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Protected: The Forgotten One September 7, 2007

Posted by Zara's Mama in bitching, myself.
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Protected: Spotted July 10, 2007

Posted by Zara's Mama in bitching, myself.
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Recovering the Milk June 14, 2007

Posted by Zara's Mama in bitching, breastfeeding, trips.
45 comments

continues from here

2:30am : Still no news from MAS Lost & Found counter. Tried calling them numerous times, no reply.
Called MAS 24hrs line, to check if they can locate someone in the airport to understand the situation. Repeated my whole story for the 3rd time (Breast milk, precious, urgent, spoil if arrived late were words/phrases I have to keep repeating to add urgency to the situation). Harry from MAS checked, and confirmed MH610 already landed. He would try to call his colleagues in KLIA, and then will call me back.
3:00am : No calls from Harry. I called the 24hr line again. Rosa was the one who picked up my call. She said they are still trying to locate someone in the airport, but wasn’t able to. She kept silence most of the time when I asked her, “What is happening on your side?” “So how now?” This really frustrated me. Asked her for the manager. A Patma came to the line, and she said she’ll try her best to locate someone.
3:15am : Roslan from KLIA called, said my things were with them, but they could only deliver to me at 5am. WTF?!!! He called from his mobile so I have his number. I paced around the room wondering if I should wait till 5am.
3:30am : Decided to drive to KLIA on my own to collect my liquid gold instead. Called and informed Roslan, I could hear a delighted tone in him when he added, “So we don’t need to send it over to you?”
4:15am : Arrived KLIA. Roslan’s crew handed my things to me. “Sorry yeah miss, lots of problem today, that’s why can’t call you earlier.” I just sped off. Niah mah fu lat!! Now how do I claim my toll and petrol to the airport?
5:00am : Reached home. Sorted the milk. What was still frozen, I quickly tossed it back into the freezer. What was partially thawed, I poured out the thawed milk into the bottle and then tossed the frozen back to the freezer. Took me half hour to do this.
Wrote a note to tell Daddy and the maids I wanted to sleep in, and I wanted no disturbance. Moved a mattress over to the study (didn’t want to be awaken when the kids wake up at 8am), and dozed off.
6:00am : Daddy came over with a crying Zara. “She wants you.” Dropped her on my mattress and walked back to the room. I was too tired to argue with him or I would have given him a big knock on the head for doing this since I needed to sleep. I carried Zara back to the room and tried to pacify her as well as get her back to sleep.
6:15am : Went back to the study and when I was about to doze off. Daddy came over again as Zara woke up and cried when she didn’t see me!!!!
6:30am : Made sure Zara is asleep. Since the maid were all up, I told them I’ll be sleeping in, and moved my mattress to their room, locked the door, and slept!
10:00am : Woke up feeling like a zombie.

I’m the kind who has to take 8hrs of sleep every night.. so I’m not in my element today!

Screw Malaysian Airlines for such screw up and such customer service! Damn the new regulations and Changi not giving exemption to nursing mums!

Now let me see if I can claim back my return trip to KLIA to collect the missing baggage the airline caused!

Crying Over Spilled Milk June 14, 2007

Posted by Zara's Mama in bitching, breastfeeding, trips.
17 comments

I was on a business trip for 3 days.
I woke up daily at 6:30am to express milk.
Shortened my lunch hour to 1/2 hour to express milk.
Instead of going shopping immediately after work (Great Singapore Sales is on), I stayed back in the hotel for another half hour to express milk.
Every night, after I’d expressed milk for the last time, got the hotel to store all the milk in the freezer for me, washed all the bottles, it would be 12am.
Now, is the milk precious or not?

8:00pm : Arrived Changi airport for my 9:20pm flight MH610
8:15pm : Checked in my suitcase, and was told MH610 has been delayed to 9:45pm. Suitcase tagged with MH610.
8:20pm : Before passing immigration, I asked security check point if I could carry my 2litre of frozen milk with me on board. I was denied entry, even though it mentioned “special dietery requirement” is excempted. They let me get out to ‘sort out’ my problem.
8:30pm : Got some masking tape from the shop, and taped up my cooler box and cooler bag.
8:45pm : Checked in my cooler box, and cooler bag. I was told flight MH610 has been delayed infinitely, and we would be put on MH608 departing at 9:30pm instead. Both my cooler box and cooler bag were tagged wtih MH608 tags.
9:00pm : Rushed through immigration, and went to the gate.
9:30pm : Started boarding the flight.
10:00pm : Flight took off finally.
11:00pm : Arrived KLIA. Went straight to claim my baggage.
11:15pm : Suitcase appeared.
11:45pm : Still no sign of my cooler bag and cooler box (anxious).
11:50pm : Was told no more items left in cargo, and I should proceed to Lost & Found to lodge a complain. (fuming)
12:00am : Have to tell the guy the content in the cooler box and cooler bag, and how important it is. He told me there’ll be no more incoming flight from Singapore. Have to tell him Susu Ibu is Breast Milk in English, to help him type that in to the report to indicate the urgency, and see if Singapore can help me to store the milk back into the freezer. I also took the Changi baggage handler number from him.
12:10am : Boarded my cab. On the way home, called up Changi baggage handler, phone was answered in 3 rings. The guy who took my call told me that at his end, he couldn’t see the cooler box or bag, he told me to call MAS counter in Changi. Called MAS counter in Changi, Nur who answered (picked up within 3 rings as well), told me she’ll help me trace the bags, and will call me back.
12:20am : Nur told me bags have been located, they have been mistakenly (she didn’t use this word, but how else could the bags ended up in the wrong flight) loaded into MH610, which will depart at 1am or later from Singapore.
12:35am : Reached home. Called Nur again, and she confirmed MH610 would be departing at 1am. Called MAS Lost & Found counter, it took me 6 attempts, infinite rings, before I reached a Roslan. He’s aware of my situation (probably became the big talk among the boys, this susu ibu thingy), and said he’ll send the bags immediately when the flight arrived.
1:00am : Called Nur in Changi again, and she said MH610 has taken off.
1:40am : Waited and Waited and Waited.

…. to be continued

Protected: 10 ways He Pisses me off May 7, 2007

Posted by Zara's Mama in bitching, myself.
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Ikea’s 10 years Warranty April 7, 2007

Posted by Zara's Mama in bitching, home.
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Daddy is very supportive of Ikea. When we moved in to our new house, we tried to get most of our furniture from Ikea. People had adviced us against getting wardrobe and kitchen cabinet from Ikea, claiming they are not suitable for our weather. Daddy, however, thought the 10 years warranty given were good ‘guarentee’ enough.

So despite the advice, we bought our kitchens (both wet and dry) cabinets from Ikea.  It was the Nexus Oak series that we got, doors were just oak veneer but we paid quite a lot for them.

After just 2 years, the doors started to have stains, a darkish patch started spreading like some kind of disease. Even the plinth (or the skirting) caught the stain.

Daddy started making calls to Ikea. At first, they claimed we need to bring the items back for exchange. Kitchen doors! To uninstall them and bring them in for exchange!! Daddy asked to speak to higher management, his voice was louder with each calls made.

After a few more calls, the Ikea contractor who did the installation were called in to do inspection, followed by Ikea folks, snapping photos here and there. Then, we were told Nexus Oak is no longer available, how about if they replaced the affected doors with aluminium doors (or was it glass?) or Nexus Birch (similar in price to what we paid). We made several trips to Ikea, to see how we can mix and match our doors, i.e. the current Nexus Oak coexisting with a few aluminium doors or Nexus Birch. I just couldn’t see how they will match.

Daddy made more calls, speaking to various people mainly from customer service, voicing his concerns. Eventually, they agreed to replace our doors and plints with whatever material we choose from their available series! We chose solid oak (Ulriksdal Oak) to replace the oak veneer, it’s more expensive, but the closest we can get to our original doors.

We made our decision in the little room in Ikea.
Customer Service : “Blah blah blah…. Solid Oak then?”
Me : “But they look odd, some with grooves (Ulriksdal Oak) and some without (Nexus Oak)”
Customer Service : All your doors will be replaced.”
Me : *pupil widened*“At no cost?”
Customer Service : “Yeah, we bear the cost”
Daddy : (usually a bit slow) “How can they charge us? But yeah man, the doors will be a bit mismatch, some with grooves some without.”
Me : *nudged Daddy” “She said ALL doors lah!”
Daddy : *pupil widened (finally got it)* “ALL the DOORS? At no cost?”
Customer Service : “Yes.”

Few days later, doors and plints were sent over by the delivery guys (at NO COST), then Ikea contractor dropped by to install them (at NO COST), and the old doors and plints were packed and brought back to Ikea (at NO COST).
Ikea kitchen cabinets
We got our kitchen cabinets upgraded a few days later AT NO COST!

Daddy was happily exclaiming, “See, that’s what I call customer service. And that’s why I don’t want to buy my kitchen cabinets from some Ah Chong company. With Ikea’s 10 years warranty, I don’t have to worry if anything goes wrong”

This is true, but not without some noise making though.

Short Take – Back to Work April 3, 2007

Posted by Zara's Mama in bitching, breastfeeding, my two girls, myself.
37 comments

The kids were still sleeping at 9:45am! Not being awaken. I asked Tuyam, “Kalau mereka tidur sampai 12pm, you biar kan saja lar?” (Malay : If they slept till 12pm, you’ll leave them sleeping?)

My boss commented, Full time mum and you have a part time job eh?” when I had my 1 on 1 with him. Apparently he read this post  “=.=

Zara was so happy to see me home yesterday, she wanted to sit on my lap while I had dinner, and kept stroking my face. I was away from her for 10hours (the last I was away this long, it was when I went for my biz trip in Jul ’06).

Zaria refused to drink milk from the bottle and cried every time the bottle was placed in her mouth. She took less than 4oz while I was at work. She preferred to go hungry, and waited for me. She drank hungrily when I offered her the breast when I got home. =.=”

Work?? Pile high! 3000mails and every thing is urgent!! Well.. almost.
There’s also this new program, which I have little knowledge of and I have to pick it up and run!

Confinement – Over January 30, 2007

Posted by Zara's Mama in bitching, my two girls, parenting.
45 comments

Confinement is finally over!!

Actually it was over for me on Friday, when Daddy and I left the girls with the CL and Tuyam and went for dinner. Just the two of us. The first time we did this in 26months! Yes, since Zara was born, we never gone out for a dinner without her. Sad eh?
When we got back, Zara was asleep. Tuyam told us Zara was hugging my bolster and pillow crying, “Mummy sorry, mummy, sayang (Malay : stroke, love) you (me)”; and she cried so long that she tired herself and dozed off. She thought I went out because I was angry with her, even though I’d told her we’d gone out for dinner with my boss and children are not supposed to go  (a lie, I know) . I felt so sorry.

~~~~~~~~~~ . ~~~~~~~~~~

Daddy sent the CL off with RM20 ang pow and full pay on Saturday. When Daddy told her about not giving her a big ang pow, the CL said she understood and she was sorry about the kitchen top.
To be fair to the CL, although she was not very helpful with other chores ourside of her ‘job description’ (if they have one) and being so forgetful and careless, she was good to Zaria. That was why we kept her for the full 30days.
No matter how many times I woke her up in the night to change Zaria’s diaper (if I knew it was soiled), she woke up willingly, never once sounded impatient and talked to Zaria softly while changing her.
She called Zaria by her name and always spoke to her gently (my first CL told me she never called the babies under her care by their names, preferring to call them ah-boy or ah-girl). Before she left, she kissed Zaria on the cheek (Ew!) and told her to be good.

~~~~~~~~~~ . ~~~~~~~~~~

Zaria had her fullmoon celebration in Dragon I on Saturday, just a family event. She was very well behaved with so many people taking turns to carry her.

On Sunday, it was Daddy and my first trip bringing the two girls out. We just went out in the evening to the Lake Gardens, and then for dinner. To get everybody ready, it took 2hrs!
Zaria slept througout the time we were in Lake Gardens and by dinner time she was awake and fussing. Dinner was total chaos. We have Zaria crying (which is getting more common after the CL left) in my arms; Zara on Daddy’s lap refusing to have her dinner and making a mess of everything on the table. Both of us were eating with one hand, while holding on to each girl with the other.
Other diners were throwing glances at us, probably saying to themselves “Thank God for contraceptive!”. *sigh*

Confinement Lady – Liability to the home January 24, 2007

Posted by Zara's Mama in bitching, home.
60 comments

I don’t like to bitch in my blog, but I can’t help it.

In the house, my reign is in the kitchen. The utencils we used, the kitchen cabinets are mainly my choices, and I’m most proud of it. Now when you have a Madam-Know-It-All or Madam-Absent-Minded at home, what happened?

First incident : Madam-Know-It-All
We heard grinding sound in the wet kitchen and I thought the CL must be preparing some soup. I took a peek. To my horror, she was actually sharpening our Zwilling Ja Henckels knife on our stone mortar.
“What are you doing??”
“Sharpening your knife, it’s blunt.”
“What?? Do you know this is an expensive knife and should only use the proper sharperner to sharpen it?”
“My other clients also use this brand of knife ma, and they just use the stone mortar to sharpen it.”
“That’s their problem!! Please, the next time when you want to do such things, ask us if it’s ok first!”
There goes my RMXXX knife.

Incident Two : Madam-Forgetful
After her bath, Zara came down and mentioned, “Mmmm, I smelled toast.” I sniffed the air and smelled something sweet, asking if Tuyam was making toast, but she said nope.
Got her to check the wet kitchen and she said the CL is double boiling something and the water has dried up.
Called for the CL (who was somewhere reading her papers) and she went to have a check.
“Aiya.. I thought still got lots of water, didn’t know dried up liao.”
After some scrub scrub, wash wash, the wok could not be saved. The CL was double boiling DOM ginger chicken soup for me, and the sweetish DOM has spilled out and got burnt, leaving a blackish crust on the wok.
There goes my well seasoned wok.

Incident Three : Madam-Know-It-All AND Madam-Absent-Minded
I was reading a book to Zara and preparing for bed, and suddenly the CL came up and said, “Aiya, I was pouring out your soup and the pot burnt me, so I quickly placed the pot on your kitchen top. Now there’s a mark there. I’ll go ask your husband to have a look.” and she went out to the study to get Daddy.
I thought it was a small matter but I heard a loud scream from Daddy.
Oh boy, must be bad, I quickly went down to have a look.
Sure thing, our two year old Ikea kitchen top has a big burnt mark on it just next to the sink. (Ouch!)
“Aiya, not serious lar. Can use paint to paint it, then you won’t see the mark any more. I forgot ma. All my clients have tiles kitchen top. Didn’t know yours is wood, can burn.”
I was so furious I just said, “Few days ago, the wok, now this!”
This is by far the worst damage, because you can’t just change the top, it’s too troublesome, we’ll have to live with this ugly mark for as long as we still have this kitchen cabinets!
Kitchen top

Scarred for Life!

Daddy told me to cool it just in case she may do some thing to Zaria. He mentioned he’ll settle with her this Sat, her last day! The worst thing we could do is not to give her ang pow, what else can we do?

And I haven’t even included the shower head that she broke on Day 3 she arrived in our house! Niah Mah! KNN! @#%!@#%

Updates – Birth, Baby, Zara, CL, Me January 8, 2007

Posted by Zara's Mama in bitching, my two girls, myself, parenting, pregnancy.
41 comments

Birth
Our 2nd daugther was born on 28th Dec evening.

I opted for elective induction and admitted in the morning to be induced. Dr inserted a pill into the cervix to start things off and later put me on drips. I only got a little contraction, I could still read, listen to music, talk to Daddy gaily.

When the drip dosage was increased to 100%, my cervix was barely 2 cm opened, even though the contraction pain started to become unberable. I wanted to go without pain relief for as long as I can but after 1 1/2hr, I started using the (entonox) gas. Then the midwife suggested that I go with pain killer since I got very tense every time the contraction started which would affect the cervix dilation. After talking to Daddy, I opted for Pethidine, just like I did with Zara’s birth.

The minute Pethidine was injected, I started relaxing and the cervix started to dilate. We were disturbed by baby’s heart beat though. Every time when a contraction started, her heart beat went down, after the contraction, the heart beat recovered. Dr was called and he told us that it may be due to 1) baby was compressed in the birth canal or 2) baby’s umblical cord was around her neck. The latter could be life threatening. He told us we could either opt for emergency c-sect for safest bet, but looking from the way things are progressing, he told us to hang a little bit longer. We were worried, but trusted his judgement.

Soon after that, I could feel the urge to push (that’s why I didn’t want to go for epidural since it will numb all such sensation). Midwife checked me and found that baby’s head was already crowning. Every thing started to happen, within minutes, Dr was back in the labour room, gave me an episiotomy, and the delivery began. This round, no help needed, baby just got pushed out with one push.

The minute I heard her cry, all pain was forgotten, although I still felt a bit high and dizzy from Pethidine, the rush of joy was overwhelming.

The little girl was 2.91Kg (Zara was 3.39Kg), and her height was 51.5cm (Zara was 50.5cm).

The room we spent 12hrs in awaiting for the birth of our 2nd daugther

Baby
I worried too much. When I was pregnant, I was constantly worried that I will not love baby as much as I do with Zara. I just found new capicity to love her. How can you not love your own flesh and blood?

Baby is good, she’s more patient than Zara and even when she’s hungry, she’ll cry a little and wait for me to feed her (Zara used to cry and turn black every time we were a bit too ‘slow’).

She sleeps a lot still, but when she’s awake, she likes to look around, checking us out. She was admitted back to the hospital for jaundice for 2 nights and now she’s back home coping well.

We still call her baby or mei-mei (Chinese : Small sister) since we haven’t decided on the name yet. 😦

Zara
Zara is doing very well as a jie-jie (Chinese: Big sister). We gave her a set of nice markers as a present from baby and also bought her a baloon when she came visiting, telling her she’s now jie-jie to baby and mummy’s assistant. She’s very proud of her new titles.

The first few days, she cried when baby cried for milk. She didn’t want the Confinement Lady (CL) to handle mei-mei when mei-mei cried but insisted that “Mummy, sayang (Malay : pat) mei-mei. Don’t want aunty (CL) sayang.” She constantly wants to hug and stroke her mei-mei but unfortunately, she contracted chicken pox (probably from visiting mei-mei in the peadiatric ward) after mei-mei was discharged and we told her not to be too close to mei-mei for the time being.

Confinement Lady
What’s wrong with these people? They think so highly of themselves that they don’t wash dishes, do house work or help out with the older kids even when they are just siting around doing nothing.

I’m barely able to stand her, and Daddy is very tempted to get rid of her. She’s more like a cook instead of a CL. Since I’m 100% breastfeeding, and I like to be a bit hands on (like cleaning baby’s poo or topping and tailing baby) she doesn’t have much to do.

Baby sleeps with me in the night, and when I naps. I wake up to feed her while the CL sleeps away. She cooks for me 3 meals a day, washes baby’s clothes, bathes baby and that’s about all she does. She doesn’t help with Zara at all, nor anything else in the house. She sleeps when I sleeps (and sometimes before), and when Zara watches her VCDs/DVDs, she watches with Zara(but not to care for Zara, even small little things like giving Zara snacks or taking a drink for Zara from the fridge, CL will shout for Tuyam to do it).

The only good thing that came out of this is she knows what I should and should not eat and make sure whatever I take help with milk production. With Zara (without a CL), my milk came on day 5. With baby, my milk came on day 4 and supply is pretty good.

Me
I’m doing fine but a bit tired. 2 kids vs 1 is very different.

When baby is feeding and Zara needs attention, I have to be tactful, or still give Zara the attention by talking to her or doing things with her with my free hand. I still try to spend as much time as I can with Zara so that she doesn’t feel I’m neglecting her.

When baby is alert, I try to talk to her and carry her around to show her the house or look at new things.

I only get to rest when both of them are sleeping. Luckily, I can breastfeed while lying down, so in the night when baby wakes up for her feed, I just latch her on and continue to sleep while she feeds.

I’m not sure what is wrong with blogger but have been trying to post more photos but not able to after the hospital shot.. *sigh* May not be able to update or read blogs as frequently for now until things are more settled.

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