so we’re hoping for the best.

We made a trip to the Disney Store earlier and the children got super excited seeing all the toys. Aidan quickly grabbed a pair of mickey ears and wouldn’t let us take it away from him. I have to say those ears didn’t come cheap.

We also went to the outlet and got a few good bargains. I wasn’t really interested in handbags so I think hubby was the happiest shopper today 😛

Anyway, it’s good to be back in this beautiful city. I have to admit I have a soft spot for this place and probably that’s why we keep coming back.

Eiffel Tower, Oh la la!

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