Monday, March 26, 2012

Ketidakselesaan Bayi, Mengapa dan Bagaimana.

*Berdasarkan pengalaman saya.

Sewaktu dalam tempoh berpantang, kebiasaannya apabila bayi tidak selesa disebabkan apa jua sekalipun satu-satu reaksi yang diberikan adalah menangis seperti mahu menyusu. Padahal baru sahaja menyusu dengan banyak sekali. Akibatnya, ibu yang mahu menenangkan bayi tadi menyuakan lagi susu kepada bayinya dan bayi akan meminjm sambil menangis atau meronta atau meminum susu sehingga memuntahkan separuh atau kesemua susu keluar akibat terlalu banyak menyusu.

Ya. Saya juga melakukan kesilapan yang sama.

Setelah dicuba beberapa kali, rasanya mungkin cara ini dapat membantu ibu-ibu dalam menenangkan bayinya yang menangis akibat tidak selesa.

1) Sekiranya memang sudah sampai waktu menyusu (setiap 2-3 jam), berilah susu kepada bayi tanpa ragu-ragu.

2) Sekiranya bayi masih gelisah atau menangis, pastikan perut bayi tidak kembung atau ambil langkah sewajarnya sekiranya bayi kembung. Sekurang-kurangnya saya akan sapukan minyak bayi sebanyak dua kali sehari, iaitu pagi dan petang, di perut dan belakang bayi.

3) Jika tiada tanda-tanda bayi akan tenang, pastikan pula lampin bayi tidak basah atau kotor dek kencing atau tahi. Tukar sekiranya perlu.

4) Jika masih lagi tidak selesa, pastika pakaian bayi tidak basah atau apa sahaja keadaan tidak selesa. Juga mungkin berkaitan dengan suhu (gantikan pakaian yang sesuai dengan suhu pada ketika itu).

5) Dan sekiranya bayi masih lagi tidak senang, ada kemungkinan puncanya adalah kerana bayi sebenarnya mengantuk dan tidak dapat melelapkan mata sendiri atau terperanjat akibat bunyi kuat. Peluk dan dodoikan sehingga tidur bayi anda, inshaAllah. Boleh juga dibacakan ayat-ayat Al-Quran yang sesuai, semoga Allah memudahkan tidurnya. Posisi menidurkan (dukung, pangku dan sebagainya) bayi juga perlu pelbagai kerana satu-satu gaya itu mungkin "laku" kali ini dan tidak pada waktu lain. Setelah betul-betul lena (mungkin dalam 15 minit), letakkan bayi di atas tilam pada posisi meniarap atau dibedung jika terlentang untuk tidur yang kurang terganggu (berkesan pada anak-anak saya).

Untuk perkara 5, ada yang berpendapat tidak harus dibiasakan bayi untuk tidur dengan didodoi atau dukung. Pada saya, dalam tempoh berpantang, bayi masih lagi belajar menyesuaikan diri dengan dunia baru dan masih rasa tidak selamat. Pelukan dapat membantu bayi tadi lebih selesa. Dan keadaan ketidakselesaan bayi bukannya terjadi sentiasa, oleh itu sewaktu bayi tidak meragam, boleh ditidurkan bayi dengan cara yang anda rasa tidak akan menyukarkan ibu bayi di kemudian hari.

InshaAllah.

Till then.

Sunday, March 25, 2012

Not That Bad, Lah.

I might sound a bit negative, offensive in my previous entry regarding my confinement lady but it was actually not. It's just because I've started sharing Umi's contact with some friends and I feel responsible to let them know what to expect.

And I might not be fair if I don't share about the good side of having a confinement lady around. May be I have mentioned about this here and there but let sum up the whole thing (as far as I could remember).

1) Help is always just an "Umi, mintak tolong..." away. Even sometimes Umi helps to look after Eivie when Eivie seemed restless at night. And being an experienced confinement lady (she has been doing this for 9 years now), she usually knows what to do to calm a baby down. A great relief i must say.

2) Massage and bertungku on daily basis, throughout the days when she's around.

3) I don't have to worry on what to eat, when to eat as everything will be ready up to 'senduk nasi ke dalam pinggan' and she'll do the dishes.

4) I don't have to attend the daily laundry as Umi does everything for us, including my husband's and Eirsa's, up to folding the dry clothes.

5) You will always feel accompanied and supported.

6) You'll wake up with a neat house, even though Eirsa made a great mess the night before.

7) You can stay at your own house, close to your husband, throughout the entire confinement period.

8) You don't burden your own mother and mother-in-law to take care of you and the baby during the confinement period.

So, it is actually very helpful to be having a confinement lady around, especially for those who has no choice but to go through the confinement period with no other help. It's just that you've got to tolerate with the presence of a stranger and the routines. Just focus with the positive side and the fact that the confinement period is not permenant.

InshaAllah you'll manage to get through your confinement period in good shape; physically, mentally and spiritually.

Till then. ;)

Thursday, March 22, 2012

More Information On The Confinement Lady

I've been searching for the right phrase to describe the experience of having a confinement lady staying with you, for 3 weeks. Finally, found the words;

In my case, having Umi around is more like having your mom around, not like having a maid around.

No, she's definitely not a maid but she could sometimes make you feel uncomfortable as if you are having your mom's around to ask you, "Ana, makan.", "Ana, mai urut.", "Ana, mai tungku.", "Ana, makan ubat apa tu?".

Well again, I understand that she WAS HIRED for that; to take care of you. But some of us just don't like to be "monitored" in that sense, at least not at this age of 31 years old. But since those are for my own good, then I have to face them all. Afterall it's just for 3 weeks, and as of today, I've passed the 2 weeks milestone. Just another 1 week.

Another thing, may be it's just me, some of the things that she does might not be the same as per what I usually do, but I feel like it is not easy to tell her the right (or my?) way of doing it. It's because she's an elderly and I don't want her to feel uneasy with my words. It's not easy to tell your 'mother' what to do and what not to do, right? Again. It's just temporary, so I chose to just let it be. I'll re-do once she's no longer with us. Not really a big deal actually.

Other than that, she's such a great help for us. She's supposed to take care of the mother and baby only but she also help around with husband's dirty laundry, putting all Eirsa's chaotic tous all over the house and sometimes swipe the floor.

I feel like sharing this as if I'm giving any one of you the contact, at least you know what to expect.

Till then.

Wednesday, March 21, 2012

My Second Labor

Eirsa was born via c-section procedure due to no progress after 16 hours of labor (may be around 6 or 7 hours of active labor), overdue and that Allah wanted to help me by having cysts removal during the same procedure.

This time, I'd set my mind to try to go for normal delivery as I want to experience the true labor, plus if I had c-section this time, I could no longer opt for normal delivery for the 3rd labor and of course it's easier in terms of financial. The EDD was 1 March 2012.

I started bleeding (quite a lot) on 29 Feb 2012, around 4am. But the contractions were not progressive; perhaps some mild contractions every 8 minutes. We went for check up at 12pm and I was only 1cm dilated. My gynae advised us to go back home and return for admission at 9pm.

At 9pm, I registered for admission with still on and off contractions. I was still bleeding, like normal menstrual. But as advised, I stayed in the labor room for that night, without my husband, as he had to take care of Eirsa (my parents-in-laws were not around until 1 March 2012). Throughout the night I surprisingly had uninterrupted sleep, due to mild and inconsistent contractions. The bleeding still continued.

Gynae paid me a visit in the morning 1 March 2012, but as expected, the progress was still the same. She then gave us time out so that I could take some good walk to promote the contractions and we would need to 'check in' later at 3pm that day. My husband and I managed to run some errands and I feel almost no contractions at all until we returned back to the labor room. So I asked my husband to have a good rest at the nearby hotel since it was impossible to sleep comfortably in the labor room. We need him to be refreshed in the next morning. I would definitely give him a call if it's the time.

12am, 2 March 2012. Strong contractions started every 1/2 hour and every 10 minutes starting at 4am. I told my husband to come at 9am after he had checked out and had his breakfast. Gynae came at 8am and I was 2cm dilated. A small by relieving progress. Gynae then broke my water, to urge the contractions and instructed the midwives to induce me with 1/2 dose. I requested to first monitor the contractions as I as far as possible would not want to be induced. But the contractions seemed back to mild contractions every 10 minutes. With that kind of pattern, I had no choice but to be induced. With slower flow, my contractions were strong but every 3 minutes. Gynae instructed to fasten the flow to reach the 2 minutes elapsed time contractions and that when my fear of being induced started.

The contractions were every 1+ minute and the pain was, I must say, triple than the natural contractions. I could bear the natural contractions alone earlier, but with induction, even with my husband around, I could not handle the pain. It was too painful that I was all sweating and shivering every single time. So we opted for epidural. But I have to wait for 3 hours with the extreme pain for the epidural since the specialists were all occupied. And it was a long long long 3 most painful hours in my life.

The epidural was finally installed at 12pm and I could finally had my lunch. At 1pm I was attached with CTG and the reading was frightening.

Baby's heartbeat dropped to 70 beats per minute (bpm) every each contraction (which was every 1+ minute) as compared to the baseline of 110 bpm (low) - 160 bpm (high). The reading was only back to normal when the drip was removed. But without induction, my contractions progress was back to mild and every 10 - 15 minutes. And my water was slowly reduced. All readings were sent to my gynae for her analysis and further advise.

At 2pm my gynae came and checked for my dilation; I was only 3 cm dilated. It was after 5 hours being induced, resulted to very strong contractions every 1+ minute and dangerously low baby's heart rate during each contraction. She said that it was too risky to wait for full opening, especially with the poor baby's heart rate. And we had to reluctantly say yes for another c-section procedure.

And alhamdulillah. Everything is safe now. It was a tough decision but it was a must. God knows best. :)

Till then.

Tuesday, March 20, 2012

A Little Help

Yep, this time I have my 40 confinement days in my very own house, in KL. The confinement lady (Puan Umi, she asked me to call her Umi; Umi is 'mother' in Arab) arrived on day 10; the first 4 days I was still admitted while day 5-9 my mother was around taking care of me.

You see, the ambiance of having either my mother or Umi around is more or less the same, since Umi is about the same age as my mother and their motherly style of running the house is the same. The help offered is the same too; both of them will cook for me, take care of the house chores, take care of the baby and those stuffs. Except that my mother will voice out anything that she found more suitable for us and the house while Umi is more reserved. Oh. And the one of the main reasons why I hired a confinement lady is for the post-natal services; berurut and bertungku.

Since I also had c-section for this second delivery, all berurut and bertungku processes are customized to suit my condition. During weekdays, I'll be having my first berurut and bertungku session in the morning (at my very own time, no curfew) and a repeat in late afternoon. During weekends, since Eirsa is around, I could only commit to those post-natal care once a day only.

It has been 8 days of my post-natal regime. So far I feel better (but I still believe as long as you have sufficient rest, eat and drink, you should feel better after 2 weeks of delivery, regardless you are undergoing the berurut or bertungku processes or not), more energetic, my wound is healing good and I feel relaxed. Except that sometimes I feel like I want to skip the bertungku process since it can be time consuming and sometimes hurtful (due to the heat). But since we've made the deal and Umi needs to be around until end of the month (my PIL will not be around for 3 days next week so we cannot afford to not be having Umi around during that period) and that I want to look good after the confinement period, so yes I'll undergo everything without (or may be a little) much complaints.

With Umi's around, the daily routines are :

1. Wake up at anytime that I want but usually around 7-8am.
2. Pumping time! Manage to get 4 oz for each pumping session, alhamdulillah.
3. Eivie will be bathed by Umi while I'm having my breakfast; 1 big mug of hot Horlicks, with cream crackers or oat. Umi used to prepare those for me but now I'm making my own breakfast.
4. Umi will then cook for us. My husband will later buy his and Eirsa's dinner as both of them are not fans of 'hari-hari makan nasi'.
5. Have my berurut session then head to hit the warm shower-aaah-so-good.
6. Have my 1st bertungku session and berbengkung. Not a fan of bengkung as it makes me uncomfortable (in terms of sitting position) to feed Eivie. But bengkung makes my tummy feel firmed.
7. Lunch at 12pm.
8. Have my 2nd bertungku session and bengkung re-wrap around 5pm.
9. Have my afternoon tea; Horlicks and cream crackers.
10. Eirsa will be home by 5.30pm, fetched by my PIL.
11. Have my dinner around 7-7.30 pm.
12. Take of my bengkung before bed since I want to sleep comfortably and it's easier to feed Eivie.

Repeat the next day.

So far I'm ok with the services. Umi also helped with our clothes (husband's and Eirsa's too) and dishes. It's just that she focuses too much on me getting back on shape, which is good, but could also sometimes be tiring. Still, it's going to be 3 weeks only and I've already made it half way.

Oh, another negative side, since our house is small, having a stranger around could sometimes be not comfortable for my husband and my father-in-law.

Till then.

Saturday, March 17, 2012

Hi Everyone! It's Day 16 Already!

At 1515 hours, March 2nd 2012, I was born!

Mommy can't wait to share her whole experience but she is still adjusting with the confinement routines. But I promise you, I am a good girl and didn't give her hard time.

Till then. Muah.
Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...