I’m moving!

Yes, I’m moving to another site:

https://www.micania.com/

I always want to have a clean-look blog and a personal-named domain showing a bit of my personal touch. And I have it now!

I’m moving some of my posts to my new site, but I will keep this blog on since it has been an un-living witness of how I (and my writings) lived and grew during the past 10 years.

I’m still here, just moving out to a new home. So, please drop by if you have time! 🙂

Menu MPASI Alya

Setelah Alya 6 bulan, ada tantangan baru untuk saya sebagai ibu: ngasih makan! Saya baru merasakan, waktu makan anak itu bikin stress banget, apalagi di awal-awal belajar seperti sekarang ini. Udah dibikinin sepenuh hati eh anaknya ternyata ngga suka, ditolak, ngga dimakan sama sekali, disembur-sembur, ditumpahin, dibuang, dsb. Saya jadi ngga semangat bikin MPASI dan seringkali lebih memilih puree instan yang banyak tersedia di supermarket dan dikasih temen seabrek-abrek karena anaknya ngga doyan. Saya baru semangat bikin homemade MPASI lagi beberapa hari setelah kecewa. Saya juga suka senewen karena baju anak jadi kotor ga karuan, makanan masih seabrek harus dibuang, tumpah kena karpet, lengket, pekerjaan rumah jadi nambah dsb.

Sering ngintip Instagram ibu-ibu yang hebat banget tiap hari bisa bikin 2-3 MPASI berbeda buat anaknya itu gimana caranya yah. Saya bingung dan lagi-lagi merasa jadi ibu yang gagal karena saya kok bikin satu MPASI aja lama banget, belum beresin rumah, masak, mandi, cuci piring, nidurin anak, ngajak main, dsb dsb.

Kata orang-orang namanya juga baru belajar makan, masih bayi lagi. But I’m not the most patient and dedicated mom. Lama-lama jadi terbiasa nyetok puree instan karena lebih praktis tinggal panasin di microwave. Tapi emang dasar lidah Indonesia ya, walaupun masih bayi lama-lama anak saya sepertinya ngerasa kalo puree instan yang rasanya sayuran dan buah macem-macem (yang seringkali jarang ada di Indonesia) dan kadang dicampur-campur ga karuan, misal apel sama ayam (beneran ada loh ini dan emang ngaco sih perpaduannya) itu ngga cocok di lidahnya (kadang saya juga ngga tega sih ngasihnya karena ga enak, haha..). Lalu dia mogok makan beberapa hari yang bikin saya jadi senewen lagi.

Khawatir karena anak saya sudah cukup kurus untuk umurnya, saya nge-follow banyak akun Instagram tentang MPASI dan nemu beberapa yang cocok sama saya, salah satunya @kanayaernesta. Duh, ibu ini panutan banget, akun Instagramnya sangat bermanfaat untuk ibu-ibu baru yang anaknya baru dikenalin sama MPASI. Penjelasan cara masaknya detail, bahan dan cara masaknya juga bervariasi jadi anak bisa mengenal lebih banyak rasa makanan. Alhamdulillah, makannya lahap, walaupun kadang kalau lagi ngga mood ya cuma sedikit yang masuk. Kalau saya lagi perlu bikin yang cepet, saya tinggal bikin bubur nasi dicampur sayur dan makanan yang mengandung protein hewani-nabati, ditambah sedikit keju dan unsalted butter atau virgin coconut oil lalu saya haluskan lagi pake blender atau disaring manual. Eh anaknya doyan banget! Makanannya habis cepet banget dan dia dengan sukarela membuka mulutnya sendiri minta disuapin lagi. Huhuhuuu terharuu.. Mulai saat itu saya bikin kaya gitu terus aja, tinggal diganti-ganti sayur atau proteinnya. Untuk buah, Alya sekarang lagi seneng makan pisang, pir atau cantaloupe (dikukus). Alhamdulillah makannya banyak banget, jauh lebih banyak daripada waktu makan puree instan. Anak lahap dan kenyang, ibu super duper bahagia dan moodnya happy terus 🙂

Berikut adalah daftar pilihan makanan yang biasa saya campur-campur untuk makanan Alya, yang cocok sama selera Indonesia, beririsan dengan bahan makanan keluarga dan terutama gampang dibeli di supermarket disini. Daftar ini saya buat untuk memudahkan saya memilih menu yang berbeda supaya anak tidak gampang bosan dengan MPASI-nya.

Untuk jadwal makannya, walaupun sebenarnya dianjurkan makan 3x dan snack 2x sehari, saya hanya ngasih dia 2x makan berat dan 1x buah setiap hari karena sepertinya dia masih kenyang ASI dan menolak setiap saya tawarkan makanan diantara waktu biasa dia makan dan menyusui. Saya ingat kata dokternya, biarkan anak makan sebanyak yang dia mau, tidak perlu dipaksa. Makannya masih disuapi karena saya tidak tahan berantakan. Pernah beberapa kali saya kasih finger food tapi selalu dihisap-hisap sebentar lalu dibuang. Saya pengen ngajarin dia makan yang lebih padat karena setiap dikasih bubur yang agak kasar sering keselek atau mau muntah. Setiap makan saya dudukkan di high-chair karena kalo ngga, anaknya tolah-toleh kanan kiri dan nunduk terus, saya pusing, haha..

Jadi buat ibu-ibu yang lagi berjuang ngasih makan anaknya, tetap semangat eksperimen bikin beberapa MPASI sampai ketemu yang dia suka ya. It’s getting a little bit easier after that. Jangan kaya saya yang kecewanya kelamaan. Kasian juga anak, they deserves to get our best efforts. Tapi jangan sampai dibikin stress juga yah, we know our conditions best. 

10 years ago

Looking back, I realized the fact that I have been (inconsistently) writing in this blog since 2008, 10 years ago! Re-reading my early blog posts, I think I really grow along with all my writings.

10 years ago, I was an immature college student who wrote posts about trivial things, had fear and uncertainty about what lies ahead in the future.

10 years later, I had my future figured out partly. Some things I could only dream about 10 years ago came true, one of them was studying abroad. Been through some ups and downs physically and mentally, I am still immature. But I am now married and also a mother. Still, I have fear and uncertainty about what lies ahead in the future. At this time, I am still figuring out what do I want to be and what do I want to do with my life.

Ah, life…

Should get back to my phone and watch my daughter’s pictures and videos. Works wonder dispelling all my worries.

 

Things I wish I knew before I gave birth to my child

There are some things I wish I knew before I gave birth to my (first) child. I hope you’ll find it useful.

 

• Whatever you’ll do with your baby, people will find something to comment about. My suggestions are to read a lot, google a lot, ask a lot and learn a lot. Then, just be firm with your decision. Mother knows what’s best for her children.

 

• During the pregnancy, your belly will expand to accommodate the growth of the baby and you will feel itch all over it. I’ve been warned not to scratch it but no one can really feel how bad it was than myself. Indonesia is a tropical country, Jakarta is a hot metropolitan area, and the air conditioner in my office was broken. Because of those reasons above, I was sweating all over and feeling itches all over my body. I couldn’t bear and stand it so I scratched it again and again. Since I didn’t have full-body mirror and had not been able to look under my belly for months, I was quite shocked to find out that it was already full of purple, red and brown stripes or stretch marks. Four months after giving birth, they’re still there, unchanged, getting even more prominent. It is a badge of motherhood but if I can have it disappeared, I would be happier since it makes me lose some confidence of my body.

 

• Moms who decide to breastfeed her baby probably won’t be in such a hurry to get a breast-pump after giving birth. But, consider having it sooner than later. Working moms should build their milk-stash early while work-at-home moms should also prepare a certain amount of it, just in case they need to leave the baby for a while.

 

• First time moms should opt for manual breast pump in the beginning then shift to electric type after getting a steady amount of milk. I chose the electric type from the start for efficiency reason then realised that I did not get the satisfying amount of milk. I tried the manual pump and turned out getting better result.

 

• You will end up having a lot of everything, especially if it is your first child. Just buy an adequate amount of each items ’cause there’s a big chance that you will get more as gifts from family and friends. For me, I ended up having a lot of baby blanket and bath towels, some of them are still in its packaging. And as I was saying before, because I used electric breast pump in the beginning, I also ended up stacking some bottles suitable for that pump but later neglected them after shifting to manual breast pump because they had different neck size. I also have different types of bottle-nipples which I don’t use anymore since: 1) the hole is too small for my baby and she got angry because it was quite difficult to suck the milk in, 2) The frequency of direct-breastfeeding is increased and she refuse to drink breastmilk from bottle.

 

• Open your baby-gifts immediately. I delayed it cause I assumed that I will get the same stuffs over and over again while I needed something else. I bought what I need and found out that the unopened gift was exactly the stuff that I needed and had just bought earlier. What a bummer! I also got a lot of baby clothes specific for certain months and put it somewhere to be opened when my baby has reached that months. But babies grow fast and suddenly you ran out of clothes. Out of curiosity, I opened some clothes for 6 months-baby and found out that they were even already too small for my 3 months old baby! What a waste.

 

• Rent rather than buy, think twice before rent. You don’t have to always buy everything, Nowadays, there’s an option to rent some stuffs to test out whether they are suitable for you or for your baby before finally buying it. But, even before rent, think again. Do you really need that item? Take me as an example. I was feeling the urge to buy baby car seat but I would only use it for a short moment. So I decided to get a baby car seat rent for 2 months since I wanted to get around everywhere with my baby without having to wait someone else to accompany me. Suddenly after renting, I didn’t feel like driving by myself cause my baby was always want to direct-breastfeed, the traffic was always terrible and it was much easier to get around everywhere with Uber. So, the baby car seat is still there, untouched and unused, until the rent time is up.

 

Well, that’s it for now. I will update more when I find out more later.