Tag Archives: aliana2012

Labour, Birth and the closing of another Chapter (for now!)

Posted in Pregnancy by

Everytime i typed an entry, the husband always caught me and ask how come he never get to read them. Oh wells.

Anyways, this entry. This is for you. Yes you Muhammad Ali. I always get attached and emotional when i think about our labour and delivery experience.

Throughout the pregnancy, you’ve held my hand so tight, you were always careful with your assuarance. You knew how scared, anxious and nervous i was for the labour. Yet you stood positive and excited, you pushed me not to underestimate myself.

After every appointment, every scan and every monitoring, you’re always making sure that my thoughts are focused and that i am not worrying myself excessively.

When i got diagnosed with Gestational Diabetes,you were hard on me. On my diet and it progressed to be our diet. You eat what i had to eat. You made it like our health goals. You’re always saying No to my cravings because of it. As much as i hate you for it, I’m thankful.

As the day got nearer, you were saying No to so much things. You stay firm that i had to bed rest till the day I’ll get induced. The nearer the date was, the more nervous I’ve become and the more excited you were. Yes, thats how opposites we are! I cried, cried the most that week! Been praying to God so hard over the months, to bless us with a healthy baby and make my delivery easy, safe and painless. I knew painless was hard but everyday I prayed for it over and over again.

When the day finally came, we slept in to get as much rest before the sleepless night seeps in. Ate Nasi Lemak. Got home did last minute preparations and off we go. We might meet our baby that night or even the next day! You were feeling excited but finally blurted out that you’re nervous but not near as nervous as i was definitely.

As we parked the car in the Hospital compound , the last thing we said was “let’s do this!” Got to the Birthing Suite and was relieved Sophie (Our Gynae) was there. She prepped me and got down to inserting the Gel to help me dilate enough to burst my waterbag in the morning and start with the contractions and on the way for a natural delivery. This is a picture perfect summary but it doesnt work all the time.

So after the gel was inserted, it takes about 2 hours and the cramps kick in. It was on and on for the whole night. We didnt catch a wink! They gave me sleeping pills and panadeine to overcome the pain and catch some sleep. But failed.

So 7am came around. The time i was looking forward the most! Sophie checked my dilation, and after all those painful hours, i was only 1-2cm dilated! But she managed to break my waterbag and put me on the Oxytocin drip to encourage stronger contractions so i’ll get more dilation and will be able to deliver sooner. The Anaethesist, Dr. Mezzatesta came and got the epidural going! I must say he was very professional, positive and calm. He made me so at peace, putting my worries at bay and very efficient! In 5 mins everything was over, Oxytocin was in, Epidural was in and Catherer is in. Now is just a waiting game.

Sophie came around at 3ish and checked. Was thrilled that i am 6cm dilated! She was positive and encouraging. She foresee that by 7pm ill be dilated enough for delivery and by 9pm, our lil Prince will be in my Arms. But all we can do is plan and pursue. At the end of the day, God has better plans for us. At 5:30pm, Elva (OMG the best midwife ever!) came and check on me and realised that i am not dilating any further and there was blood in my urine. Something was wrong.

Next thing we knew, Sophie came in and checked. She had to deliver the news that i dread. Something is obstructing the labour and we had to do an emergency c section. My heart literally dropped. I stared at you with the heaviest heart. Sophie had to get a team ready for the operation and with all the Operation theatres booked out, we had to wait for awhile. Half an hour later, Dr. Mezzatesta arrived to prep me for the Operation.

I was scared shitless i was not going to lie. I panicked, stressed and was nervous. I knew you do what you had to do. You remain calm and keep feeding me positive energy. As they wheeled me in to the Theatre, it was the scariest moment in my life. Dr Mezzatesta kept me calm, i think every possible nerves were written all over my face. He was there just an arms length away from me the whole time to make sure i am ok. Everyone kept telling me how everything is going to be okay.

As i lay on that cold table, i broke out to strong cold shivers and nausea. You kept telling me it will be ok and it was going to be over soon and we can finally see our baby. I kept wanting to puke! And i requested not to see anything as they pull and thug and finally people told you to stand and have your phone ready as the baby arrives. Everything happen so quick!  We found out then that Ayden’s head was too big to fit into my pelvis, hence, the obstructed labour.

They wanted to pull down the drape to let me see the action, but i didnt want to. I was still shivering cold and puking and i didnt want to see our lil prince in that state. I cried when you brought him over to see me. You must be overwhelmed, i can see it in your beamig eyes. But i still couldnt bring myself to hold him due to my shivers and nausea! I kept asking the people around me how long more for the stitching to be complete. I was getting very sick. Very cold.

Finally at the recovery room, you managed to let me hold the baby. It was beautiful. I managed to whisper “Assalammualaikum” in his ears before you had to bring him to the special nursery to get his sugar levels checked. And when you return, i was just overjoyed. I thank God profusely for protecting me, for guiding me through this experience and for blessing me with a lil family i could call my own. Now as i slowly recover and ease into my new role as a Mother. InsyaAllah it will all be smooth sailing.

As we put an end to this chapter, InsyaAllah we will reopen this chapter in the future.

Muhammad Ali, i just want to thank you for being there with me every step of the way, for staying by my side at my most vulnerable time, for dressing me when i wasnt able to, for helping me through my recovery without any complains,for waking up at every night feeds when i told you not to, for being the best dad to Ayden! I pray to God everyday to protect you from harm, to give you the best he could offer in this life and hereafter and bless you with everlasting happiness! I think the words, I love you Muhammad Ali is an understatement. Cause its so much more than that.

PS: The staff at Mitcham Private, Dr Sophie Leong, Dr Joseph Mezzatesta and Dr Shane O’Dea has been super amazing! Making this journey a beautiful and memorable one! Definitely won’t hesitate to go back to them in the future!


Missing our suite already and the midwives who looked after us 24/7 for the past week! ☺️

Travel Bug.

Posted in Journal, Travel by

The past year we have been traveling extensively from our US trip to Euro trip! It has been amazing! All those research, numbers, headaches and late night thoughts; no never regret any of it! I just love planning!

But i guess the aftermath of it all! I miss traveling heaps! I miss hopping on the plane and land in an airport I haven’t been before; discover something new, new places, new food, new sights and new vibes!

One thing for sure, i will never trade my travel experiences; the good and the bad and definitely i will always choose YOU to do it all over again! The best of all is when you are able to hold hands with your bestfriend, the love of your life and explore the world! For that i am so blessed to be able to experience it…

Soon, we will have a little one in tow! Ive always dreamt of exploring the world with my little family and always foresee the husband pulling the little one on his lil trunki through the airport..  InsyaAllah.. We shall continue to explore the future together! 😘

A + A Eurotrip 2015 ~ Venice & Maranello

Posted in Travel by

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It was such a quick change of weather when we landed into Venice via EasyJet. It was super hot! Got a bus ticket from the Marco Polo Airport terminal. Since there is no land transport available direct to Venice. The most affordable and easiest way is to get the ATVO Airport Shuttle to Venice Piazzale Roma (express service). It will cost you €5.50 one way per person.Our plan was to catch the shuttle to Piazzale Roma, from there you have to cross the bridge and just a tip if you have more than one luggage, you can either drag them over the bridge and mind you there are steps! Be warn! It can get pretty full on! Or there are Porters at the foot of the bridge and you can just pay them €10 Euros and they will carry them for you using a Trolley to Venezia Santa Lucia railway station.

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As we are taking the evening train to Maranello, this was convenient for us and thereafter we deposit our luggage at the station so we are able to sightsee freely. Storing Luggage at St Lucia Station will cost you 6,00 € the first 5 hours! But please do expect a really long queue! That was the case for us in Rome Termini as well before we catch our night flight!

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After that whole hurrah, we’re off on foot in the beautiful Venice. First stop was food! Yes food! We shared a lobster pasta which tasted delicious! The best we had in Italy for sure! Having said that should make them during one of our weekly dinners! :)) Venice is like a maze, a wrong turn and you’re just lost in the little lanes. Every couple would want to ride the Gondola, but €90 is not really worth the price and in the hot scorching weather we decide to skip it! Its beautiful although I must say it was VERY VERY crowded. We walked around and sat on the steps because it was too hot and crowded.

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Even though we got lost at one point, it was great to explore and seeing little kids playing soccer and smell the delicious cooking of the locals through their kitchen windows. We had great smoothies and ice cream to cool us down.

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Caught the evening train to Maranello but first has to change at Bologna Station before we get to our destination which is Modena train station. It wasn’t too bad as a whole especially if you have a partner to help you carry up and down your luggage off the train steps. Maranello is a dream destination for the Husband as he is a big Ferrari fan and Kimi Raikkonen’s too! So got the hotel to arrange for us a pick up at Modena train station to the Hotel which cost us about 25 Euros and took us about 30-40minutes from Modena train station to the Hotel!

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And boy were we in for a treat! The reception was so elaborate yup with the F1 vehicle above, thats the hotel reception desk! How remarkable! Everything was F1 Ferrari related from the name of the hotel buildings and rooms to the decor and design! It was pretty awesome i must say! Of course we woke up bright and early taking advantage of the free shuttle to the Ferrari Museum and also the Factory tour that we booked beforehand. And like a boy in a candy store, Ali was in awe and tried the stimulator and snapping endless photos although we are not allowed to during the Factory Tour.

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It was indeed a really good experience and never be forgotten!

A + A Eurotrip 2015 ~ Paris Disneyland

Posted in Travel by

As you can tell, we hardly use Taxis in our EuroTrip. We mostly Uber it through or use Mozio for any airport transfers! But I’ve heard some European countries are taking a stand on Uber so please do be careful. So we had a splendid Uber Ride from our Paris Hotel to our Kyriad Hotel in Disneyland. It takes about 40-45minutes from Paris. As we reached the Hotel, we knew that our room wasn’t ready as our check in time was at 3pm. So thankful that they have giant lockers for us to store our luggage and also for the free shuttle service to Disneyland too! As Disney lovers, we hopped on the free shuttle and began our day at the Walt Disney Studios Park.

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Unfortunately it was such a waste of time. There’s not much to do as most of the rides are closed or maintained. You can even finish everything in less than a day, just make sure to fit in Animagic and Cinemagic in your itinerary for the day! As for Ali, he seems to think that the Studio’s Fish Burger is the best Fish burger he ever had!! So that was the highlight of his day! If you get the park hopper tickets, definitely recommend visitors to spend the other half of the day at Disneyland instead! We decided to do “some” retail therapy at La Vallée Village which is known to be filled with outlets of famous designers like, LV, Givency, Longchamp and etc… What a good bargain day, especially for your Longchamp needs!

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We got back to a double room that we booked for the weekend! The rooms are clean and spacious and another good thing is the free shuttle to Disneyland which was awesome! However, the walls are really thin that we can hear heaps of noises from the corridors. In addition,this is the first family Disneyland hotel that doesn’t offer laundry service or even a laundry room! Its really hard to find a Laundromat too! I find that European hotels never provide ironing facilities in the room. Just an observation I found. Maybe they think that tourists are equipped with crease free luggage bags! We stayed on the first floor and thank god the lifts was working. Was reading reviews from the week before that the lifts wasn’t working! Alhamdulillah lucky us!

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As you know anything and everything within Disneyland compounds are super expensive! Trying to scout for a good place to eat around Disney Village and finally after 45minutes wait we got into this American diner. The food was okay despite the high price we paid for the meal!
The next day we head to Disneyland Paris which was awesome. We love it! We were both like kids in an amusement park! We finally manage to take a photo of the Castle! It was fantastic Despite people smoking everywhere in the park and the fact that people actually stand up during the Parades! Which came as a big Disney culture shock! We managed to enjoy ourselves! The highlight for me would be Disney Dreams Finale show with spectacular fireworks! It was such a magical day for me. 3 parks down 2 to go! Of course I can’t help myself buying all the Disney collectibles for Home! I can’t wait to use everything once we got our house in the future!DSCN5322
Everyone has been asking about the discounted Disneyland Paris tickets that I got. I signed up with Ce Multiadvantages and got great discounts! They even send the tickets straight to our Hotel in Paris! It was awesome but you do need to sign up with them. Last I heard Disneyland Paris clamped down on these tickets sadly. We got such a bargain for 3 days 2 Park Hoppers Ticket (€119) , Arc De Triomphe (€10) and Seine River (€10) tickets for less than €300 for the 2 of us! Bargain!

A + A Eurotrip 2015 ~ Paris

Posted in Travel by

What a start to the morning! We missed our Eurostar Train! We didn’t even think that there was going to be Traffic! So we got Uber who was on time but Traffic was so bad! We had to get off half way and take the subway to Kingscross! By the time, we reached there, the counter is closed! Gahhhhh ended had to pay £60 to get on the next train! Little did we know Hana & Kev surprised us with a pair of first class tickets! We were shocked when they served us food on the train! But it was such a good experience! Thanks again guys! =))

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It was about a couple of hours ride before we reach Gare Du Nord. Enough said, after reading countless reviews, we were extra careful with our bags and luggage. We walked all the way to Mercure Gare D’Lest and took us like 15mins! It wasn’t that bad of a walk but with luggage in tow and the uneven pavement, it can be tiresome!

So finally we reached the hotel in the laneway. The hotel is in such a great location. 10mins walk to Gare Du Nord and 3mins walk to Gare De Lest station. There’s also restaurants and supermarket nearby. The rooms are worn out but very clean. I wonder though the walls might be really thin as we can hear every noise from the corridors like the slamming of doors even when our neighbours closed their toilet doors too!

After we settled in, we took the subway to Galleries La Fayette to see what’s the chaos all about. The moment we stepped in, all we saw are queues and crowds of Chinese tourists! As I don’t really have much to purchase, we were more like surveying the designs they have and how much the cost before we head into the boutiques. So here we are queuing to go into Longchamp and this female Chinese tourist jumped our queue as we were about to go in. I just held my hand up to her and ask her to stand back in line. Ridiculously annoying! Head up to get some Pierre Hermes Macaroons before eventually leaving for the Louvre since we are so over it!

Louvre

Louvre

It was nearly sunset when we got to the Louvre. The crowd was just nice however as we were ushered in, there was a couple massive crowd of tourists, it was like a cat and mouse game for us! We had to go over to the famous exhibits before the crowds gets in! And when they do the floor was flooded with little room to move. But indeed it was such a great experience! So surreal to be there, but do be careful there’s quite a number of people trying to sell you souvenirs and they can be really persistent too like following you around.

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Since it was already dinner time, we thought we would have dinner before heading back to the hotel and rest. It was getting colder too. As we scroll through the list of Restaurants around the area, we head on to Djakarta Bali which is about 5 minutes from the Louvre. Yes it is pricey. Yes it is fancy. My only regret is that i was seeking asian food in Paris and not look up the website of the restaurant first. The quality and taste wise was just okay. We get better Indonesian food in Melbourne even. I do think my Indomie goreng was so much better than the small serve of Mee Goreng that we were served. We did felt a pinch. Don’t think we will be returning.

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On our second day in Paris, we head down to Cathedral Notre Dame de Paris first thing in the morning. Tourists always confused between the two lines into the Cathedral. One is in the middle which is to going into the Cathedral and there’s another at the side of the Cathedral that is going into the Tower.  Both the queue is really long. We were more interested in the tower than the Cathedral and boy was the staircase narrow enough to only fit a person going up the tower! 387 steps to the South Tower, it can be quite claustrophobic for some. It does cost €8.50 per person. But the view is awesome!
Jardin des Tuileries

Jardin des Tuileries

Rightafter, we catch the subway to Musée d’Orsay and stroll through Jardin des Tuileries before we got to Angelina to have brunch! I only came here for the Mont Blanc and Hot chocolate! It was a delicious kind of experience but a tad too sweet for my liking! We then have a walk down Rue Saint Honoré and Rue Cambon to see the famous Chanel boutique! Unfortunately, the Longchamp bag that I was looking for wasn’t available at the Rue Saint Honoré boutique. So we began walking down Champs Elysees. It was beautiful how the roads are all connected to Arc De Triomphe! Managed to stop by Ladurée Le Bar to try some macaroons. I personally thought Pierre Hermes was better.

When we reached Arc De Triomphe, Ali looked at me and said “We are not climbing up that tower too. Are we?”. I slowly nodded and quickly said, “We’ve bought the tickets Already!” So we did painstakingly after walking around the whole day! It was such a good view of Paris. We did stop by for Crepes before heading to the Eiffel Tower. We were famished by then, ended up eating at this Kebab shop in more like a University neighbourhood. We nearly didn’t manage to get the Seine River tour but we did! Alhamdulillah!

Arc De Triomphe

Arc De Triomphe

It was quite boring and crowded but definitely great to experience in it if people actually sit down and not block your views! Just my 2 cents worth! The highlight of it was when we got off the boat, the Eiffel tower lights up! It was breathtakingly beautiful! We proceeded up to the Eiffel Tower as we were booked in at 10pm. I know it was late. Please remember to book your Eiffel tower viewing (Level 2 or Top of the Tower) ASAP! We booked this like 2 months before and it was all gone except for the late night ones and for Level 2 only! The Top of the tower got sold out really quick too! You might want to quickly get your hands on it and book it online. Don’t fall for tour traps which you’ll have to pay three times more!
That’s our days spent in Paris City! The City lights they call it. Headed off as we have an early ride to Paris Disneyland!