Petua: Makanan Ibu dalam Pantang

Hi all! Just to share a few suggestions of recipes for makanan dalam pantang for the new mums out there.. Especially for my cousin yang baru je a few days in confinement. Hope you stay strong with the boring food for 44 days.. These few recipes, I got it from various sources, including the internet.. Hope it will add a little bright colours to your daily menu.

Good nutrition is an important aspect of the treatment during confinement. This is because, during the process of pregnancy, and labour itself, the hormones become slightly imbalance. According to some of the Malays petua, mums are advice to eat rice with ikan masin/ ikan panggang berkunyit, and drinks only a certain amount of water. Because of these strict diet (poor nutrition, and not enough water), mums are exposed to the risk of kidney failure and low blood pressure. Therefore, modern medicine nowadays is against the traditional ways of 'berpantang makan'. Just to make it clear, those kind of restricted diet practice, is not actually the proper ways of berpantang makan in Malay culture, but Malay people in the olden days are used to that kind of nutrition because they live in poverty.

So here goes a few recipes, that have better nutritional content, that I personally think is much more better for new mums.

Ikan Haruan / Tenggiri / Bawal Putih / Merah / Salmon Panggang Berkari
bahan-bahan:

serbuk kari
serbuk kunyit
serbuk lada hitam
ikan


cara-cara:

gaulkan semua bahan diatas bersama sedikit garam, lumurkan di atas ikan & panggang - boleh diletak atas dapur sahaja / dalam oven.

Baby Hooded Towels, with matching Hooded Blankets

Hello mums and dads, and also hello to the gorgeous babies and little ones!
First of all, congratulations to those yang baru bergelar mama & papa (yes! that goes to you my dear cousin Nor and Jan!! :D) Wishing you all the best in your new life adventure with your little boy.

Now mums and dads, hooded blankets are also available for orders, to match the hooded towels. More samples will be posted soon. But for now, sample froggy je baru siap. So here it goes... Also, here are some nice beautiful pictures of the few hooded towels sold to three heroes out there.. thanks for the poses!!

 

Baby Hooded Towels

If you want something different, cute, and definitely unique from others, do check out these personalised hooded baby towels.. Matching hooded baby blankets akan di upload soon.. to order, click on how to order tab above.

BIRD

RABBIT

BLUE MONSTER

ELEPHANT

PINK MONSTER

CHICKEN

FROGGY

DUCK

Chocolate Lava Cake

Molten chocolate lava cake, delicious and mouth watering (according to my son, whose air liur memang menjejeh tengok mama nya makan, tapi tak offer).. but at last, finally, dapat jugak die rase cake.. :D

I made this for mother's day, but i'm sure to make it again for other special function as they are easy to make, and of course delicious.. plus they are super delicious if makan with ice-cream.. nyum nyum...

Anyone interested?? Price: RM65 for 16 pieces or RM 4.50 per piece. Contact me at mumnbaby@yahoo.com.my 

Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day to all mothers out there. I would like to express my greatest gratitude to my mum, who has always been there for me, as a friend, mum, carer when I was sick, story teller, a great cook, and not to forget as a role model.

The memories that I have with my mum, has always been of how we shared and spent time together when I was a little girl. I am sorry mum, if I cant remember what brand of clothes you bought me, or how expansive it was for you to send me to art school, or music school, or swimming lessons. But I do remember how every night, she would sit with all her children at the dinner table at 8.30pm, just to make we finish our school homework. I remembered how every year about a week before hari raya, she used to make us help her making biskut raya. We had to help to put the cherries, and sprinkle the chocolate chips. Back then, I used to think that she forced us to help her because we cant afford to buy biskut raya at the shop. Maybe part of it was true, as my parents did spend a lot on other extra classes, such as music and swimming lessons for all their 3 children. But now, at the age of 26, with a 8 months-old son of my own, I knew that my mum did all these just to create good memories and traditions of her own. During weekends and school holidays, I remembered how my family, the 5 of us, will spend our time playing monopoly, scrabble, or other boardgames, and even video games at home. We seldom go to shopping complexes like all the KL people nowadays, because back then we lived quite a distance from KL.

As I grew up into a young adult or more precise into a rebellious teenager, I became more materialistic. I promise myself that I wanted to earn a LOT of money when I grew up, so that I can afford to buy biskut raya instead of making them, I can buy big cars and go to shopping mall every weekend, and shop and shop and shop. This shallow dream of mine, pushed me to study hard, hoping that one day I can lead a 'happy' life with 'materialistic values'. I thought, why not.. Lets study medicine, and later on I can become a great surgeon, and make a LOT of money, and be happy..

Well, as I thought my path was going to be as easy as what I dream, Allah has a better plan for me instead. He granted me with a great jodoh of mine, at a very early stage. I got married during my first year of medical school, to someone who is totally different in the way of thinking, but he completes me in many ways. Being with him, I found a new meaning of happiness. Money cant buy the happiness I had with him. He made me see how a fancy, huge, expansive car, is no more valueable than just an ordinary car, as long as it fits the purpose of a car, to bring you from point A to point B. With him, I value the meaning of learning the culture while travelling to other countries, and not just busy shopping and sight seeing of their special tourists places. With him, I value the quietness during mealtime, and not to bersesak-sesak to eat at the shopping mall. Now the materialistic value that I thought would make me happy, has changed... I value the time that I have with my  husband, family, and friends more than I appreciate it before.

Allah granted me with another unexpected joy when I was in my final year of medical school. When I had my son, I felt that I wanted to give him the best that a mother can give. I started working when he was 5 months old. The first 3 weeks, I had to work 7am till nearly 11pm everyday, no weekends.. I did not manage to see him smile, hold him, play with him, feed him, and even bathe him. I felt so guilty and bad. It felt wrong. Somehow I feel incomplete, and my life was meaningless. It felt worse when I came home really tired after work, and the little time I had with my son before he goes to bed, I felt like I dont want to cuddle, kiss or play with him. That was when I started to think back, about what I value in life. I realised that I CAN live with being busy with work, but I CANT live without spending good quality time with my husband, and my family. I cannot live without making sure my future children do their homework at dinner table every night, or making biskut raya with them every raya, or playing boardgames during their school holidays... All the things that I had been doing with my parents when I was a little girl, I want that with my future children as well. I do hope, that my future children will value these things more than the materialistic values that life can offer. I may not be able to give branded Prada, Coach, or LV stuff to my future children, but I do hope they will value the happy moments of playing football, story telling and baking with their parents more.

Therefore, on this mother's day, I would like to say thank you to my mum especially, for creating such a great memories, sharing the wonderful happy times, which made me a better person, and a happy person I am today. Thank you! And I do hope, I can be a good mum as well.. To Adam, I'll be looking forward for our special football weekends with papa, once you can start walking and kicking the ball.. :D  

A-Z of natural pain relief during labour

I found this interesting article on pain relief in babycentre website. This is useful during the start of labour, when the contractions has just begun, and when you still have the energy, and courage to try to pursue for a natural birth. However, some people have a low threshold for pain, thus opt to have other pain relief methods such as pethidine, TENS, or even epidural. The other options of pain relief, will be posted in the update, but here goes some things you could try and do, within the first few hours of contraction pain. You might even manage to go through the whole labour process with just these natural methods.  

Here's an A to Z of ideas to help you cope with pain and feel in control of your labour: 

A: Ask for information: the more you know, the more relaxed you'll feel. 
B: Breathe rhythmically and relax as you breathe out. 
C: Cuddle your husband/ family members thats in the labour room with you. 
D: Drink sips of isotonic drinks or water in between contractions. 
E: Eat carbohydrate-rich foods little and often if you feel hungry. (Although research shows that eating and drinking in labour is safe, some doctors and hospitals still discourage it - check with your doctor about her preferences and hospital policy about this.) 
F: Fan yourself with a small electric fan. 

Zikir dan Doa Semasa Bersalin

I found this page to be very useful to mums yang dah nak bersalin nanti. Try to amalkan, as this may help us when we are in the most vulnerable situation nanti, as Allah is the only One to hold on to. Nak cube masukkan terus the whole thing, but the ayat-ayat tak boleh nak copy kan. So, check it out yourself..

http://www.perjalanansuci.com/Informasi/Zikir&DoaSemasaBersalin.htm