Teman Makan Siang

Bagi saya yang bekerja di kantor, waktu makan siang adalah waktu yang paling dinanti. Bukan hanya untuk memenuhi tuntutan perut yang sudah protes, tapi waktu ini adalah kesempatan untuk rehat sejenak dari depan layar komputer. Waktu makan siang juga menjadi ajang untuk ngobrol santai bersama teman-teman kantor ataupun kesempatan untuk bertemu teman lain di tempat makan yang tidak jauh dari kantor kami.

Dea's milestones

I have experienced poor internet connection for a few days at the office, which completely ruin my mood for work. Well, I think we have been very much dependent to internet lately compare to ten years ago ;). Anyway, then it’s time for procrastination :D

As motherhood begins, I realized that I won’t have much time for doing things –not to mention my me time :(. But I embraced everything with one hope that I could devote my time for Dea and our family. Speaking of being a mom, it does not make me capable of everything in a short time. I have long list of things to improve in order to make a good arrangement for our family (among others, learning to cook and better time management between hubby and Dea as well as work and domestic chores). Even though I could not managed everything well up to this point, but all I know is Dea and her father are my top priority.

There is no exact guideline in the world that could state whether children will have exactly the same progress on their physical development. Thus, there is no point of comparing one baby with another baby. Unfortunately, this could not be avoided in our society and I have experienced it with Dea. Fortunately, I have circle of parents that also have the same experiences with me and could make me calm down and rilex in raising my dear Dea. Books and internet articles are very helpful in convincing me (but not necessarily other people around me).

Anyway, whether it’s considered later or earlier, I learn a lot from Dea on how a child develop her fine motoric and gross motoric. Below is my record on Dea’s milestones, some might be missed from this list since I could not recall when and how can she develop it.

Breastfeeding Diary

“Wah, masih semangat mompa ya mbak? Saya udah nyerah, anak saya udah dikasih susu bantu”

“ Mbak dulu bisa ASI eksklusif ga mbak? ASI untuk anak kedua saya ga cukup, produksi ASIP terus menurun sedangkan saya ga bisa menyusui langsung karena flat nipple”.

Begitu komentar-komentar dari para ibu menyusui (busui) di sekitar saya setiap kali berpapasan saat berjalan menuju ruang menyusui dengan breast pump yang baru saja dibilas. Ya, buat beberapa orang saya ini sangat beruntung, dapat memompa ASI pada jam kerja dan disediakan ruang khusus untuk itu. Makanya tidak banyak yang heran jika saya masih terus dapat memberikan ASI pada Dea hingga usianya yang 14 bulan ini. Seberuntung itukah saya? Mungkin harus tahu dulu betapa tidak mulusnya perjalanan saya dalam memberikan ASI untuk Dea, tentunya tanpa mengurangi saya syukur saya atas hasil yang saya petik.

A New Page

It feels like ages since I updated this blog. Many things happened, ups and downs as I’ve experienced before. If I can recall 2010 with the word married, 2011 pregnant, 2012 having a baby girl, then I do not know what to call for 2013. My last year dilemma:  being a working mom or full time mom, is still something that comes and goes in my mind.

Starting her days as a toddler, Dea could not give me (and her nanny) any break time in a day. She likes to explore the house, going up and down of the second floor (I am thinking of installing railings to avoid her climbing up the stair without our supervision). She loves looking for the cats in front of house our while sun-bathing in the morning. She enjoy looking for lizard on our ceiling and sing the song of Cicak-cicak di dinding but always pause after saying “Cicak-cicak di” ….. I think she understands well that the lizard is not on the wall, but the ceiling :P. Anyhow, just for the sake of my sanity, I changed some lyrics of Indonesian children songs when I sing for Dea to make it more reasonable. I do not want to worry if later Dea will have argument with her friends about the lyrics ;). Seriously, I changed green balloon with blue balloon in the song of Balonku, changed the lyric of “kalau tidak bobok digigit nyamuk” in the song of Nina Bobo coz indeed she is still bitten while sleeping. Yes, it’s not as important as any parenting issue I should care about, but somehow, I don’t want Dea takes for granted something that is not logical since her early year.

Before her one year, Dea had uttered some words (popok, bobok, dada, papa, mak, mimik, etc) without any intention, but now she could intentionally ask for her milk time by saying mak-mak (I have no idea where she gets this word); imitating me saying “aduh, dadah, etc”; calling her dad (not me yet :(), grandma, grandpa, and her nanny and saying "udah" when she finished her milk/food. She understands us saying no for things she could not do, but instead, after a few weeks, turning the No to us and keep on doing it. If she’s in a good mood, she will kiss me and other people around her on both cheeks, wave good bye, give kiss-bye, and shake our hands. Interestingly, she even blushed when a boy is cheering and talking to her, I feel like getting old too fast :D. On the other hand, she will throw her tantrum if she could not do something she want like open the drawer (see? I really need to secure some stuffs before she’s able to do anything by herself).

With this recent development, I realized that I need to learn more about how to cope with her new abilities and responses. A book will probably one of its options as well as my parents’ advices. Yes, I can always find relevant articles from the internet, but somehow I missed my me time for reading books. I started to google some books on the internet but hardly found it in Gramedia Stores near my office or home. Finally, I bought two books from Kinokuniya, the first one is What to expect: 2^nd year, and another one is something related to how to stimulate toddlers development with games (completely forgot the title). I can’t wait reading all of these stuffs immediately, well, have to steal the time between work, domestic chores, and Dea. I think my commuting time will be more interesting for reading the books. I am so excited starting the year with these books (oh, and my cooking book also, yay!!). Wondering how other people starting their new page ;).

The Smashing Few Months

Time flies by, I just realized that I have become a mother for about 8 months. Though it is not a smooth journey, but I found great excitement in learning how to be a mother. After all, I’m still a new comer in this motherhood world, so just call me a trainee mom. With the breastfeeding problem in the first view months, Dea did not gain much weight compare to other babies. Yet, we (means hubby and I) discover solutions for each problem including nursing position and growth spurt, which at least have result in her gaining much more weight than usual. Even though, I did not notice any delays on her development and unexpectedly, we even managed to pass the 6 months exclusive breastfeeding period. I hope everything goes well afterwards.

 Before starting with solids, I scrutinized a few methods offered in google search and decided to feed her with homemade and healthy food. Fortunately, a good friend told me about a Facebook group on homemade and healthy baby food where we can get and share info, recipes, menu, or even consult problems on baby feeding. I also interested in applying baby lead weaning method, but will decide it later to see how Dea can cope with her first solid food. As suggested by renowned nutritionist Wied Harry (btw, I found his book Variasi Makanan Sehat Bayi is very resourceful for a first timer like me), I started her solid with fruit for the first month, then continue with carbo and vegetable in the second month, then add meat and perhaps seafood on the third month. And she has experienced papaya, melon, mango, avocado, apple, pear, banana, watermelon. Even so, only a few becomes her favorite, fruits like avocado, mango, watermelon, and melon are completely refused. I plan to add more fruit e.g. soursoup and dragon fruit later after she started to learn how to chew her food. 

Going through the second month on solid food became challenging period for me and Dea. She refuses rice, red/brown rice, potato, sweet potato, kabocha/pumpkins, carrot and only eat small amount of green bean porridge. To make it worse, every time I tried to feed her those food, she started crying even though it’s her first spoon, she even refused her favorite fruits and only want breast milk through the day. As a result of feeling hungry during the day, Dea becomes very cranky in the evening, she even did not sleep through the night and only want to breastfeed. Even after she is full, she prefers to play rather than sleep, which’s another challenge for us to get up in the morning. When I found out about her starving and refusing carbo that are definitely affect her food intake, then I decided to give her biscuit, which never fail in feeding her :(. Thank God, we could sleep through the night during this Ramadhan :). 

Apparently, feeding a baby is not as easy as I expected. It clearly loses my interest in giving her vegetables and meat. I decided to take one step behind and started again with her favorite food and gradually reducing her daily biscuit intake. Again, I did not see any setback on her growth and we give her much of tummy time as suggested by the pediatrician. Yes she could not crawl perfectly but yet has started to move her body with her stomach. We also propped her to sit but do not worry of her not sitting by herself in her 8 mos. Somehow I guess this feeding problem related to teething, but had not seen any specific signs on it. Anyway, there are so many things to learn and I hope I could get her a nanny after Lebaran, otherwise Daycare will be our only option for Dea. I’m not sure yet for letting Dea go to daycare with her unresolved feeding problem. 

Anyhow, just want to greet you Happy Fasting and Eid Mubarak just in case I have not much time to write before Lebaran.

Center of my attention

Always miss her when I am away from her

Welcoming 2012

Senang akhirnya bisa nulis lagi di blog ini. Ya, saya memang lama menghilang dari peredaran, hanya sempat blogwalking saja ke tetangga-tetangga. Tahun 2011 adalah tahun yang cukup membuat saya sibuk, duh gaya bener ya? Yang jelas siy untuk urusan kerjaan malah minim kesibukan, jadi sisi kehidupan yang baru itu yang menyita perhatian saya.

Yang jelas awal tahun lalu saya habiskan untuk menikmati masa-masa bulan madu bersama misua, mulai dari nonton midnight (kesempatan yang langka banget waktu masi pacaran), wisata kuliner (minus sushi tentunya :(), serta memasak bersama (hohoho, ini siy terinspirasi setelah nonton master chef). Kita juga berencana untuk travelling ke negara-negara tetangga, klo ini siy untuk memanfaatkan passport yang udah berhasil dibikin misua. Tapi untuk yang satu ini terpaksa ditunda dulu, karena di saat iseng nyobain testpack (maklum deh ga pernah pegang testpack sebelumnya), yang muncul malah si garis dua :). Tentunya saya mengikuti saran dokter untuk tidak terbang dulu di trimester pertama dan ketiga. Hehehe, sekarang tahu kan kesibukan saya apa sepanjang tahun ini.

Walo tidak berencana menunda kehamilan, namun si garis dua tadi merupakan kejutan untuk kami berdua. Soalnya kita udah cukup jengah dengan pertanyaan: udah telat belum? dan sejenisnya. Saya sendiri cukup deg-degan menjalani kehamilan ini, karena selalu merasa belum mempersiapkan diri. Trimester pertama dilewati tanpa morning sickness, cuma ya bawaannya capek mulu. Hal ini menghilang saat trimester kedua, tapi muncul lagi di trimester ketiga. Setelah menjalani ketiga trimester ini dan juga proses melahirkan dan menyusui bayi, saya masih belum bisa membayangkan bagaimana kuatnya ibu-ibu yang melahirkan banyak anak menjalani proses itu berulang-ulang. Ya, mungkin saja karena saya baru menjalaninya untuk pertama kali, jadi berasanya sedikit rumit.

Tapi semua kerumitan itu serasa 'terbayar' begitu melihat senyum manis putri cantik kami, Dea. Selama lebih dari sebulan terakhir ini my life revolve around her. Misua pun kudu maklum dengan saingan barunya ini. Saat Dea lahir dan diletakkan didada untuk IMD, saya bahkan tidak terpikir untuk menghitung berapa jari jemarinya dan anggota tubuh lainnya. Sebaliknya, saya malah sibuk menangis mendengar suaranya dan terpesona saat matanya menatap ke arah saya. Duh, rasanya apapun tidak bisa menggantikan momen itu. Di saat itu saya bertekad, siap atau pun tidak, saya akan berusaha menjadi ibu untuknya. Dan sekarang, tanpa terasa satu bulan telah terlewati. Tidak lama lagi saya sudah harus mempersiapkan diri dan juga Dea agar dapat beradaptasi dengan jadwal ngantor. Semoga semuanya berjalan lancar, sementara ini, puas-puasin dulu ah menjalani hari bersama Dea :D.