Feyruz Favorite Song

This video was taken a few days before Feyruz got the asthma attack. He loves this song so much. Always ask me to play it again and again :)

Feyruz’ Asthma Episodes

It started on Sunday morning when Feyruz woke up. He got a bit of runny nose and he was coughing here and there. The temperature here dropped 20 degree since the last few days, and I thought that it was just our body getting used to the changes. I gave Feyruz more juice/water that day thinking that his throat might hurt since he was consistently coughing throughout the day. As of that day, we were busy packing up our stuff, and cleaning up the living room and bedroom, vacuum the carpet etc. getting our stuff ready for the moving day (next weekend). Feyruz was around, playing with our stuffs. I called him Abah’s little sidekick because anything Amin touched/picked, he would want to do it too. And he’s been toddling Amin front to back and back to front again. Cute!

Well, that night, he couldn’t sleep well. Amin said at 2am he started wheezing and woke up crying over and over again. He refused to lay down on the bed, so Amin had to put him upright on the shoulder. I took turn after 5am taking care of Feyruz. After Subuh, while poking and looking at him all over, I realized that he was breathing really hard. The bottom of his ribs shrunk when he breathed. I told Amin he sounded like having asthma. Not sure that was true, I decided to wait until 9am to call Feyruz doctor. It was a long wait. Feyruz was so weak and sleepy. I gave him a few sip of milk and some baby cereal so that his tummy won’t be empty.

At 10.30am, we got to the doctor office. The nurse examined him and did the pulse checking and O2. His heart rate was so fast and his O2 level was at 75%. Crap… The nurse immediately called the doctor and they immediately put Feyruz on breathing machine, O2 tank and steroid shot.

The treatments were repeated 3x, and after each one, the nurse checked for his heart rate & O2 level. His heart rate still fast but his O2 level improved to 80-90%. After 1 1/2 hour, the nurse took off the breathing machine and let Feyruz breathed by himself for a while. When the doctor examined him again, his O2 level dropped back. And he was still breathing hard. This was when the doctor decided to call the ambulance to take Feyruz to the hospital. His doctor said that Feyruz had acute asthma attack, and he needed further treatment at the hospital, because this was not going to be a quick fix.

I felt totally devastated. Feyruz been thru a lot since he got the eczema.. A few months ago I found out that he is allergic to dairy and peanut after he threw up a lot. And now… the asthma.

The EMTs who took care of Feyruz to transport him to the hospital. IV was given.

At Children Mercy Hospital. On the way to see the doctor and nurses.

The doctor gave him another steroid shot, more breathing treatments every 4 hours. Feyruz getting some rest. We all slept at the hospital. Amin & I took turn taking care of him at night.

In the morning, Feyruz sounded better. I didn’t hear anymore wheezing, just coughing and runny nose. His heart rate and O2 intake had been normal since the night before. The nurse said that if it stayed like this when the doctor checked him, he should be able to go home.

At 8.30am, I was told to go to the Asthma class to get more info about the home treatment. It was a really good thing that the Asthma therapist taught us parents about the symptoms, the cause and how to take care of our kids when having asthma attack.

In Feyruz situation, I believe the fact that he was coughing, sneezing and had runny nose at the same time, and the fact that we were cleaning the house, triggered the asthma attack. Other triggers that we need to be concern of are any strong chemicals smell, cigarette smoke, and pet dander.

One thing I am relieved to hear from the therapist that people who has asthma is supposed to able to do all the things that normal people does (without getting sick). So toddlers like Feyruz who enjoy playing or soon, running around, should be able to do that without any breathing problem. If not, that means they are not well treated. As long as we avoid/prevent the triggers (dust, cigarette smoke, strong smells etc), Feyruz should be fine.

The day he was discharged. Busy playing the red car I bought at the gift shop.

Bye bye to the nurses. Hope he won’t come back to the hospital again.

New Videos of Feyruz

He turns 15 months tomorrow!

While we were at the orchard for apple picking, Feyruz spent some time eating the apple. His first real apple, and he loved it! Since then, whenever we said “nak makan apple..” he will get so excited to have some :)

When we first used this small tub for Feyruz, he was only half the size of the tub. Amin had to hold him all the time to make sure he wouldn’t slide. Now he sit by himself, and the tub looks very small for him.

Feyruz loves his rice with chicken. His favorite is masak tomato & carrot. I rotate that with masak kicap & sup. Some vegetable he has tried- broccoli, green peas, tauge, sawi, mushroom & carrot. Other food he likes- pisang goreng, keropok lekor/ keropok ikan, pengat labu, bubur durian and fries.

Adik Feyruz in the Belly

So this is one of the ‘cerita basi’ that I haven’t have a chance to put it up on the blog. Been quite busy handling the house negotiations with the seller & the bank, and at the same time Feyruz been sick for a while. But don’t worry, he is in better shape now.

I found out that I was pregnant in Sept when I missed my period for more than a month. Asked Amin to get me pregnancy test, and it took him 2 weeks to do so. I think he was not quite ready to find out the truth hehe… I would be lying if I said that I wasn’t surprise. I remember me & Amin talked about our lives having another baby (after we found out we are getting another one) for a week or so. Just to make sure we are on the same page, and we are ready for another round of having a newborn in the house.

I’m not that worry about the pregnancy and the labor. I’m more scared thinking that I have to take care of two little ones soon. Feyruz with his itching & scratching, and the other one with I-don’t-know-her-condition-yet. Okay I try not to think far far ahead, or negatively, but I’m just not sure about the unknown. I pray everyday hoping that our second will bring more joy and laugh, and make our lives easier. Ameen.. ameen..

So on Oct. 13, we went to my first prenatal visit. Based on my period calculation, our little one should be around 7 weeks at that time. She gave us the due date on June 3 next year. I complained about having pelvic cramps almost everyday. The nurse wasn’t sure why I experience that (but she did say that some women who are having their second pregnancy reported the same cramping problem). She wanted us to come back the next day for ultrasound to make sure that the baby is at the right position and not the reason I had cramps.

Here’s the ultrasound photo we got:

First thing the technician said that the baby looks bigger that 7 weeks old. At 7 weeks, the baby will look like a peanut (meaning you can see the head and the bottom). But in this photo, you can already see a baby with ears, nose, wiggly little hands and feet. So the technician measured from her head to her bottom, and tadaaa.. already 12 weeks! And the estimated due date move to April 26.

As of Feyruz, he was pretty happy to see the ultrasound. Not sure if he knew what that means, but I told him everyday to be nice to Ummi because she got a baby in her belly!

Stacking with Feyruz

Attaboy! I have to help him a bit hehe. Kesian dia trying to stack everything together but couldn’t figure it out.

House Hunting

Few weeks ago, we started looking at a few houses that were within our budget around $130k-$140k. The new houses (built in year 2000s) mostly cost around $160k and above, and located North of KC. Some cheaper (but new) ones have bad location and not so great neighborhood. Even though those houses have the latest appliances installed and great looking from inside out, I couldn’t justify myself to live in the middle of highway and everywhere else to go is around 10-15 mins away.

Then, we went to see some old houses built in 1970s. Those houses have bigger space or really nice patio and backyard for gardening. But other things looked slump. I saw spiders (dead and alive and big one too) around the houses and many many cobwebs in the basement. That freak me out! And we saw large cracks here and there, and really big ones in the basement. Oh my… and in one of the houses, I saw that the owner still have the original stove (in 1970s!). I asked Helen (our real estate agent) how to use the oven since it has some weird buttons that I had no clue how to operate it, and she also didn’t know how to LOL. Ok so no to old houses!

Out of all the houses we saw, we like this one. It is very close to our rented house now. Just around 5-10 mins away. We live on 48th St, and the house is on 63rd. Easy for moving day. It is also located on cul-de-sac (meaning dead-end street), so there won’t be traffic during the day. And the huge backyard is facing the main street (not other houses) with our own fence. The house is a raised ranch, meaning it has two level, upper level and basement.  Here are some photos:

Noticed the basketball hoop. It comes with the house

The door leads into pantry room. More space for food storage.


Living room

Finished basement with a 1/2 bathroom.

We are still negotiating the price of the house and everything else. Hopefully by this weekend we’ll be done with it.

Our All Time Favorite Video!

Feyruz loves watching himself in this video over and over again. Sometimes when he gets upset, we show him this video and it gets his attention. He will start making bubbles too :)

Feyruz’ Zombie Walks

This video was taken on the second week of Raya. He’s been practicing walking for months now. Still learning to balance himself while walking. So far he’s been really good at it.

Feyruz in Action!

We started feeding him rice for dinner since 2 weeks ago. He initially ate a bit only. Now he can eat a whole bowl! He likes his rice with sayur masak lemak, ikan masak asam, and the latest ayam masak tomato.
He tried some pasta for lunch a few times, but he didn’t like it that much. Yesterday he tried mee goreng and he wanted more.
All I can say.. he got the Malaysian taste!

The Tron Mobile

Two days after my Birthday, I got a late birthday present from Hamzah. It was a remote control Tron Mobile thingy! Hana and I took some videos of the car roaming (it can ride on walls)! I'll show you it.

It cost 36 dollars, but it was on sale for $18.00.

Salam Aidilfitri dari Kansas City

We woke up for Subuh and then got ready for Eid prayer.

8.20 am – ready to go!

Feyruz kusyuk listening to the takbeerat.

He sat on his stroller for quite some time before the prayer.

My friend kak Eta & Suzana.

While listening to the khutbah.

I cooked nasi impit, sambal kacang, kuah lodeh (not in the picture), ayam masak merah & rendang daging the day before raya. Alhamdulillah I managed to finish all the cookings by 11pm. No stayed up

Our dear friend Zurin beraya at our house. So cute to see her kids Mika & Sarah with their baju raya outfit. Kak Eta also came later that day to eat lauk2 & kuih2 raya I prepared.

In the late afternoon, we went to kak Emmy’s house to see her newborn. Her name is Asiya Sakeenah. She was born on the same day Feyruz was born, also around the same time, Masya Allah what a miracle!

Feyruz playing with baby Asiya’s swing. LOL he missed being a small baby!

Starcraft Warcraft

Check out my new background:

Gigit bluey!

Wahahaha comel!

Gongoing

A couple days ago, i was playing with clay and made some models of our gongoings.


Gongoing
Shawkie


Wawie


Killawaya

Fiesty

And of course, I have to add: Liff

Summer's almost over...

Noooooo! Its almost gone! Speaking of almost gone, Gongoing lost his nose ring lately. It wasn't all my fault though. He was bothering me when I was doing my scrabble turn. I'm losing in all the games I'm playing. I blame Gongoing. Its always him. I also blame him for wasting most of my summer. If it wasnt for Marching band camp, I would be stuck with him all day. We perfomed today by First Commonwealth Bank.
We start school on monday... No more playing computer mindlessly, or sleeping until noon, or sleeping at midnight, or anything else fun, so if you're wondering what ill be doing for the next 180 days, you'll know.

Kuih Raya in the Making

I only made 2 kinds this year. I stayed up at night until 3am/4am to bake this. Got only a few hours of sleep. I planned to give some to my family and friends, and save some for us too. Hopefully they enjoy eating kuih raya as much as I do.

Tart nenas my all time fave!

Almond london the luxury chocolate cookies

To Adik-adik: anybody cares about updating this blog? Anybody cares about letting us know what’s going on with everybody else? We are living thousand miles away, not like a block away. If it is that close, I would just walk by the house and peek thru the window to see what you guys been doing. We are family, and we need to keep in touch with each other. Your family is not only those who live with you in the house, but those who care about you too. Since we moved to Kansas City, we had been missing a chunk of your lives. By letting us know more about your activities and stuff, at least we know bit here and there about you all. At least I can describe to my friends or my sisters about you all, instead of just.. –blank-.
If keeping in touch with us is hard, then how do you keep in touch with your other relatives?