My Farras

Hello… how is the baby? Baby what? Oh My God….it’s been almost a half year I don’t create any post. I have been too preoccupied with my lovely baby. He takes my thoughts and attention, so that I can hardly find time dealing with my blog.

By the way, his name is Farras Khairullah. Farras means smart as well as a sharp thinker, whereas Khairullah means kindness from Allah. It is my husband and I who give the name for him. There was no much discussion for achieving the name.

He looks heavy, doesn’t he?

Currently he has just reached 6 months, on 1^st of May exactly. And he has just passed his period of six-month exclusive breastfeeding. Now, he has started to learn eating. Don’t get me wrong, I didn’t give him any baby formula milk. During the period of exclusive breastfeeding, my baby’s intake was merely his mom’s breast milk. Here is the way I struggled during the exclusive breastfeeding term.

Breast milk supply in my freezer

You see? I am a working mother who is committed to doing and giving the best for my son, in this case giving the best nutrition (breast milk). For getting ample supply, I always pump my breast milk and store it in freezer before leaving for work early the morning and after arriving at home in the afternoon. Thanks God, I have been able to undertake this for the last six months. Now I target to still breastfeed him until two years without giving him formula milk. Hopefully. ^^

My Carpal Tunnel Syndrome

It has been a while since my last post on 3D/4D ultrasound scan. Now, I am on maternity leave until next three months. So, I have free time to write again for my blog. Actually, I wanted to write two months ago about my other experience of being pregnant – that is when I felt something wrong with my hands. Yes, it was some sort of a syndrome. I felt pain in my hands, especially my wrists. And the syndrome is called Carpal Tunnel Syndrome. Although this syndrome is always associated with people whose jobs require repetitive hand movement (such as data processors, computer programmers, etc), it is also prevalent in pregnant women (http://www.babycenter.com).

I have searched information on it in internet. Tons of websites provide ample knowledge for me. http://www.mycarpaltunnel.com says that up to twenty percent of pregnant women will experience this debilitating syndrome at some point during their pregnancy. The most common symptoms are hand pain, hand numbness, tingling sensations in the fingers, hand and thumbs and pain shooting up the forearm. It can even translate to shoulder and neck pain following the nerve path back to the brain. Often these symptoms are most intense at night and result in routine sleep disturbance. Thank God, however, I have just felt pain in the wrists near the thumbs and it makes my hands difficult to hold objects tightly but I can sleep well at night.

Mr. Wikipedia says that the most common cause of CTS (Carpal Tunnel Syndrome) is typing, but my job doesn’t require much typing. Recent literature suggests that sleep positioning, such as sleeping on one’s side, might be an associated factor (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carpal_tunnel_syndrome). For the latter reason, it might be true, as a pregnant woman is suggested to sleep on her left side.  So, this condition causes pressure on the median nerve at the wrist and leads to CTS.

I once consulted with my doctor, and she said that the symptoms usually would go away gradually after I gave birth. Hopefully.

Seeing The Unborn Baby Through 3D/4D Ultrasound Scan

14^th February is a valentine’s day, people say so. But it’s not the topic I want to share here. What I want to share is about my third trimester unborn baby and our first experience of seeing the latest ultrasound technology, called 4D ultrasound scan. On the date, my husband and I went to Grhasia mental hospital located in north Yogyakarta to see my unborn baby through 4D ultrasound imaging. Why it should be in a mental hospital? Because the cost in Ghrasia hospital fits my budget, it is worth IDR 125,000 (CD included). If you do comparison, it is proven the cheapest amongst other healthcare providers.

Before I did this 4D prenatal exam, I used to do regular exams in Panti Rapih hospital by using a standard ultrasound which can only produce live 2D images. As my gestation has reached 7 months more or 29 weeks, I decided to do 4D exam. This is accordance with my doctor’s advice – as long as the baby hasn’t reached the due date and there is still adequate amniotic fluid surrounding the baby, the baby’s face can be seen clearly.

I took my husband with me in order that he knows how our baby looks like in 3D/4D ultrasound. Therefore, he asked his boss for permission to leave office for a while on the day. We couldn’t visit Grhasia on Saturdays for avoiding the temporary permission, because the radiology department only opens on weekdays – Monday to Friday. Every Monday to Thursday, it serves only four patients and two patients on Fridays. Too few? Yes, as it is a radiology department. So, it serves not only mothers who want to check pregnancy through 3D/4D ultrasound, but also those with difficult illnesses.

In the exam room, we – my husband and I got very excited as the monitor screen was displaying

See You My Favourite Clothes……..

Being pregnant means I can’t wear my favourite clothes. They don’t fit me anymore because of my big tummy. So, I have decided to have or make new clothes which are suitable with my new physical condition.
These are few of my long dresses for my pregnancy time.

I am 6 months pregnant. This blue batik long dress is one of my favourites. Look at the pattern. So unique. The batik is a gift from my husband. He gave it to me because he didn’t like the pattern and the colour. Thanks God, I decided to make it into a beautiful long dress.

Crying in the Early Pregnancy

image taken from http://the-lotus-flower.com

This is my first pregnancy. My doctor said, the end of July 2011 was the very initial pregnancy, because it was started on the first day of my last period. However, I still didn’t notice it, because in August, exactly it was fasting month; I did fasting for the whole month (Alhamdulillah…..), and things were fine. Then, when we celebrated Eid-ul-Fitr, I just realized that I had conceived. I did a pregnancy test at home and     it was positive. Several days later, I went to the doctor to make it sure. After the doctor’s confirmation – doing the same test again in hospital, I came to be certain, very certain. So, it means I was 1 month pregnant. We – my husband and I, were very happy. Since then, we have tried to be more careful, starting from selecting nutritious foods, what foods, things and activities to avoid during pregnancy. All relatives suggested me to not work so hard, for the sake of the baby. Even my own husband was very protective, so he promised me to help with house chores, especially doing laundry. (lovely husband…. )
Unfortunately, the first three months of my pregnancy was difficult for me.

Ampera Bridge, The Landmark of Palembang

Palembang, a beautiful city which is renowned with Pempek city – pempek is a local typical food, has various landmarks. One of outstanding landmarks in this city is Ampera Bridge which has a history of its own. The history began in 1962. The bridge was constructed under the reign of President Soekarno, which served as the pay from Japan to Indonesia over Japanese colonization. In 1965 it was officially opened. At first, the bridge was named after the president’s name – Bung Karno Bridge but it did not last long. In 1966, anti-Soekarno movement was stronger, the bridge was renamed to Ampera Bridge – Ampera stands for Amanat Penderitaan Rakyat (Message of the People’s Suffering).
The old photograph shows that the bridge used to be able to lift up and down. A written source says that

A Child Called ”it”

The Book Cover in Indonesian Version

Can you imagine when a person is not referred to “he” or “she”, but “It”?  Here in the book A Child Called It, the pronoun “It” is used by a mother to refer to her own son. The book is all about the son named Dave Pelzer. It starts with the rescue, in 1973, where a school nurse found bruises, cuts, wound on the child’s body until he was finally sent to a foster care.
In the beginning of Dave’s life, there were the “good years” – full of family picnics, holiday frivolity, and his mother’s wonderful cooking. By the age of 4, these happy times turned to misery – fear, starvation and cold dark basement. His alcoholic mother abused him by forcing him to eat his own vomit, swallow soap, burning him on the stove and locking him in a bathroom with terrible fumes of Clorox and ammonia.
This is one of the worst child abuse cases in California’s history which came to an end on March 5, 1973.  The great true story of child abuse by Dave Pelzer is easy to read, but difficult to comprehend how a mother could treat her child this way. I myself couldn’t figure out her motivation, even

Pempek, Many Variants but One Dough

Pempek : fishcake delicacy

The title actually has been inspired by my husband, exactly by his criticism. Approximately in 2009, when we were in a Pempek restaurant, my husband asked distinctive names of special dishes from Palembang (South Sumatra) called Pempek. Many names it has, such as Submarine pempek, Cylindrical pempek, Curly pempek, Skin pempek, etc.
“So it has plenty variants?”, he asked.
“Yes”, I replied.
What differentiates one variant to other variants?”
Then I explained him that pempek is made from basic dough which consists of minced fish and tapioca. The dough then

Kiyosaki’s Cashflow Quadrant:The Holy Book of MLM People?

In October 2010, I was introduced with a book entitled ”Cashflow Quadrant written by Robert Kiyosaki. It began when I had students bring their own favourite book and tell the class about it. Most of them brought fiction books. Only few of them liked to read non fiction books. One of them was The Cashflow Quadrant.
I was interested in the story that my student retold. It was about two people with different actions – a person who still kept working to carry buckets of water from water source to a small village and his fellow was away for six months and got back to village to build pipelines from water source to the village. Starting from this, I made the book as one of two must-read books in my class.

Songket

This picture was taken in 2008 when I still lived in Palembang and were about to leave for Yogyakarta.

The cloth I am wearing is called Songket. Indonesian people must be familiar with this typical cloth.  Songket is a type of golden cloth made in Indonesia and Malaysia, a ceremonial textile made of metal wrapped threads that course across a ground of silk or cotton, forming intricate decorative patterns (Rodgers and Summerfield,2007:1). Songket’s origins probably lie in the 15th or 16th century, but more textile researchers see a much earlier date for this type of cloth.
The materials used to weave Songkets are seven different types of thread or yarn;