Aariz after 2 weeks at home

After 2 week, we had our first appointment today and Aariz was put on the scale. Abah guessed it right, if we put a bet, I'll be broke! The truth is I do observe the differences from his days in the hospital. He's no more only skin and bones like his early days--we can really see the face is fuller, the cheek is more visible, the fingers are not as narrow, they are rounder --basically we can sight some fat building up in him........but I was just scared to put so much hope....and to scared to voice it out....

Hence, when Abah asked me to make a wild guess, I didnt make any....but made a joke on him saying that his number is way too ambitious.

And once again, Abah had it right.....Aariz is today 2.42kg....an increase of 600 grams for 2 weeks---Abah's guess was 300g increase per week....JACKPOT!

Basically since we brought him home, we have been feeding him like there's no tomorrow..emmm not to that extend lah but we try our best to really follow his demand...we were hesitate at first to increase his feeding, afraid that he might not be able to tolerate after 2 months of tight scheduled feeding...but the doctor did inform that once at home we can serve him as much as he wants.... So we increase 10ml each time, and now he's taking 20ml of breastmilk and 60ml of formula at each feeding 3 hourly, and his feeding time is documented, to ensure that he wont miss any, more than 4 hours....he never did, the longest break between feeding so far is 3.5 hours. This pattern is well expected...they are all the same...boys being boys, i cant really say that, can I? since i dont have a girl for comparison perhaps all babies are like that at this early age.

He's still far behind the size of term baby at 2 months++---still cant fit the 0-3months clothing, not even the newborn size, after having 3 boys...Aariz is our first baby who wears "tiny baby" outfit.....we do laugh at time.... but it's ok...as long as he is healthy, we are thankful!!

Personally I feel like he is the cutest baby ever....(sorry abang abang bertiga)---the 3 older brothers, they do agree with me though!

About Aariz

In the NICU,the rooms are categorised according to severity of the diagnosis, new cases are first sent to Room 1 0r 2 then when patient is stable, they are sent to room 3 or 4 and finally to Room 5 where the main objective is for the babies to gain weight.

Aariz was first sent to room1 then less than a week to room 3 and a few days in Room 4 because room 3 was too packed. Most days of his stay in NICU were spent in Room 5. After being discharged from room 5, patients are sent to SCN i.e. Special Care Nursery before completely being released from the hospital.

Thus when Aariz was proceed to Room 5, we were so eager for SCN and thought it was a matter of a very few days but we were all wrong. Aariz weight was up and down and that was a bit frustrating , reason is unknown, but the nurses did mention he used extra energy in crying which his is more frequent than others, and from sucking the soother. Since he is exclusively fed with breastmilk, i think that contributes for the slow progress in weight gain as well. If i count it correctly Aariz was in Room 5 for more than a month, on Feb 5th- a saturday , during our morning visit the nurse told us that Aariz would be released to SCN....it actually happened when we least expected it--life is like that sometimes, right? another blessing!

Abah helped to push the cot from NICU to SCN...in the plastic bag were Aariz's stock of breastmilk..yummyyyy.

On Sunday Feb6th, mummy was allowed to stay with Aariz. I was overwhelmed, knowing that next destination would be home, this is something ive been looking forward!

My first picture of Aariz....that very nite i busied myself by sending mms to family and close friends....God, I love this boy to bits and pieces

During his first few days in the incubator (during his stay in NICU), Aariz was not clothed except for the diapers. Once he was shifted to the cot, he was dressed in pink hospital gown. The gown is such a sore to the eyes...it was not ironed and bright pink - boys in pink gown ? who would have agreed?

Aariz was all prepared for his first nite with mummy!

On Feb9th he was put on the scale again and having fed him on demand since the day we stayed together, the weight has increased from 1.722kg to 1.832kg, an increase of 110grams and that was a record on its own!

He hits the 1.8kg requirement and that was the ticket for home....

Finally, the very next day Feb 10th Aariz was discharged from Hospital Tengku Ampuan Afzan Kuantan for good. Words cant describe my appreciation to all the doctors, the specialist: Dr Chan, Dr Chin, Dr Farah and Dr Sumitra, other doctors-to name a few -Dr Huda, Dr Nurul, Dr Murni and of course all the nurses, who fed my son, who changed his diapers , who hold him closed when he cried just for a simple hug....Thank you so much!

First few photos at home:

Abang Adib with his younger brother.............

The 3 older boys have shown great affection towards our precious one and their gestures have really touched my heart...

My boys and not to be forgotten their dearest Abah are really my love and joy in this life i have.

Aariz is home!

After 60 days of the longest waiting ever, we were allowed to take Aariz home. The whole thing was such an experience , from the pregnancy, the labour and the 60 days after delivery. Aariz was hospitalised in NICU (neo natal intensive care unit) from day of birth for being a premie and unfortunately at 31 weeks with 1.1kg weight, our precious one is grouped as a low weight baby. Not that I know that there are various complications which may come along with having pre mature baby until we have this experience with Aariz. Aariz suffered a few complications himself but thank Allah, he's a strong baby and to date has managed to come out clean - no wonder people referred premie as "survivors" - i totally agree with that!

For the past 60 days, we never known what to expect every single day, when we entered the NICU. We even reached to a point when we decided that we just have to stop asking questions about the complications and leave them to Allah who knows best. There were mixed feelings really, as much as we wanted to bring him home , we also wanted him to undergo best treatment for him to be healthier and bigger! Every little progress is a huge blessing. It is just amazing how a simple ability to normal human like oral feeding can be such a great development!!

There's a lot of tears streaming during this whole period..for mummy especially but I know Abah have just the same amount if we can see what goes inside him....on that note we are so blessed to have each other.

That devastating period is over when Aariz was discharged yesterday (Feb10th) i.e.3 days before his second month birthday and 2 days before his actual due date (feb12th). Of course a close monitoring is essential but i believe that applies to all new borns and children as a whole....after all, they are entrusted to us.

After almost 2 months , the older brothers finally met Aariz for the first time and our family completes again under one roof~

To our dearest precious miracle baby Ahmad Aariz , welcome home and we've been missing u so much!

Kenduri Tok Ibu

We were in Pekan last weekend to celebrate Abang Long's marriage. It was a three days affair...the akad on day 1,

*************The sleepy Mat Dib***************

next day the bride's kenduri,

************Along with his favourite Tok Mimah*******************

and ended with Tok Ibu's kenduri on the third day.

It was drizzling all the way through out the 3 days...and the malays believe it's a good sign as it reflects the future of the bride and groom which will be "cool", "cooling" or "sejuk" not "cold" of course!!

To Abang Long and wife....congratulations, do commit to the binding and till death do you part.