Vista dan Ultah

Perubahan sebuah sistem memang seharusnya didukung oleh perubahan-perubahan sub-sistemnya. Seperti halnya inovasi baru Windows Vista. Beberapa software lama yang sering dipakai oleh khalayak ternyata tidak semena-mena kompatibel dengan Vista. Hal ini membuat pemakai Vista seperti saya, cukup repot dalam memilih dan masang program pengisi vista. Belum lagi tampilan Vista yang agak berbeda, dengan fitur dan tampilan gres-nya. Benar-benar membuat si pemakai baru, apalagi amatiran komputer, harus menghadapi Vista dengan sabar. Belum lagi saya harus share files ke pengguna pendahulu Vista.

Anyway, punya laptop baru,bener-bener baru, adalah sesuatu hadiah istimewa buat saya. Sesuatu yang mimpi pun saya enggak. Cukup Toshiba Satellite U300 buat saya yang ga hobi nge-game dan suka nenteng laptop kemana-mana. Selain papan ketiknya yang empuk membuat ngetik lebih santai dan layar monitor yang cerah memadai kapasitas mata saya yang lemah. Harganya mahal sebetulnya untuk kelas saya, tapi lumayan kita dapat harga deal karena membeli beberapa software, tas dan external storage sekaligus di Harvey Norman Computer Supacenta. Selain saya membelinya juga masih dalam nuansa boxing day. Laptop ini hadiah ulang tahun untuk saya, dari suami tercinta tentunya. Pemicunya ga cuma ultah itu sih, sejujurnya, adalah karena laptop lama saya, Compaq, hardisnya rusak. Kalo ga beli baru, gimana nasib si thesis nantinya...

Laughing, hahaha...

Ahnaf was laughing with his papa. I took this video with my handphone when he was 5 months and a week old. It's a funny memorabilia.

Mari Menyanyi

Saya dan Ahnaf suka menyanyi bersama. Salah satunya lagu yang sairnya seperti ini:

Ahnaf anak sehat
Tubuhnya kuat
Karena mamanya
rajin dan cermat

Semenjak Ahnaf bayi
Slalu diberi ASI
makanan bergizi
dan imunisasi

It's fun having a baby, isn't it?

Mothers Day

Indonesian celebrates a mothers day today. Mother in Indonesian is Ibu or bunda or emak. But my son calls me mama (in the near future, because he is still learning saying bru bru ba ba ga ee aaa...) Don't have a particular reason for being called mama. Just easy, may be. My hubby started calling me mama then I followed calling him papa. Anyway, I am a mother. Happy being a mother.

I am remembering of my mother. She is far away in Kudus, a small city in Central of java, Indonesia. I wish all the best for you, Ibu.

Ahnaf: Six Months

My baby just turned to six months old. This stage is a kind of turning point development. I visited the GP (General practitioner) for his 6 month immunization. Here some review of his development.

Breastfeeding (menyusui)

I have breastfed my Ahnaf since he was just born. It is suggested that mothers should breastfeed her baby exclusively up to six months. After six months, it is fine to substitute breast milk with formula. However, breastfeeding has tied up both of us with a great bonding. I feel a bit hard to stop feeding him with my breast, indeed my body still produces it as much as my baby needs. I talked to my GP about this. She said that breastfeed even until 12 months is good but after, because nutrition in breast milk might decrease significantly and baby needs more for his development.

So, I decided to feed him with my breast still, but not combine it with formula. It’s silly to combine breast milk with formula, doctor says, due to formula milk can destroy some of advantageous material in breast milk. Nevertheless, just in case the baby needs more liquid, boiled water (not bottled water) is good enough.

Solid food (makanan padat)

Babies should be introduced to solid around six months old because they needs more nutrition particularly iron for growing. Factually, I started introduce solid food to my Ahnaf when he was 5 months old something (this is around 6 months, isn’t this?). He shows me at that time that he’s ready for solid. I got the signs as explained. I tried vegetable puree and infant rice cereal, just following what it is suggested by doctors.

He is a goooood eater, he doesn’t reject the food, and even he wants to feed by himself like trying to hold the spoon or bowl. Once he got constipation like what I posted here but it’s all over. He poos almost everyday and quite big smelly one. Hehe… Oh ya I asked my GP today why he got constipation. She explained that baby needs transition time, from only absorbing milk to solid food. So at the first time, the food actually just passed the intestine without being digested. Right that during his first few weeks eating solid, his poos pretty similar with the veggie puree I gave. By the time the solid food increases, doctor continued, he will poo more frequently. :P perjuangan seorang ibu nih… heheh…

Physic development (pertumbuhan fisik)

His weight at born was considered small (2495 grams). Alhamdulillah, he has been growing up significantly and reached the average weight as expected since his first month life. Now, 6 months old, he is 7600grams. His length is 67cms. Fantastic. Lovely. I proud of my self! *big smile*

Love for healthyness (Cinta untuk kesehatan)

Now about vomiting! Time flies, indeed, I’ve got no time to tell you here that Ahnaf had considerable reflux, then colic and eventually hernia. I got him to three doctors to examine his body when he was about three weeks.

Firstly, he got reflux, which is vomiting after feed, but because there wasn’t a projectile and his tummy was soft, all doctors said the same: it’ll be gone by the time he grows, at about 3 months, or 6 months, we won’t give him any medication, the doctor said.

Secondly, he was a baby colic. He cried loudly for no reason most of the time, unless while he was in my cuddle. He cried when waking up, changing nappy, bathing, in the pram, etc, exclude if I gave him a cuddle. Then, he often pull his tummy back (arcing) for uncertain reason, even doctors couldn’t explain why. He made noise when he was sleeping. Etc.. etc...

Thridly, because he cried much, he was still very young, and there was unclosed hole in his under tummy part (see the symptoms of hernia)... yes he got right inguinal hernia when he was 6 weeks old. It’s been repaired a week after at Sydney Children Hospital (remembering dr varjavandi, young excellent one ;D). The scar was about 5 cms and it’s completely invisible by a week or so. Perfect!

And yes eventually after he was about two or three months old, he wasn’t baby colic, not crying much. He started to give back my love. It was a three month tough stage. Only love, again it is love that make those things all gone. You know what I did? I gave him cuddle immediately if he cried. This cuddle at this ages won't spoil him, there is an explanation about this in the site of raisingchildren dot net dot au. I proved it also.

The most memorable, he also slept on my cuddle often. Because he vomited and then cried if lying on horizontally even though he had burped. He had to be posited standing upfront. Consequently, I had to rest my body half sitting to keep him safe in my cuddle. His sleeping time was about two hours, followed with feeding and changing nappy for about one hours then trying to sleep again.

Time flies. This tiring period is over remaining knowledge and worthy experience. I still give him love as much as before though.

He is now six months. He is a good eater, a lovely baby, a well sleeper. He sleeps like a boy at night, almost 5 – 6 hours per sleep, wakes up for feeding and then sleeps again effortless. Therefore I've got enough time to study at night. During the day, I spend my time for being together with him. Wherever I go like to the uni, shopping centre, friends' visits, parties, park etc, I shall with him, except to toilet and kitchen.

Smile

Most of us say Ahnaf is a kind of serous baby. Yes, he is most of the time outside home, he might learn what they are around. At least, he always has a healthy look (his chubby face, his bright eyes!!), this is more important. At home, he is so cheerful baby in fact. He smiles to me, even when he opens his eyes from sleeping beauty. We’ve got his video when he’s laughing constantly for about fifteen minutes, not only one, please note! We have many funny pictures. We’re happy being together.

Immunisation

He has got everything he needs up to six months. I'll tell you later about immunisation.

Enough for now. Too many to write. Everyday has a different one, but just too busy too speak up here everyday. The days come too fast thus I get confused which one to tell first. Time flies again, time flies. I’ve got to prayer for all this goodness. I love my baby, Ahnaf.

Hutan Belantara

Hutan belantara yang saya maksud adalah internet. Hutan ini boleh ditanami dan dihampiri oleh siapa saja, bebas level dan hampir bebas norma. Mesti hati-hati, punya moral dan pake otak. Sudah itu saja.

Kue Lapis Pandan

This blog isn't supposed to be a kind of kitchen's blog but I have been posting some recipes I tried to show you that cooking is a way to love my days, to bring cheerfulness for my family and to take aside any thesis complication in my head. ^_^

I made kue lapis pandan this dawn, in between study time. This is a traditional cake from Indonesia, I knew it since I was little girl. There are a lot of recipe of this cake in the internet. This is my first trial and I rated it five stars.

It's worth to note, my steamer has 8 inch diameter and I don't have any pan that fit to it. I decided to use plastic box that suitable for microwave. I thought, if the box can be heated in microwave so it should be fine in the steamer. And it worked well.

Here is my recipe:

1. Shift 3 cups of rice flour and 1,5 cups tapioca flour in a large bowl.
2. Moderately heat 6 cups of coconut cream (I used a 400ml can of coconut cream plus cold water), 1,5 cups white sugar, a tsp salt and a pandan leave. Stir occasionally until sugar dissolved. Set aside until luke warm.
3. Prepare the steamer, wrap the lid with napkin clothes. Put a pan/mould in. Don't forget to grease the base with a bit cooking oil.
   
4. Pour (2) to (1), combine finely. Strain to get a perfect mixture.
5. Divided into two part. Colour one of them with a few drops of pandan pasta until bright green. Because I wanted it greenish, I took 2/3 of it for the green part.
   
6. Make the first layer by pouring in the mould, roughly a half cup of the green mixture. The layer would be about a half cm thick. Steam 10 minutes. I'll look firm.
   
7. Make the second layer, still green part, steam 5 minutes.
8. Make the third layer, turn to the white part, steam 5 minutes.
9. Continue with next layer green-green-white. Finally, steam 20 minutes.

Because I used a 750 ml microwavable rectangular plastic container, I repeated until three times to finish the entire cake mixture. Fyuh... about two hours spent. I learned why this cake is worthy even though the ingredient is very cheap. Yes, because of the patience in making the layers. My hubby loved it. Can't wait to make again when Ahnaf is ready to eat this solid food.

A Dollar

I got pain of FAAST copy and print shop in Kingsford located on ground floor of 333 apartment at anzac parade. They charged me $1 just for one page A4 printing without any friendly costumer service. I said to the staff at that time, "it's okay for now but I won't come here again" with a little smile on the corner of my lips. I swear I won't come again whatsoever happens! huh :p

I went to the FAAST shop on my way going shopping at RoundAbout. I gave it a try because I saw the shop's window looks colourfull and the customer service is not chinese, but latino I guess. Moreover, I had a feeling not to delay printing the letter for my rental agent informing my intention to continuing stay in the current unit. I didn't go to my office for the last few weeks, a bit lazy to walk up with my baby, just felt that going out with him was too much for these tiring days.

Actually, I have an (almost) unlimited FREE printing facility in my office. More, library in my campus charges 11c only for 1 page A4 printing and again I got $100/year photo copy & print card from my faculty. Next to my flat, there's a printing shop that only charge 20c for BW A4 printing. The same at internet shop nearby.

A dollar is factually nothing compared with the facility I've got, but a dollar for just one page A4 BW printing for me seems unreasonable. It's not fair enough. They just wanted my money. Not such a professional business, right?

Bak Pao

Tanpa basa-basi, berikut resep dan cara membuatnya, :)

Langkah pertama adalah menyiapkan adonan luar:

1. Cairkan 2 sdm mentega sampai berminyak, dinginkan.
   
2. Aduk 150 ml susu hangat, 1 sdm gula pasir dan 75 gram ragi kering (dried yeast). Diamkam sampai berbuih, kira-kira 5 menit. Jika tidak berbuih, berarti ragi yang dipakai sudah mati -beli yang baru dong... :P-
3. Ke dalam baskom besar, masukkan 500 gram tepung terigu dan 3 sdm gula pasir
4. Dengan menggunakan jari tangan, uleni campuran tepung dengan susu (no. 2) dan minyak (no. 1) sampai kalis. Jika perlu tambahkan air hangat sedikit demi sedikit sampai adonan kalis atau tidak lengket. Jangan buru-buru menambahkan air, meskipun kelihatannya adonan kering.
5. Bulatkan adonan, tutup dengan plastik, diamkan di ruangan hangat sampai mengembang 2x lipat, kira-kira 45 menit - 1 jam.
6. Pukul-pukul adonan, buat bulatan-bulatan kecil sebanyak 10 - 20 buah. Diamkan lagi sampai 1 - 2 jam.
   

Langkah kedua, sembari menunggu adonan mengembang, adalah membuat isian. Terserah sih mau diisi apa... kalo aku tadi sih tak isi tumis daging, tahu dan sayuran (wortel, jagung butir dan peas) plus kecap manis... tumis ini seperti biasanya tumis, cuma bahan--bahannya diiris kuwecil-kuwecil, hehe... dan pokoknya ya... pokoknya... diisi dengan yang "manis", rasanya lebih enak...

Setelah adonan mengembang semua, siapkan kukusan. Tutup kukusan dibungkus dengan kain/serbet agar uap air tidak jatuh ke adonan nantinya.

Langkah terakhir adalah mengisi adonan. Caranya, tipiskan adonan di atas talenan berbentuk lingkaran, kemudian masukkan isiannya satu sendok atau lebih terserah sesuai selera. Katupkan bulatan adonan dengan cara menyubit-nyubit pinggirannya agar menyatu dan membentuk seperti bola. Beri alas kertas, kukus selama kira-kira 20 menit.

Dengan resep tersebut, aku tadi membuat 20 bak pao ukuran satu genggamanku. bbmbmmbmm...

NB. katanya sih ada pelembut adonan bak pao, tapi tadi aku gak pake... emang sih tidak se-perfect yang di toko, untuk amatiran, at least hasilnya tetap memuaskan kok.

Mothers Group

Today was supposed to be the last day of our monthly-get-together over the year. Mothers group is other women group beside Pengajian Akhwat that I have in Sydney during my masters’ candidature.

This is a group ran by a social worker under Randwick City Council which is currently driven by Tante Yanti (50+), an Indonesian mother who already gave her citizenship up to Australian long time ago. Citizenship doesn’t a matter here, indeed, most of the member of the group are permanently living in Sydney and the surrounded suburbs. The prominent thing is that we are all mothers and have Indonesian blood, regardless the ethnic or religion.

Tante Yanti is my hero, sincerely. She found me in the Royal hospital for Women when I was lonely sitting in the waiting room for an antenatal visit. She certainly easily got my Javanese looks there and came to me with her motherly advices. She invited me to this mothers group and I felt in love with this group at my first attendance. Just for noting, she drove me to the place at the first time and helped me so much caring of my baby.

This group is really different. To be honest, I do not really like grouping with people for example I hardly come along with students group as I ought to go with them as I am a student (this is too bad actually), neither now nor in the past. There is fun either for my baby, Ahnaf or I. We meet other babies, toddlers and mothers. We talk about healthiness, family, children, toys, food and anything. Occasionally, we have fun games and gifts to share. Three hours is never enough for us.

The people that make this different, I think. Most of us have the same faith as a new mother or young family and are away from extended family. Event though most of them have chose living permanently in Australia, it might not be stated, but I feel like they still want Indonesian tradition that is kumpul-kumpul and makan bersama. You know, groups run by Aussie usually do not provide meal for lunch, yeah… there are tea or coffee and some biscuits, but our groups always have complete menu then we sit on the floor eating together and chatting.

The friendship is very valuable. Something that will I keep firmly in my journey notes. Something that will I tell to my son, Ahnaf. I don’t have our picture yet, but I will have it someday for sure.

Constipation

My baby and I just learned "constipation". Well, it is common on babies who start solid, however, I think it is something that can be avoided.

Why constipation occurs? I suggest you to ask more knowledgeable person in this case such as your doctor or there are plenty resources in the internet about this. As far as I know, baby's tummy needs some time to adjust with new food, which is solid in consistency, as they are only fed with milk which is fluid for a particular time.

After it happened on my baby in the last four days, I learned that it can actually be avoided, at least not repeated. I gave my baby the same kind of solid for several days, expert says that it is to notice whether the baby has allergy or not. I bought the food at the store, I chose the organic one. I grab almost every kind of fruits and vegetables because I want him to learn many tastes and enjoy the richness of this world. I notice that some fruit/vege purees, even though for the same stage of age, have different water level. Carrot, apple, fruit and other single ingredient are mostly watery, but some with combination like apple+banana, apple+milk=apple custard, pumpkin+corn, sweet potato+wild rice are less watery or a bit stickier. At the first stage giving solid, I gave the single one, carrot is his fave, and it went okay. I tried sweet potato+wild rice, then, he got constipation. I think, it was due the food less watery, stickier and heavy in carbohydrate, indeed. I concluded that it is not a good idea giving solid like this for starter, even though it is very smooth bought at store, certified and so on. We learned.

To relief the constipation, I got advices from midwife and friends. As long as the tummy looks usual, not hard and still passing winds which is meant still has bowel movement, baby doesn't need to see doctor, but until a considerable period of constipation seeing a doctor is recommended. Considerable period is like this. Some babies poo three times a day, so three days constipation is concerned, but some babies poo three times a week so a week constipation needs serious follow up. Not sure which one was the successor, here what I applied:

1. Stay calm, stay make him happy - find as many information as possible
   
2. Give more fluid which is milk
3. Warm his tummy by rubbing eucalyptus oil or minyak telon
   
4. Bicycle his leg (pull and push gently like bicycling) at playing time
   
5. Hold his foot, push and fold gently until touching his tummy, push carefully then straigthen and repeat three times, stop, repeat again in a few minutes
6. Jump him up with fun
7. Still give solid/food as usual but more watery one
8. His poo is usually two-three times a day, so three day constipation is concerning and up this time, give prune juice. Simply boil 2 glass of cold water and 100 grams pitted prune (no sugar) and cool. Give him about 2-3 tablespoons - three times a day - but I gave him once only before he passed his back. finally... What a happy mama...
   

Constipation is common, reasonable, relivable and avoidable. An extra love is worthy giving during this period and it will remain a rewarding experience.

Wanita Biasa

Masalah dalam kehidupan adalah wajar dan masalah lah yang dapat membuat hidup lebih berarti, kata seorang bijak. Saya yakin apa yang saya dengar dari sang bijak tersebut adalah benar, namun sampai saat ini saya masih saja mengeluh dan membuat pusing diri sendiri menghadapi masalah dalam hidup.

Agak di luar nalar memang karena saya bisa sabar dan bertindak dengan baik menurut ukuran saya ketika menghadapi masalah yang besar seperti melibatkan orang banyak atau berpengaruh ke masa depan saya dan keluarga. Namun, saya seringkali gusar dan mengeluh hanya menghadapi masalah simpel sehari-hari seperti bumbu masak atau stok makanan habis di hari kerja (supermarket buka sampe tengah malam, yang dekat juga ada atau beli makanan matang sekitar rumah ka nada), koneksi dial-up internet terganggu (kan tinggal beli pre-paid dial up merk lain, selesai!) atau rumah kotor dan berantakan (kan tinggal dirapikan, paling lama juga cuma setengah jam membereskan dua ruangan aja kok!).

Kepala saya kadang nyut nyut dan hati mangkel karena kerepotan masalah-masalah sehari-hari seperti ini. Mungkin karena saya berpikir, harusnya masalah sehari-hari seperti ini bisa dihindari dan bukan hal yang sulit untuk diantisipasi. Khilaf, lupa, dan jenuh pada diri yang sering saya keluhkan menjadi penyebab masalah ini. Apa daya, saya hanyalah wanita biasa. Setidaknya masih sanggup istighfar dan memohon kekuatan kepada Tuhan.

Internet Collaps

Since the last few days I’ve got dizzy of no connection with the internet at home. I don’t think there’s a problem with the telephone line because my Telstra home phone still rings for sure. Not sure what has happened, though, my laptop is still enable to dial the remote computer provided by Wix Company that just bought this Hello internet provider from Tel Pacific. Terribly, my IE or FF can’t open any site. OMG! I am hopeless. But, please don’t blame me because I use dial up service in this develop country with many good choices of internet connection. It must have been for a reason.

Now I am at my office thinking how to solve this sort of annoying problem.

I called the customer service already but I gave it up after waiting in the line for about fifteen minutes. Why? Huh… because I was in a queue number fifteen, a lady voice prompted me! This call’s hurt me but I knew it before I made it, to be honest. I suspected the owner is an east-Asia migrant as I always don’t believe that less qualified product but don’t have choice not to take it. Poor me!

This is so painful. I just need to emailing, finding journals and blogging a bit. I never download gigantic byte of files like pictures, games, videos or music. I just need it for another four months living in this expensive renting house city.

Nonetheless, I have to sort this problem… who else if not myself! Appeal to the old service is wasting time, indeed I decided to get a new service.