[HEALTH] MSG : Migrain Seduce by Glutamate

Ouch! Kalo udh kena migrain, adudududu kepala cenat cenut ga nahan banget. Pusingnya lebih parah drpd pusing belajar ngadepin ujian akhir. Serius deh.

Udh tiga kali saya migrain tiba2. Awalnya saya pikir krn stres, baby blues, atau apalah yg berhubungan sama pikiran dn perasaan. *huhuy :p* Tp dipikir2 lagi, teryata penyebabnya adalah MSG! Ya, monosodium glutamate, alias vetcin aka micin atau penyedap rasa. Uuggghh! Menyebalkan!

Jadi sejak tinggal di Depok sama Mas Pram dn Asha, konsumsi MSG saya jauuuuhhh berkurang drpd waktu masih single dn masih di Bandung. Saya dari dulu adalah penggemar jajanan. Selalu nimbun cemilan di kamar. Cemilan ber-MSG sebangsa kripik2, ciki2 jadi favorit saya. Lalu, masakan di rumah jg ga pernah absen dari yg namanya penyedap rasa.

Sejak berumahtangga sendiri, saya udh ga sempet jajan2. Udh ga sempet ngemil2. Karena sejak jd ibu2, waktu belanja bulanan udh ga inget buat belanja cemilan, ingetnya belanja bahan masakan untuk keluarga. Pluuss kalo udh jadi ibu, rempong yaa bo kalo mau ngemil sedangkan ada bayi yg hrs diurus. Jadi sebenernya ngurangin beli cemilan bukan karena sadar kesehatan, tp krn ribet. Haha.. Dan sejak masak makanan sendiri, saya ga pernah pake penyedap rasa atau bumbu instan. Cukup gula, garam, lada buat bikin masakan lebih berasa.

Setelah berbulan2 tanpa sadar detox MSG, pas sekalinya makan kripik atau ciki, tuuiiinnnggg... langsung deh kena migrain. Kepala cenat cenut, sakit banget. Sampe2 saya selalu minum paracetamol buat ngehilangin sakit kepala yg ga nahan itu. Kalo ga minum parasetamol, sakit kepalanya ga ilang2. Karena Asha msh menyusui, saya minum paracetamol setelah Asha kenyang nenen. Biar ada jeda 1-2 jam dari setelah saya minum obat, sampe Asha mau nenen lagi.

Rasanya bitter sweet deh bs detox MSG ini. Bitternya karena skrg ga bs bebas makan cemilan dn makanan sesuka hati, harus pilih2 yg ga mengandung MSG. Sweetnya krn tubuh saya punya alarm buat ngingetin saya untuk stop konsumsi MSG. Mending ga ngemil keripik dn ciki deh drpd sakit kepala cenat cenut. After all kayanya lebih byk sweet nya, krn alarm tubuh saya lebih aware skrg sama yg namanya MSG dibanding dulu yg alarmnya mati suri karena keracunan MSG. Subhanallah ya..kejadian ini bikin saya mikir bahwa tubuh kita sangat ajaib bisa menginstal dn mengupgrade software di dalam tubuh. Pilihan ada di tangan kita, mau instal dn up grade untuk sehat atau untuk sakit??

Habis ini detox apa lagi ya?? Gula mgkn?? Huaaa.. Tantangan besar!! Secara saya suka banget makanan dn minuman manis. Tapi mudah2an bs dikurangi secara bertahap. Ayo kita biasakan hidup sehat dgn makan makanan sehat dn bergiziiii :D

XOXO

[NGOBROL] Well It's (still) Wednesday

It feels like a long week for me after i had a scary scene on Asha's first bday :'(

Though this week started with a helpful day frm my husband who took a day off from work, but still it couldn't lift up my mood, spirit, excitement, confidence to go through my daily role as a stay at home mom for Asha. This monday had been very wonderful. With husband at home, i could have more time to cook propper meal for us. Then we managed to tidy up the whole house. It feels better to see spacious clean room.

But as i said, still i haven't gain my confidence to take care Asha by myself again. So i decided to took her to my aunt house on Tuesday. It feels better to be around with family.

Today is wednesday. We had enough good time at my aunty's house. Time to go home. Tomorrow i'll start again my main role as a stay at home mom for Asha. I thought it is thursday already. But there are two more days before weekend. I have to be strong and be a good mom for Asha (good wife for husband too).

In a time like this, i feel like i wanna go back to bandung, to my parent. Bring Asha with me. So i can feel safe and secure to raise her around family. But that would be mean that we have to leave husband alone and go through the long distance relationship again which i don't want. So i'm in a big dilemma. Choosing between raising Asha safely calmly securily around my family (at least until she's 2 yo) or struggling my daily life day by day as a stay at home mom for Asha when there's lot of time i feel insecure, scare, unconfidence. Oh i'm so whinny. And it's still wednesday..

[NGOBROL] Bertetangga

Begitu jadi ibu rumah tangga dn berinteraksi dgn ibu rumah tangga lainnya, banyak hal yg bikin saya ternganga dn tertegun. Beda bgt rasanya "gaul" sama ibu2 rumah tangga drpd sama temen2 kuliah atau temen kerja. Bahasannya aja udh beda. Rata2 yg dibahas adalah masalah domestik rumah tangga. Saya sampe terheran2 betapa mereka bs membuat hal remeh temeh (menurut saya) menjadi obrolan yg penting dibahas. Oh dan jangan lupa, gosipin tetangga lain tentu selalu jadi bahasan sedap ibu2 rumah tangga ini. Buat saya, semuanya bikin ga nyaman. Kalo udh gini, mending jadi penonton atau diam2 menyingkir sajaaa...

Selanjutnya, yg bikin saya tertegun adalah kebiasaan ibu2 ini untuk mencicil barang yg dibelinya. Sebenernya bayar nyicil sih oke2 aja. Saya jg beli hp dn kamera nyicil pake credit card suami. Tapiiiiii kalo buat beli tupperware harga 80rb aja pake dicicil 10 bulan, alias bayar 8rb setiap bulan selama 10 kali, apa ga cape tuh??? Kalo saya mah, capedeeee. Ada lagi tukang kredit baju harian. Dia dagang baju dari rumah ke rumah secara kredit. Dan nagihin duitnya tiap hari. Cicilan per hari itu bs cuma dua-tiga ribu sampe belasan ribu tergantung belanjaannya. Pdhl yaa ibu2 itu sebenernya pada mampu ko buat bayar sekali lunas. Trs ngapain ribet2 pake dicicil segala ya????

Sebagai pendatang baru di lingkungan rumah, saya yakin deh kayanya udh pasti jd bahan omongan tetangga sekitar. Tp saya ga peduli sih. Whateverrr... Dan dugaan saya bener ternyata. Tante saya yg bilang ke saya, katanya ibu2 pada nanya, "Itu Nurul pake suntik pemutih ya, ko kulitnya bs putih bgt?". The most ridiculous thing i ever heard. Alhmdlh ini kulit saya udh dari sononya begitu. Turunan dari ibu. Kagak usah deh ribet2 pake pemutih apalagi sampe disuntik. Aduh yaa ibu2 rumah tangga emang bahasannya kadang2 ajaib. Dan saya blm terbiasa dgn topik2 macam itu. Heu..

Hari ini edisi curhat deh ceritanya :)

XOXO

[NGOBROL] Support Group For (New) Mom

Every new mom must be clueless at first. Though she might have prepared herself with lots of theoritrical knowledge of taking care baby, but practicaly it's not as simple as reading a book. She needs support group, a group of (closest) people that always there to support her become a new mom.

I always thought that being a stay at home mom is easy. All you have to do just taking care husband, baby, make some food, and keep the home neat and clean, and you still have lots of time to do whatever you want. Teeeetttt!!! That's just so wrong. I'm not the kind of mom that was featured in Goodhouse Keeping magz who seems to do everything perfectly and always looking good and pretty every day. I'm just ordinary (normal) mom and wife that still need several adjustments with my new tittle.

My house is a mess during weekdays. Laundry bin is full during weekdays. I never have time to shower twice a day during weekdays. Forget about beauty care or make up during weekdays, i don't have time for that stuffs. I look shabby all the time (poor hubby). I sweat (in the high possibility of stink) during the days and nights because of the combination of hot air, stress, and doing housekeeping plus babykeeping stuffs. At the end of the day when hubby came home late night, i was bragging and crying. It made my exhausted hubby upset and led into a cold war that thankfully only lasted less than an hour.

See? My life as a stay at home mom is not as easy as i thought. One day i realized that maybe i had the baby blues syndrome. I feel like i can't be a good mom for Asha. I feel like i'm failed being a wife and a mom. I feel so useless.

It was not easy at all getting through the baby blues syndrome. My husband helped me getting through all that unpleasant feeling. But he doesn't know that what i need the most is support group. Since he spents most of his time at work during weekdays, i always feel lonely and insecure whenever he's not around. Moreover we live in different town from my parent. I feel like i don't have someone to turn to.

Now as i'm writting this story, i enjoying my holiday at my parent house. Then i realized how important their   presence for me, as i always take it for granted before. They are my support group. In this house i get my confidence and feel more secure to do my role as a mom for Asha. As a result, Asha is happier and healthier here. She giggles a lot, she's so active, she eats a lot and gain more weight. See? Support group can make a happy and more stable mom that will bring huge positive effect to the baby.

When it's time for me to go home, i will keep this in mind. No matter how far we're appart, i will always have my support group. My husband, family, and friends.

XOXO

[NGOBROL] Pahlawan Kami

Suamiku adalah pahlawan bagiku dn Asha. Banyak hal yg dia perjuangkan tiap hari bagi kebahagiaan kami. Most of the time i always take it for granted. Pdhl apa yg suami berikan pd kami mengorbankan tenaga dn waktunya.

Setiap hari dia menempuh perjalanan ke kantor selama 1,5 hingga 2 jam dgn naik motor. Panas, hujan, dingin dia lalui utk melaksanakan kewajibannya mencari nafkah bagi kami sekeluarga. Malam2 saat hujan, disaat aku dn asha meringkuk berpelukan di kasur yg hangat, pahlawan kami berjuang menyusuri jalan pulang melawan hujan, udara malam yg dingin, dn macet jakarta yg kadang menahannya utk cepat sampai ke rumah.

Semalam, suamiku tiba di rumah jam setengah 12 malam. Kelelahan mengerjakan tugas kantor yg menggunung di akhir tahun. Melihatnya berjuang seperti itu, ingin rasanya aku merengkuhnya, membagi rasa lelahnya padaku. Tapi suamiku tdk pernah mengeluh sedikitpun. Tentang kantornya yg jauh, tentang kerjaannya yg menggunung, tentang dirinya yg kehujanan, tentang macet, tentang kakinya yg pegal, tdk pernah dia mengeluh padaku.

Suamiku mencontohkan kedewasaan padaku. Dia mencontohkan makna perjuangan padaku. Dia mencontohkan cinta dn kasih sayang pd keluarganya. Walau dia adlh orang yg jarang berkata & berbuat hal2 manis padaku, tp sesungguhnya semua yg dia berikan padaku dn Asha adlh bukti cintanya pada kami.

Ya Allah, jagalah selalu suamiku dlm perlindunganmu. Berilah dia selalu kesehatan, keselamatan, dn kekuatan dlm menjalani hari2nya. Mudahkanlah setiap langkahnya dlm bekerja. Amin.

I LOVE YOU, MY HUSBAND

Dari : istrimu yg selalu mencintaimu.

XOXO

Bussines Mama

Just a few days left before i officialy become stay at home mom :D

I already had several plans on what will i do as a stay at home mom. Sure i won't just stay at home and do nothing. Since i don't hire a helper to do the house cleaning job, i'll do all the job by myself plus i have to take care of Asha all day. I think i'm gonna quite busy tough. But i'll manage to do other job. Yes, i wanna try to be a bussines mama whose doing her job at home while taking care of my baby. I even had the name for my future bussines, it ended with Enterprise, because it consists of several bussines lines.

For the first step, i plan to make an online shop that sells hijab, broche, accessories, and my preloved dresses. But i don't want to put too much money on it. So i have to find good stuffs in good price. Insya Allah, the online shop will launch very soon :D

The second step, i plan to make a birthday party planner for babies and kids. I'm still collecting the material to run this bussines. My goal is to launch this second line on January 2013, after Asha's first birhday. I'm going to make Asha's birthday party as my first project. Insya Allah :D

The third step, i plan to take the sewing class. Yes, i wanna learn to sew. It's been my dream from long ago. I wanna be able to make little dress for Asha, i want to sew cute stuffs such as doll, wallet, purse, bag and sell it. Further more i want to make party supplies or souvenirs for my birthday party planner bussines. Oh how i really want to make it real! But i have to wait until step one and two accompolished.

Are those too much? I always dream that one day i'm going to do things i'm passionate about, things that i love. Maybe my plans sound too high. But i'm going to make it real. Insya Allah. One step at a time to make my dream into reality. Amin.

A Confuse Working Mom

This post is about my confusion as working mom who left my baby at house with family member. Fiuhh..

As a working mom who left Asha from 6 am to 7 pm, often i found Asha already fell asleep when i got home. My role during weekdays is just to breastfed and cuddle her till she falls asleep. In the morning, when it's time  for work , all i can do just kiss her cheeks and wishper to her ear while she still asleeps. Sometimes when she already wakes up early in the morning, she greets me with her sweetest smile and stares me with her bright eyes. Then i'll carry her, fell her soft and warm body in my arm, kissing her, and telling her her how beautiful she is and how much i love her. It's hard for me to leave her when she wakes up. That would be my first confusion.

After more than 12 hours leaving house, through the long exhausted journey from work to house, often struggling with traffic jam, my body needs time to realx. But i can't, because i have one more schedule to pump breastmik, i have Asha's bottles wait to be cleaned and sterilized, i have pile of Asha's cloth diapers and clothes wait to be washed, and ofcourse i have Asha to breastfed and cuddle. Though sometimes i abandon the clothes for couples day before i wash it, though sometimes i collect the expressed milk bottles for a week before i clean and sterilize it, it's all because i'm not a super mom who can stay a wake late night doing cleaning stuffs. I admitted that i'm a sleepy head. I can help it.

I put those dirty clothes in laundry bin and collect it till i have time to wash it, sometimes in 2 or 3 days. While for clothes diaper i manage to wash it everyday. I put the used  glass bottles, where i keep the expressed breastmilk (ASIP), in refrigerator until weekend before i clean it. Meanwhile the used feeding bottles have to be cleaned and sterilized everyday. So during weekend i do have lot of things to do. Not to mention my own and hubby's dirty clothes for a week.

Sometimes the family member intervention makes the situation even worse. They soak the used glass bottles with water ine big bowl along with breastmilk left inside. It makes the bottles stinks, even after i washed and boiled it. They soak cloth diapers with water inside the bucket and put the dirty clothes together in it. The problem is there's still poo lefts on cloth diapers. It mess the whole clothes for sure.

When i always keep everything dry, they always soak it in water and left it for days. And i don't have capability to clean all of that mess right away. And i don't have a heart to tell them to stop doing it, because it would mean i blame them while they just try to help me. Siggh..

So that was my second confusion.

I can't wait the day when i don't have to leave Asha at home. I can't wait for the day to take care Asha and do the whole thing by my self. I can't wait to be stay at home mom. There's still three more weeks to go.

The Story Of Power Pumping

In my previous post, i wrote about power pumping that can boost breastmilk output. So i've been practicing this power pumping method for three days during office hour. *because once i got home, i couldn't practice power pumping since Asha attached on me all night* Before practicing this method, i pumped 2-3 times a day at office. Mostly i only managed to pump twice a day, because i was busy *not with job but with enchanted site and blog* Hehe.. :p

Image from here, because i don't want to put my photo here :p

Started on monday i struggled to pump 4-5 times a day at office. Tough in power pumping it said that you have to pump for 20-30 minutes every hour. Yes, every hour! Ofcourse i can't do it at office and still it wasn't easy for me to pump every 2-3 hours. But i did :D

On monday i gained 300 ml breastmilk, on Tuesday i gained 295 ml. I wasn't very satisfied with the result because i was expecting more than that. Before Asha was sick and started her meal, i could get at least 300 ml *or even more* a day from 3 times pumping. How come after practicing power pumping i gained less breastmilk than usual? But i refused to give up because i want to give Asha the best i could give, breastmilk.

On third day *today*, i feel that finally it works on me. I pumped 2 times and i gained 190 ml, nearly 100 ml per pump. Almost back to normal result. Yeaayy! I'm so confident that i can bring more breastmilk fo Asha today. I'm so happy, i wanna dance! :D

Image from here. I hope my freezer full of bottles of expressed breastmilk again soon

Here i want to share my tips on practicing power pumping,

- The poin is, never give up. Tough at first i don't get the result as i expected, just don't give up. Keep pumping. It will show the result for sure.

- Keep positive thinking. Believe that your body is on its way to increase breastmilk production.

- Be grateful on every result you get

- Increase your pumping schedule, if necessary you can pump every hour. Or it's still okay i guess if you only able to pump 2-3 hours a day like me.
*oh i don't even pump 2-3 hours a day, only during office hour, but it still works*

- Play some music to make you relax.
*i put my headphone and play my mp3 list or listen to the radio during pumping session. i pump my breast in 1,5-2 songs each. i don't get bored and have enough time to pump each breast. don't change pumping breast often in short period of time, the result won't maximum*

- Don't be too cc oriented. Just ignore the cc bars on your bottle, it will make you stress and it will affect the result. Try not to stare at cc bars. Enjoy your pumping momment, enjoy the music playing, and viola... more breastmilk in bottle.

- Be strict on schedule. Don't let yourself leave one pumping time. This time you have to be more discipline.

- Drink a lot of water

- Eat nutricious food and supplement.
*for supplement i take two spoons of date concentrate and 2 glasses of soya milk a day*

Enjoy your power pumping experience and good luck :D

And Then After 6 Months

The biggest achievment for me as a mom that i want to reward myself with something (or should i ask my hubby to reward me?) was finishing Asha's "almost" exclusively breastfed for the past 6 months. Kenapa saya bilang almost exclusively breastfed? Karena alasan ini nih :

- Asha did drink some formulated milk for three days at hospital right after she was born (i don't know how could i be so stupid by letting them gave the formulated milk to Asha?). Walaupun selama 3 hari itu during the day Asha was breastfed tapi waktu malam dia tidur di ruangan bayi karena harus masuk inkubator untuk menjaga tubuh kecilnya tetap hangat. Nah di ruang bayi itulah si suster2 itu minumin susu formula ke Asha. Huhu..

- Asha started her first meal earlier than it supposed to be. Soalnya hari pertama Asha makan itu harusnya adalah 11 Juni 2012, which is hari rabu. Sedangkan hari rabu adalah hari kerja, jadi saya majuin waktu makannya dari hari minggu. Because i wanted to be the first person who gave Asha solid food, i wanted to see her million dollar expressions when i fed her, i wanted to make sure that it was a good experience for her, i wanted to make example for my aunt on how to prepare Asha meal.  

Jadi kayanya Asha ga fully exclusively breastfed, but she almost exclusively breastfed. Hehe.. :D

Then after 6 months struggling with breast pump, cooler bag, calculating ASIP stock in freezer, and so on, ternyata produksi ASI saya cenderung berkurang sodara-sodaraaa. Cari info sana-sini ternyata memang kalo  bayi udah mulai makan, maka produksi ASI akan cenderung berkurang. Huhu.. Paniikk rasanya liat cadangan botol ASIP cuma tinggal 3 biji aja di freezer. When it used to be 15 bottles left on freezer, today it last only 3 bottles. Nangis2 lah saya semalem di depan hubby.

At office i can pump 3 times a day so i can bring 3 bottles of ASIP @100 ml to home. At home i pump one more time and i can get 1 more bottle. But Asha needs 5 bottles a day to fulfil her hunger. I used to get the extra bottles from ASIP stock in freezer. But now, my ASIP stock only 3 bottles left. Sekarang saya benar-benar bingung!

Ditengah2 kebingungan saya (dan hampir menyerah sama susu formula), saya nemuin artikel bagus ini di TUM. The power of pumping! Ternyata dengan niat, semangat, positive thinking, dan usaha mompa tiada henti, produksi ASI bisa meningkat. After i read the article last night together with hubby, we both optimist that i able to provide ASI for Asha. It's all about how i manage my time to pump more often than before. I don't want to give up.Yes i can! 

Hari ini saya langsung praktekin teknik the power of pumping itu. Walaupun ga mungkin bisa mompa sejam sekali, at least saya berusaha untuk meningkatkan frekuensi mompa di kantor. Dari 3 kali (itu pun seringnya cuma jadi 2 kali doang karena keasikan kerja atau browsing) menjadi 4 kali sehari. And i won't let myself to skip the schedule. So far sudah dapt 230 ml hasil dari 3 kali mompa. Mudah2an hari ini dan seterusnya bisa bawa 450 ml ASIP ke rumah. Amiinn..

Welcome New Title

Kemaren bertepatan dengan ulang bulan Asha yang ke 6, saya submit surat pengunduran diri ke big bos. Fyuhh.. Tanpa proses panjang dan tanpa interogasi, surat pun sukses ditandatangani. So i'll be officialy jobless on August 10th. Welcome new title! I'll be no longer a working mom. I'm going to be a stay at home mom whose fully spending my time with Asha. Yeaayy..finaly :D

It's not that easy for me to make such decision. Di mata sebagian orang mungkin berpikir bahwa menjadi ibu rumah tangga kalah gengsi dibandingkan ibu yang bekerja. Tapi bukan berarti menjadi ibu rumah tangga lantas harkat derajat saya jadi turun dibandingkan saat saya masih bekerja. Well, i'm proud to say it loud that i'm a happy stay at home mom.

No matter i'm a working mom, stay at home mom, or working at home mom, i'll always be a mom for Asha. It's a matter of choice. And for now i choose to be a stay at home mom. Whatever my choice is, being a working mom, stay at home mom, working at home mom, or whatever mom, i wanna do it happily. And i'm happy with the decision i made :D

Put Back My Wedding Ring

When i was pregnant, i gained almost 17 kg. My body was so big and every pieces of my body were swollen, include my fingers. That's why at the third trimester of my pregnancy, i had to remove my wedding ring since it no longer fit in my finger T__T

The time when he put the ring on me, April 23rd 2011 :)

It was yesterday when i opened my jewelry box and casually tried to put the wedding ring back on my finger, Taraaa..it's fit now! :D

I'm so happy that now i able to wear my wedding ring again. I hope i don't need to remove it for the second time. *Sigghh...

Working Mom Or Stay At Home Mom?

I've been thinking about it lately since i'm not sure which one i really want to be, being a working mom or stay at home mom. If only i could choose my own way, then i'll choose to be a happy working mom who loves her job and have much time to spend with her baby and husband without feeling exhausted and depressed every night.

I'm not saying that i don't like my current job, i just feel uncomfortable with it anymore.

Certainly my job can pay me enough money to fulfil my shopping desire, so i can dressed up Asha with cute and pretty dresses. But money is not the reason for me to be a working mom.

What i really want now is having a peaceful life, surround by the people i love, Asha and husband. Having much time to spend with them and able to do thing i'm passionate about.

So today i submited my resign letter. It was hard for me to hand the letter to my supervise and explained the reason to her. But she understood me very well and let me do what's best for me. Thank you, Thank Lord.

Next month will be my last month in this office. I'm going to miss everyone here. But i have to move on and live my life as a mother and wife. This time, being a stay at home mom who takes care of her own baby, husband, and home, is what's best for me and our little family.

Dear Lord, please take care of our family and give us stregth to live our own life. I believe that this is the beginning of something better ahead :)