Monday, May 21, 2012
Thursday, May 10, 2012
Already running away with boys!
I do feel quite ashamed I have been so negligent in blogging about little Yusuf, or as hubby likes to refer to him - fat Bilaal. It seems it gets worse with each kid. Bilaal has home movies and albums dedicated to his growth and development. Sumayah may not have any photographs, or a single home movie, but she certainly has been the star of many a blog post. Yusuf? Well all he has to show for his absolute adorable cuteness are blackberry profile picture updates and the occasional facebook upload. And yet here I am again, after neglecting my blog for so long, who, but who is once again the star of the show? Yep, you guessed it...none other than the diva herself - Sumayah! This little fireball gave me a near heart attack yesterday.
You see, we have new neighbours. At long last there are children Bilaal's age living in the complex! So yesterday the 3 boys aged 10, 8, and 6 came over to play. Sumayah was not impressed by the exclusion she experienced. She kept coming downstairs mumbling about how she doesn't want to play with them because they don't want her to play etc. Needless to say Bilaal was thoroughly enjoying himself.So at about 5.30pm I told them to start winding up their game because Bilaal needed to get in the shower and it would be dark soon. I go back downstairs to turn off the oven and get the house keys so that I can start locking up. One by one the boys leave, greeting as they go. I go outside a few minutes later to lock the garden gate and then proceed into the house to lock the door and close all the windows and curtains. By now the sun has set so it is quite dark outside all of a sudden. While closing the last curtain, I call upstairs to Sumayah that I am coming to bath her now. I get no response. I go upstairs calling her and calling her and it starts to dawn on me that she is no upstairs! Bilaal is in the shower already and he has no idea where she is. I start to panic when I don't find her anywhere in the house and realise that she might have followed the boys next door, and here I have already locked up the house with no way for her to get back in. So I scurry for the house keys, with Yusuf dangling over my shoulder as I try to get past what seemed like endless security barriers to look my 2 year old daughter outside in the dark! I go next door (Yusuf) still bobbing his head around over my shoulder and the helper says she didn't see Sumayah come in with the boys. Now my heart is really pumping, where the hell can she be???!!! So I run back to my house to put Yusuf in his cot and run back outside shouting Sumayah's name in a rather panicky fashion. I start walking up to the top of the complex grounds because I remember her asking me earlier to go visit her friend Seth who lives a few houses up, all the while I'm calling and calling. And then who do I see running down the slopey concrete grounds in the dark with 3 boys following suit? Why Sumayah of course! All laughing and carefree running around in the dark with the neighbourhood boys! Needless to say I was furious! My heart was beating faster than a formula one race car and I was on the verge of tears. After venting to my friends on blackberry I started to calm down, but I was still very mad at Sumayah, although I suspect most of what I felt was guilt. After her scolding Sumayah of course cried just a little, but then continued as though nothing major just happened. She was singing and talking to herself in the bath as usual.
I on the other hand was driving myself bonkers with all the what-if scenarios, beating myself up with complete and utter guilt that I didn't have my eyes glued to her every second and how could I have let this happen? By the time hubby came home I was feeling much more calm, but still very guilty. But he cracked me up in the way only he knows how by saying very seriously, "so our 2 year old is already running away with boys?!"
Oh boy oh boy do I NOT look forward to the teenage years!
You see, we have new neighbours. At long last there are children Bilaal's age living in the complex! So yesterday the 3 boys aged 10, 8, and 6 came over to play. Sumayah was not impressed by the exclusion she experienced. She kept coming downstairs mumbling about how she doesn't want to play with them because they don't want her to play etc. Needless to say Bilaal was thoroughly enjoying himself.So at about 5.30pm I told them to start winding up their game because Bilaal needed to get in the shower and it would be dark soon. I go back downstairs to turn off the oven and get the house keys so that I can start locking up. One by one the boys leave, greeting as they go. I go outside a few minutes later to lock the garden gate and then proceed into the house to lock the door and close all the windows and curtains. By now the sun has set so it is quite dark outside all of a sudden. While closing the last curtain, I call upstairs to Sumayah that I am coming to bath her now. I get no response. I go upstairs calling her and calling her and it starts to dawn on me that she is no upstairs! Bilaal is in the shower already and he has no idea where she is. I start to panic when I don't find her anywhere in the house and realise that she might have followed the boys next door, and here I have already locked up the house with no way for her to get back in. So I scurry for the house keys, with Yusuf dangling over my shoulder as I try to get past what seemed like endless security barriers to look my 2 year old daughter outside in the dark! I go next door (Yusuf) still bobbing his head around over my shoulder and the helper says she didn't see Sumayah come in with the boys. Now my heart is really pumping, where the hell can she be???!!! So I run back to my house to put Yusuf in his cot and run back outside shouting Sumayah's name in a rather panicky fashion. I start walking up to the top of the complex grounds because I remember her asking me earlier to go visit her friend Seth who lives a few houses up, all the while I'm calling and calling. And then who do I see running down the slopey concrete grounds in the dark with 3 boys following suit? Why Sumayah of course! All laughing and carefree running around in the dark with the neighbourhood boys! Needless to say I was furious! My heart was beating faster than a formula one race car and I was on the verge of tears. After venting to my friends on blackberry I started to calm down, but I was still very mad at Sumayah, although I suspect most of what I felt was guilt. After her scolding Sumayah of course cried just a little, but then continued as though nothing major just happened. She was singing and talking to herself in the bath as usual.
I on the other hand was driving myself bonkers with all the what-if scenarios, beating myself up with complete and utter guilt that I didn't have my eyes glued to her every second and how could I have let this happen? By the time hubby came home I was feeling much more calm, but still very guilty. But he cracked me up in the way only he knows how by saying very seriously, "so our 2 year old is already running away with boys?!"
Oh boy oh boy do I NOT look forward to the teenage years!
Wednesday, May 2, 2012
Wednesday, April 4, 2012
Wednesday, March 28, 2012
Tuesday, March 27, 2012
And Yusuf was born!
Its been three weeks since my last post and as promised this one will be dedicated to the birth story óf little Yusuf Abrahams. As I write this post I am lying with him snugly curled up aginst my chest sleeping like a little angel. I can't believe he is 3 weeks already and that I am actually a mother of 3! The funny thing about pregnancy and birth is that no matter how gatvol (to my foreign readers that means fed up) you are of being pregnant, no matter how ready you are to pop, when the day arrives and your impending delivery is in sight, you feel so unprepared and nervous and excited and a whole bunch of other feelings all rolled into one huge heap of emotion. When I think back and reflect on any of my births I remember the finer details of the day very clearly, but the memory of the experience is still so surreal. Its like I was present in the moment, but not fully aware of the whirlwind that I was part of.
Interestingly my birth experience with Yusuf was very similar to Bilaals, because the progression of my labour was almost identicle! It started out a normal day getting up at 6 to wake Bilaal for school and prepare his breakfast and lunch. Just before Yaasier and Bilaal left at about 7 I started feeling discomfort that cameand went very quickly. With weeks od prelabour niggles I didn't immediately have the light come on that this was a contraction, but then it happened again, and again, and again. It wasn't painful just uncomfortable, but increasingly so, so at this point I remembered that the same thing happened when I went into labour with Bilaal. I also woke at 7am with similar discomfort. Yaasier and Bilaal had left already and Sumayah was still asleep so I decided to lie on the bed and time what I now suspected were mild contractions. in the mean time I was furiously googling signs and symptoms of labour (one would think I would know all this 3rd time round!) and was messaging my good friend about what was happening. Yaasier was an hour away on a conference and I wasn't sure if I should call him all the way back in the even it was a falso alarm. I struggled to time them at first because I kept being interrupted or forgetting to press the stopwatch and start it again etc. Then Sumayah also woke up and I had to get her ready for school. By this time I think I pretty much knew instinctively that this was the real deal, but I remembered how Sumayah sent us back and forth to the hsopital 3 time before the show began so I wanted to be absolutely certain. So with contractions still going at very regular intervals and starting to get more and more uncomfortable heading toward the pain end of the spectrum, I got Sumayah ready for school and dropped her off. Fortunately her school is literally down the road so I only had 2 maybe 3 contractions there and back. But that's how mild they were, I could still comfortably drive, talk to the teacher, and hug and kiss my girl. But as soon as I got home I lay on the bed and focussed solely on timing these darn buggers that were now steadily increasing in intensity. I called Yaasier and let him know what was happening, at this point it was clear that these were contractions and they were not tapering off. They were about 10 minutes apart and each one lasted about a minute. I phoned the doctor who said I should come into the maternity ward to be monitored. So Yaasier made his way back home. I was convinced I would be monitored at hospital and then they would send me home to come back later in the day. But alas that was not to be. When Yaasier arrived he first had to collect Sumayah from school before we could go to hospital, which fortunately is also only 5 minutes away. While there the nurse informed us that I was already 4 cm dilated! Yaasier then had to rush off to fetch Bilaal at school and drop him at home. It seemed like ages that he was gone. I don't think he realised how much of a rock of support he is to me during times like these. By this time the pain from each contraction was really intense, so I distracted myself with facebook and Blackberry messages. So amny of my family and friends knoew I was in labour as it was happening! While waiting for Yaasier the nurse informed me that as soon as he arrived they would break my waters to speed things up because my labour was progressing quite quickly as it was so she was sure our littel angel would make an appearance soon. Yaasier was quite taken aback to hear this when he arrived. The nurses were busy with another birth and while we waited Yaasier distracted me with his funny remarkss while I rocked on a gym ball through each pain.
Finally the final hours hour arrived. I was wheeled into the delivery room and was found to be 8cm dilated already. The breaks between contractions were starting to dwindle till eventually it felt like just one continous contraction. Then the nurse announced that it was almost time to push and that she would break my waters. It is the strangest feeling, that urge to push. It's like you have no control over the feeling and yet you are also in total control of whether you push or not. The doctor hadn't arrived yet and the nurses said that if I felt I neede to push that I should just go ahead. Just after the doctor arrived, 3 pushes, a lot of screaming and some bone crunching of Yaasier's hand later, and our beautiful 3.16kg baby boy was born at 15h40 on Wednesday 7 March.
And now here I am a proud mother of 3, enjoying my babymoon with Yusuf.
Interestingly my birth experience with Yusuf was very similar to Bilaals, because the progression of my labour was almost identicle! It started out a normal day getting up at 6 to wake Bilaal for school and prepare his breakfast and lunch. Just before Yaasier and Bilaal left at about 7 I started feeling discomfort that cameand went very quickly. With weeks od prelabour niggles I didn't immediately have the light come on that this was a contraction, but then it happened again, and again, and again. It wasn't painful just uncomfortable, but increasingly so, so at this point I remembered that the same thing happened when I went into labour with Bilaal. I also woke at 7am with similar discomfort. Yaasier and Bilaal had left already and Sumayah was still asleep so I decided to lie on the bed and time what I now suspected were mild contractions. in the mean time I was furiously googling signs and symptoms of labour (one would think I would know all this 3rd time round!) and was messaging my good friend about what was happening. Yaasier was an hour away on a conference and I wasn't sure if I should call him all the way back in the even it was a falso alarm. I struggled to time them at first because I kept being interrupted or forgetting to press the stopwatch and start it again etc. Then Sumayah also woke up and I had to get her ready for school. By this time I think I pretty much knew instinctively that this was the real deal, but I remembered how Sumayah sent us back and forth to the hsopital 3 time before the show began so I wanted to be absolutely certain. So with contractions still going at very regular intervals and starting to get more and more uncomfortable heading toward the pain end of the spectrum, I got Sumayah ready for school and dropped her off. Fortunately her school is literally down the road so I only had 2 maybe 3 contractions there and back. But that's how mild they were, I could still comfortably drive, talk to the teacher, and hug and kiss my girl. But as soon as I got home I lay on the bed and focussed solely on timing these darn buggers that were now steadily increasing in intensity. I called Yaasier and let him know what was happening, at this point it was clear that these were contractions and they were not tapering off. They were about 10 minutes apart and each one lasted about a minute. I phoned the doctor who said I should come into the maternity ward to be monitored. So Yaasier made his way back home. I was convinced I would be monitored at hospital and then they would send me home to come back later in the day. But alas that was not to be. When Yaasier arrived he first had to collect Sumayah from school before we could go to hospital, which fortunately is also only 5 minutes away. While there the nurse informed us that I was already 4 cm dilated! Yaasier then had to rush off to fetch Bilaal at school and drop him at home. It seemed like ages that he was gone. I don't think he realised how much of a rock of support he is to me during times like these. By this time the pain from each contraction was really intense, so I distracted myself with facebook and Blackberry messages. So amny of my family and friends knoew I was in labour as it was happening! While waiting for Yaasier the nurse informed me that as soon as he arrived they would break my waters to speed things up because my labour was progressing quite quickly as it was so she was sure our littel angel would make an appearance soon. Yaasier was quite taken aback to hear this when he arrived. The nurses were busy with another birth and while we waited Yaasier distracted me with his funny remarkss while I rocked on a gym ball through each pain.
Finally the final hours hour arrived. I was wheeled into the delivery room and was found to be 8cm dilated already. The breaks between contractions were starting to dwindle till eventually it felt like just one continous contraction. Then the nurse announced that it was almost time to push and that she would break my waters. It is the strangest feeling, that urge to push. It's like you have no control over the feeling and yet you are also in total control of whether you push or not. The doctor hadn't arrived yet and the nurses said that if I felt I neede to push that I should just go ahead. Just after the doctor arrived, 3 pushes, a lot of screaming and some bone crunching of Yaasier's hand later, and our beautiful 3.16kg baby boy was born at 15h40 on Wednesday 7 March.
And now here I am a proud mother of 3, enjoying my babymoon with Yusuf.
Friday, March 9, 2012
Welcome to the World!
How remarkable that in my last post on Tuesday I described my contentment at trusting that our new little bundle of joy would arrive in good time...and then the very next day...
Welcome to the world, our son, baby Yusuf Abrahams, born Wednesday 7 March 2012 at 3.40pm.
I will be posting the birth story real soon, but for now I am going to be getting some rest and bonding time, enjoying the calm of the newborn period before the storm of everyday life with 3! kids begins.
Welcome to the world, our son, baby Yusuf Abrahams, born Wednesday 7 March 2012 at 3.40pm.
I will be posting the birth story real soon, but for now I am going to be getting some rest and bonding time, enjoying the calm of the newborn period before the storm of everyday life with 3! kids begins.
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