It has been 3+ years since I last blogged. So many things have happened since then. Let me summarize:
I gave birth to my precious son on 1st February 2021, alhamdulillah. It was a smooth delivery. Perhaps another post on birth story… We named him Ayden Johan, which means the intellectual champion. He’s now 3 and indeed our champ!
We finally moved from Bintulu to KL in 2021! Ok not so KL la because we live at the outskirt of Shah Alam. We are currently renting in Denai Alam, and insyaAllah we’ll move to our own house in Elmina soon! Can’t wait and actually nervous for this big commitment. Another topic to write, too.
Adriana is already in Primary 3 and Ayden has just graduated Toddler class and soon going to be in Nursery. They go to the same school in Subang. Yeah, we live in Denai Alam, school in Subang, work in KL, gymnastics in Kota Damansara. Bz kan? 😛 Talk about commuting in Klang Valley…
I’ve started my MBA in Energy Management since January 2023, and expected to complete by end of this year. Sedar tak sedar, kejap je 50 credit hours dah nak habis kan, InsyaAllah. Doakan ye.
We have pet parrots!!!! (Triple exclamation marks cos I’m so excited for them!!!) Not one, but two! Best decision ever because they are so intelligent and fill up my days with a lot of laughter. Will tell more about them in another post, definitely.
Till then, keep on reading and I promise I’ll update in this daily!
My first dose completed on 8th July 2021. Right after we are out of our 14 days quarantine. I got Sinovac, and alhamdulillah no symptoms except for sore arm for a couple of hours.
And completed my second dose on 29th July 2021. This time, I’m brave enough that I don’t need backups lol.
Vaccination saves lives, so please get yourselves vaccinated. Vaccines not only provide individual protection for those persons who are vaccinated, they can also provide community protection by reducing the spread of disease within a population. Let’s quickly form herd immunity in order to protect our kids and high-risk persons.
I don’t have any new year resolution this year. All I pray for is a safe delivery, a healthy baby, and our lives pre-Covid.
But I’m just glad that I got to spend my new year with my best friend, Kathy. Coincidentally, she’s in Taiping too today, so we decided for a quick outing, just the two of us. Oh how I miss spending time with her! Covid makes us appreciate the human interaction that we freely had before.
We had amazing ice blended at Le’Pak Kitchen. Can’t believe this is my first time here despite it’s already in operation for the past few year. You really should try dining here next time you are in Taiping. The food’s great and the price is super affordable.
It’s the last day of an epic year, so I decided to take a photo to remember by.
And also, I have my 34 weeks check up today. I’m huge, aren’t I? We are just so excited for the baby, I really can’t wait, but at the same time we want him to be comfortable in there for as long as possible. Hopefully he’ll get to go to full term at 40 weeks, just like his sister.
At the moment, I’m just enjoying this pregnancy and indulging in all the attentions I’m receiving from my family and friends.
My sister is in her 38 weeks and scheduled for her C-section today. Alhamdulillah all went well, and my niece is born! We are pretty excited to meet her. It’s COVID season now, so the SOPs at Columbia Asia Hospital Taiping are pretty strict. We can’t visit her baby in the hospital and only one person (my mom) is allowed to accompany my sister.
You are going to be kakak Eva soon, insyaAllah. Now I can’t wait to give birth!
During my pregnancy (and even before pregnancy), I’ve had my checkups with a few ob-gyns.
Dr Lee Joon Lung, Miri City Medical Center, Miri, Sarawak : Back in 2014, right after I got married, I did my pre-pregnancy checkup with Dr Lee Joon Lung, in Miri City Medical Center. A pre-pregnancy checkup is a medical checkup you get even before pregnancy to help make sure you’re healthy when you get pregnant. The doctor looks for health conditions that may affect your pregnancy and the health of your baby, scans your uterus and ovaries, and order a blood test. And alhamdulillah, my pre-pregnancy checkup result came back okay and I was safely pregnant 3 months after that.
If you are in Miri and looking for ob-gyn, I would highly recommend Dr Lee, as he’s a really good doctor. He’s very patient to entertain all of my questions, very soft spoken and most importantly very reassuring when I had my doubts.
Dr Lee Joon Lung, Miri City Medical Center | Phone Number: 085-426 622 | Clinic opening hours: 8am-4.30pm (closes on all public holidays) | Address: Lot 916-920 & 1202 – 1203 Jalan Hokkien, C.D.T. 100, 98009 Miri, Sarawak
Datin Dr Suhaiza Salleh, Gleneagles Hospital, KL : I had my monthly checkups during my first pregnancy and delivered my first baby with Dr Suhaiza, after getting many positive feedbacks and recommendations from my friends. I couldn’t vouch for her more, she’s definitely my favorite doctor. She’s very detailed, yet very comforting and you won’t leave her office feeling worried. She’s very famous now especially among celebrities, so you really need to make appointment and book in advance. InsyaAllah I’m hoping to deliver my second baby with her again, but with this Covid-19 situation, it’s really hard to tell. Let’s hope for the best.
Datin Dr Suhaiza Salleh, Gleneagles Hospital, KL | Phone Number: 03-41413309 | Clinic opening hours: 8.30 am-4.30pm (closes on weekends and public holidays) | Address: Gleneagles Hospital, 282 & 286, Jalan Ampang, Malaysia, 50450 Kuala Lumpur
Dr Haslina Sarkawi, Columbia Asia Bintulu : As we are now staying in Bintulu, I opted to refer to her for my pap smear, and I even referred to her on fertility, as we wanted to try for our second baby. I was recommended to her by my aunty, whom had her surgery to remove Bartholin’s cyst with Dr Haslina. So when we found out that we were pregnant, we had our first few baby checkups with her as well. I would highly recommend her if you are looking for ob-gyn in Bintulu.
Dr Haslina Sarkawi, Columbia Asia Bintulu | Phone Number : 086-251888 | Clinic opening hours : 9.00 am – 5.00 pm (closed on Sundays and public holidays) | Address : Lot 3582, Block 26, Jalan Tan Sri Ikhwan, Kemena Land District, Tanjung Kidurong, 97000 Bintulu, Sarawak
Dr. Khairul Anwar Bin Mohd Saman, Columbia Asia Taiping : Since I’m currently stuck in Taiping due to Covid-19, I need to go for my monthly checkups here. My sister, who is also currently pregnant, is having her checkups with Dr Khairul, so I decided to go along with her for my checkups. My sister vouched for him since she started to visit him for her fertility treatment. He’s very fatherly and very laid back, and I think that is why many are referring to him. Currently my backup plan is, if I couldn’t cross district to go to KL to deliver with Dr Suhaiza, I will deliver here in Taiping with Dr Khairul.
Dr. Khairul Anwar Bin Mohd Saman, Columbia Asia Taiping | Phone Number : 05-8208888 | Clinic opening hours : 9.00 am – 5.00 pm (closed on Sundays and public holidays) | Address : No 5, Jalan Perwira, 34000 Taiping, Perak
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I love meeting doctors especially ob-gyns, and I enjoy every checkups I had. So if you would like to know more about my experiences meeting these doctors, feel free to ask in the comment below.
Discovered this brand through Instastories, but wasn’t interested until my BFF Kathy signed up as Norwex consultant. Funny story. She was down one day (I don’t remember why) and to humor her, I decided to purchase the Upgraded Starter Kit which entitled me to be a Norwex consultant, thinking even if I don’t make any sales, I have nothing to lose since I’ll be getting a lot of microfiber clothes with 20% discount!
And being pregnant, and in the phase of nesting, I constantly want to clean up, and I’m totally sold by the idea of a chemical free, environmentally friendly home. I thought with Norwex, cleaning will be a breeze.
Indeed, cleaning is now a breeze.
I use Envirocloth, kitchen cloth, window cloth and even the body & face cloth on daily basis. Since then, I’ve been constantly finding things that I could wipe and clean #ocdmomma. It’s very addictive when you see the shiny surfaces LOL.
Once I was myself convinced with the products, I decided to be serious in promoting Norwex, as I believe more people can benefit from it (and of course because I wanted the free mop!)
Once I made up my mind, I just worked towards it. In less than 2 weeks, with encouragement from my leaders and support group, I achieved Team Achiever title, alhamdulillah (along with so many other free gifts from Norwex and the leadership team!)
So if I can do it, insyaAllah with the right guidance and effort you can do it too.
In case you don’t know yet, here’s some information about Norwex . The global mission of this brand is to improve quality of life by radically reducing chemicals in our homes. I personally love Norwex microfiber cloth because:
It is super absorbent and very durable.
It saves time as cleaning is now so much easier.
It saves money, as I don’t have to spend so much on cleaning products.
It is easy to care, just rinse and dry.
It works.
I highly recommend this brand. It might seems expensive, but really it’s not! It’s an awesome investment. And it’s definitely not the same as other microfiber cloths, you really need to experience it first to know the differences.
DM me if you are interested to know more about this brand and their products.
I talked about my goals in my previous post, and one of the goals is to teach my daughter to read before the year 2021.
She’s turning 6 next year, and I know I shouldn’t pressure her to read, and I didn’t, but she’s just ready. We have been reading to her daily since she was 1 month old, and continued to do so. At the age of 5, she already has large vocabularies and reading readiness skills.
So after her 5th birthday, and after setting my determination to teach her to read, I started by making a lot of dua’a/prayers that Allah will make it easy for her to learn and easy for me to teach her. I even said the prayer aloud before she go to sleep each night so that our goals are aligned (okay, I’m one psycho mom). But I truly believe that only Allah could ease the process, or any process for that matter, and our kids need to know that we would put our reliance on Allah in everything.
I first introduced her to sight words using flash cards. I know you might think that I should have teach her using phonics, but I really lack the knowledge to teach her using that method. She learnt phonics in school, she already knew the sound of each letter, but she didn’t really understand on how to blend the letters yet. Hence I taught her using the method I know, which is by teaching her the whole words or ‘look and say’ method (that was they way we were taught). To my surprise the progress was quite fast, she could quickly recognized words like and, go, to, so, no, on, of, off, at, the, is, it, in, and if.
I started to buy Peter and Jane series for her to read then. She took quite some time to master book 1a, 1b, 2a, and 2b, but by the time she was on book 3a, she was also getting better at blending words using phonic methods (thank you, teachers), so book 3a, 3b, 4a and 4b were a breeze for her, alhamdulillah. Now she’s on book 5a, and the progress is slowed down since there are many complex words introduced, for example, station, school, horses, houses, police, etc. I let her to take time.
Aside from Peter and Jane, she’s also now reading phonics through Read Easy beginner series, since she already have the basic and can self-learn, so all I need to do is just cross-check her reading.
Now, we also incorporated spelling test to her routine, and due to her competitive nature, she loves it and wouldn’t accept if she spell things wrongly, lol. We have also move to reading encyclopedias to her instead of the children books, since she wanted to learn in details about animals, trees, and other countries (yes, she’s obsessed with the atlas).
Alhamdulillah, she’s still in the process to inprove her reading but I’m just happy with her progress so far. Still a long way to go for both of us.
So if you ask me, there’s no right or wrong method in teaching kids to read, but the most important thing is for them to develop the love of reading and understand why reading is so important in life. For now, we are just happy with her interest in learning, alhamdulillah. I keep making dua’a that she’ll always be eager to learn and seek knowledge.
Alhamdulillah, I’m now in week 28 of my second pregnancy, where it is the start of the third trimester.
Pregnancy has been smooth so far alhamdulillah – my energy and appetite have now pick up. I can brisk walk for one and a half hour on Saturdays and Sundays, half an hour on weekdays, although I will still be out of breath every time I climb up the stairs, lol. I’m starting to incorporate more fruits in my diet now for my vitamin and mineral needs (still hate veggies) and overall just trying to eat healthily, yet still enjoy this pregnancy.
Although, to be honest, I’m taking this pregnancy one week at a time. It’s hard to be separated from my husband due to this COVID-19 pandemic, since he’s working in Bintulu and I’m currently working in my hometown in Taiping as I can’t be back to Sarawak without having to be quarantined and to go through swab test (I don’t mind, but I just don’t want my daughter to go through it). We’ve also agreed that it’s best for me to stay in Taiping for now and not expose to this virus if I were to commute back and forth. I want him near, because he will usually pamper me when I’m pregnant. He will be the one massaging me at night, buying me my favorite food when I don’t have any appetite, taking me out for breakfast dates… Hm. I’m counting days for us to be reunited again, but meanwhile, I’m just keeping myself busy.
I have a lot of goals during this pregnancy (as always). One of my goals throughout this pregnancy is to read the whole Quran, insyaAllah. But I’m only on the 14th juz’ for now. 16 more juz’ to go in 12 weeks time. Not quite sure if I can finish it in time, but I’ll try my best.
Other than that, I’ve been practicing my piano, reading, listening to podcast, catching up on my favorite shows, and obviously shopping!
Guess what, I’ve completed the shopping from my baby shopping list, alhamdulillah! There’s not much stuffs to buy for this second baby since we try to recycle as much as possible from the first one and I already have many big ticket items from back then, but now that we could afford a bit more, I bought a lot of nice-to-have stuffs heeeeeee just really excited to be parents for the second time.
So here’s my shopping list:
No
Item
1
30 days confinement lady service
2
Jujube diaper bags
3
Baby clothes
4
Baby Playpen – Graco Pack ‘N Play Quick Connect Portable Seat Deluxe Playard With Bassinet
5
Playpen Bedding Set and Baby Nest from Tinypalms
6
Diapering (Diapers, Wet Wipes)
7
Ubbi Steel Diaper Pail
8
Coby Mini UV Sterilizer
9
Infant Carseat – Koopers Danza
10
Maternity belt and postnatal belly band
11
Sophie La Giraffe
12
Sudocrem Diaper Cream
13
Medela Purelan Lanolin Cream
14
Hairbrush
15
Pigeon Bottle and Food Warmer
16
Pigeon Breastmilk Storage Bags
17
Pigeon Baby Laundry Detergent
18
Pigeon Sterilization Tong
19
Pigeon Peristaltic Plus nipple 1M+ (S)
20
Pigeon Peristaltic Plus nipple newborn (SS)
21
Pigeon Nose Cleaner Aspirator
22
Pigeon Pacifier
23
Pigeon Breast Pads
24
Pigeon Breastmilk Collector
25
Mamaway Maternity and Nursing Pyjamas
All of these items are already secured here in my mom’s house, so all I need to do now is enjoy this pregnancy, let this baby go to full term and try to relax (because God knows I can’t relax).
I had bad breakouts during the first few months, I kid you not. My skin was so dull and uneven too. I hated looking at myself in the mirror. No products work for me at that time. And being me, I’m very particular about skincare ingredients, as pregnant women need to avoid skincare with retinol, salicylic acid, chemical sunscreen etc.
Hence, I chose Drunk Elephant products. They are the only skincare products that are compatible with my skin during this pregnancy. I love their products as they use clean ingredients, yet still highly effective. The entire DE line is safe to use while pregnant with the exception of their A-Passioni and Babyfacial products (love their creativity in naming their products!)
They work wonders as my skin now is back to normal (although still far from perfect). And for me being pregnant does not mean that you neglect all your self-care routines and only prioritize on the baby. Mommies need to feel good and be happy too, so the whole family will be happy as well.
Will definitely continue with this line throughout nursing, or beyond. Btw, I got them all (and my other skincare and makeup products too) from Sephora Malaysia.
Here’s my AM and PM routine.
AM Routine:
Facial cleanser : Beste No. 9 Jelly Cleanser
Serum : 1 drop C-Firma Day Serum and 1 drop B-Hydra Intensive Hydration Serum
Moisturizer : Lala Retro Whipped Cream or Protini Polypeptide Cream
Eye cream : C-Tango Multivitamin Eye Cream
Lip care : Lippe Balm
Sunscreen : Umbra Sheer Physical Daily Defense Protection with SPF 30 and 1 drop of D-Bronzi Anti Pollution Sunshine Drops
PM Routine:
Makeup remover : Slaai Makeup Melting Butter Cleanser or E-Rase Milki Micellar Water
Facial cleanser : Beste No. 9 Jelly Cleanser
Serum : 1 drop TLC Framboos Glycolic Night Serum and 1 drop Virgin Marula Luxury Facial Oil
Moisturizer : Lala Retro Whipped Cream or Protini Polypeptide Cream
Night cream : F-Balm Electrolyte Waterfacial
Eye cream : C-Tango Multivitamin Eye Cream
Lip care : Lippe Balm
Take care of yourselves, mommies! You deserve the best 🙂
JEEZ, JAZ 
