2011 has been an amazing journey for us, filled with ups and downs. We’re so thankful the year ends on a happy note for us, alhamdulillah.

Here’s to summarize some awesome moments of 2011 during my blogging hiatus.

• November Babies birthday celebration. Hi-Tea, scones and great company! Thank you Liza, Farah & Syidah for making this day a memorable one!

• Cousin Ridhwan & Nadia weds. It was unfortunate we couldn’t be there with them on their joyous occasion, but we’re extremely happy for them!

• Cousin Lilin & Hafiz ties the knot. Congratulations to the newly-weds!

• Great short getaway to Krabi (Thailand) with family and close friends! We had a fabulous time there!

• Holes in heart no more. My thirdborn, Anaqi, has both holes in his heart closed, as we found out during his recent heart scan. All praises to Allah!

While we cherish these happy times, 2011 has also given us moments of grief. We lost a cousin very near and dear to us, due to pneumonia :’(. Her demise has truly shaken our families.

Raihaniah, may Allah bless your soul and place you among the believers.

Hopefully 2012 will bring us more joy, prosperity, wealth, great health, and Barakkah from the Almighty - insyallah. Looking forward to a wonderful 2012 ahead!

‘Action tai-tai’ two years ago when Anaqi was just a little baby.

So what happened during my absence from blogville?

Friends came to visit.

05th and 6th Mar 2011 – I was still putting up at my parents’ when a couple of my old friends and BFFs came to visit, and showered baby Aqeil with gifts. Thank you lovely aunties and uncles for your generosity.

(More photos are up on Flickr here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/aprima/sets/72157626584375615/)

New ‘toys’ to play with.

10th Mar 2011 - It was the first day of IT Show 2011, P and I headed down to Suntec Convention Centre where we had plans to recce camera lenses, but were saddened when told that Canon lenses were not available for sale during the show. We then made a quick pitstop to Nubox to check on a few Apple products and in less than an hour, we were proud owners of this – an iMac! (Buh-bye Windows XP!). It comes with a 27″ LED-backlit display, 2.8GHz quad-core Intel Core i5 processor, 8GB memory and 1TB of disk space! (yes, very tech stuff, I know)

Our purchase from the IT Show 2011.

12th Mar 2011 – After my disappointment of not getting the-badly-most-wanted-camera-lens at the IT Show, P and I decided to make a trip down to Cathay Photo at Peninsula Plaza to check out a few. I heard this place sells a huge range of camera lenses at reasonable prices and they’ve got excellent sales staff. Anyway, I tried out a couple of lenses on my own Canon EOS 40D and finally decided to get…

Sigma 18-250mm DC OS HSM

… and on top of that, I added an external flash to my checkout basket.

Canon Speedlite 430EX II Flash

Guess what (or who) are the first subjects to model their first tryout?

Chak!

Such are the things that excite me! (Dresses, bags and shoes, you say? Not quite as much.)

Sister’s Engagement & Birthday!

26th Mar 2011 – Yes, my little sister Dhiah is all so grown up now. On this day, she turned 25 years of age and got engaged! (Hey, wasn’t it only yesterday she woke up for kindergarten?). Anyway, she’s engaged to a Mohd Sadiq, who seems like a nice guy. I’ve seen him twice or thrice, but I haven’t spoken to him before. But I’m so happy for them both. Insyallah, semoga pertunangan mereka kekal hingga ke jinjang pelamin. Amin.

More photos on Flickr here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/aprima/sets/72157626585172549/

Stay tune for April happenings and Housewarming entries in my upcoming posts soon.

My bro, Musli, was one of the many who had waited anxiously for the ‘A’ level results to be out yesterday afternoon (04.03.2011). According to my mom, he had received a call from his school sometime around mid-day informing him that Radio Warna 94.2FM would like to conduct an interview with him at 3pm. Mom was super excited and badly wanted me to record his interview when it gets aired.

I wasn’t sure if they were going to air him live so I tuned in and waited from 3pm (having quickly fixed my laptop speakers) but NOTHING! So I sms’ed him asking what the interview was about, and he said to tune in much later that day to Berita (news) at 5pm and 7.30pm.

HAHA!!

To those who missed Berita on Radio Warna 94.2FM at 5pm and 7.30pm yesterday, here’s a recording I took at the latter time, thanks to a last-minute installation of FreeCorder4.

Click on Audio file link here: http://chirb.it/m4JsFN

To Musli: Despite the fact that your penjodoh bilangan CMI* :p, we are still very proud of you! <3 Love, Your family.

(*CMI = Cannot Make It)

These photos were taken on Day 1 & 2 by the peeps from Peter Pan photography.

Edited: Poll will be closed end of this week (26th Feb) and results will be announced.

Re-edited (26th Feb): Poll is now closed. Majority of you guessed it correctly. The correct answer is: A) Aqeil B) Mika’il C) Misha D) Anaqi. Thank you to those who voted.

Yesterday, we had a mini celebration. It didn’t matter that the celebration was small, but we had good food and great company, and above all, everyone was happy!

It’s a little unfortunate the cake got smashed partially (thanks to Anaqi’s quick hands), but we managed to save it. LOL!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO THE THREE OF YOU!!

Much love!! ♥♥♥

Flickr photoset here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/aprima/sets/72157626093070598/

I recall him saying this the week before at the labour ward, just before I gave birth: “Bagus jugak kau beranak minggu ni eh, tak rugi tiket Cat A aku.” (Luckily you give birth this week, my Cat A tix won’t go to waste.)

HAHA. (Kongasam!)

The tickets

Here are some pics taken from the iphone. They were this close to the stage.

Then slowly managed their way through the crowd to almost the third row from the stage.

(Images resized & cropped for better resolution)

Also thanks to Sharil for the Intro video.

Flickr photoset: http://www.flickr.com/photos/aprima/sets/72157625960173199/

On 12th February (Day 7), we shaved it all off.

Now he has none!

See, he’s so “shy” that he covers his face!

Also, many thanks to Cik Idah and Paman Lan for arranging his aqiqah in Perth xoxo.

Me and my baby, Mateen Aqeil Izz

Comparing this birth to that of my previous ones, I can honestly say, this one is as tough as the ones I endured when birthing my firstborn (Misha) and second-born (Mika). I prefer the labour I had with Anaqi, despite not given any anesthesia at that time. (read here on Anaqi’s labour story: http://aprima.org/2009/05/18/welcome-to-the-world-mirza-anaqi/ )

Based on my experience, going au naturale is the way to go. No induce. No drips. You WILL feel maximum pain BUT it will be a fast, non-draggy one, as opposed to being induced. Many would say, after the third, the fourth labour should be quick and easy. Well, not quite.

I was already timing my contractions from the night before (05th Feb) around 11pm SGT. Since the pattern was irregular, I never thought I would be admitted in the wee hours of the next morning. It was when I had trouble sleeping, and kept tossing and turning in bed uncomfortably that I asked P to send me to the hospital to see if I’m already dilated. It was already around 4.45am SGT at that time. True enough, I was already 4cm dilated, and had to remain in the labour ward.

By 8am SGT, my contractions were still irregular and Dr Heng called up one of the midwives and ordered her to give me “the drip” so I will dilate quicker. The dosage started from 80mL/h to 120mL/h, and eventually the maximum dosage of 150mL/h was given.

The drip at 120mL/h.

Dejavu. Drip given, just like my 1st and 2nd labour.

Warning: What you’re about to read may contain too much info.

At around 11.30am SGT, Dr Heng arrived at the labour ward to check on my dilation progress. Since my cervix opened up at a very slow rate (it was 6cm when he arrived), he had to rupture my waterbag to quicken the dilation process even further. He then told me to inform the midwives immediately should I have the urge to push, and they’ll contact him again. I managed a “Thank you Dr. Heng. Happy New Year!” before he left the building. From then on until 12.26pm SGT, I went through a tough ordeal. The gas mask became my best friend again after a long time.

Contractions became more regular and more frequent that the pain became more unbearable that I had to request for a pethidine jab. One of the midwives had me checked and I was already 9cm dilated. She refused my pethidine request saying it’s already too late to have one. They called up Dr Heng, who then had to make a quick u-turn back to the hospital.

During the last stages, the midwives massaged my thighs excessively and asked me to blow into the gas mask several times to refrain me from “accidentally pushing my baby out” before Dr Heng arrives. I overheard one midwife telling P that Dr Heng was “around the corner, at a traffic light”, and this conversation lasted within a span of 4 massive contractions! One midwife even had to stop my baby from “emerging out” with her hands and held it there for sometime. (Okay, TMI!!)

Anyway, the doctor finally came just in time for one hard push before my newborn makes his presence

Welcome to the world, Baby Mateen Aqeil Izz!

He will have his first pediatric check up tomorrow. Let’s hope he is free from any illnesses, insyallah, and not have a repeat of what Anaqi had went through. (Read here on Anaqi’s Heart Condition: http://aprima.org/2010/02/28/anaqis-heart-condition/ )

Till my next baby update

Needless to say, the unit we chose isn’t our first choice. It would have been that one unit right opposite the stadium near the mosque, had negotiations not turn out ugly. We had high hopes on that one. In the end, it was not meant to be.

So we scouted around some more and selected our next best option. Location-wise, it is perfect. Quiet, near a neighborhood park on one side, and opposite a school on the other. It is also easily accessible to the train station, malls, market, eateries, banks, bff’s home – all via a couple of nearby walking routes.

Since we downgraded from our previous flat, space-wise,it is slightly smaller. But I feel that doesn’t really matter as long as everyone is comfortable when our home is ready. We decided to hack down a wall just to make it appear “bigger”. We also made plans to renovate the whole kitchen and bathrooms for a whole new look-and-feel.

Here’s a preview of our unit before the reno works:

Here’s a preview of the place on the third day of reno (post hacking, before layering of new tiles):

More photos on my Flickr set here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/aprima/sets/72157625979446664/

Renovation works will resume after the Lunar New Year holidays. I will be updating my photoset throughout the renovation process as and when I have new photo updates.

That’s all for now. Till my Part 2 update.