From A Zombie To A Lioness?

At one time I had major issues with Raees' sleeping time. Sleeping past midnight, waking up at wee hours in the morning, waking up every 2 hours to breastfeed (not much of an issues there but it went on  every night until he weaned off at 2 years plus).

But nowadays, not anymore :)

My days of sleep deprivation and zombified look are gone! I've been able to keep him on a strict sleeping pattern that at times even I manage to get 10 hours of undisturbed sleep! I have my ME time again.

On average, Raees sleeps from 8.30pm - 7.30am. He can go up to 13 hours too!

In order to achieve this, unlike many kids his age, Raees doesn't nap in the afternoon. I know it isn't actually a good thing to promote, but that's how it is. He doesn't even feel sleepy. Going around in the car doesn't help much either.

During bedtime, this boy doesn't fall asleep as easily. He would try to fight off his sleepiness. No matter what he does, I'm quite persistent in making sure he stays in the bedroom. When he tries to go out the door, I would drag him back on to the bed and just lie down with him (my arm is his security blanket, by the way).

The only downside is - it only works when I'm around. Whenever I'm outstation and Raees is in the good hands of his daddy or my mom, he knows it's easier to manipulate them.

Most recently, Mer spent 1.5 hours going around in the car to put him to sleep!

Getting him to sleep is one thing. Waking him up is another.

Raees' school starts at 8am. He has to wake up by 7am in order to make it on time. He's been on time alright - once. Haha!

There was a time he got really angry when I woke him up from his slumber. So I took a gentler approach. Switch on the TV, make a lot of noise around the room and sing his favourite Sesame Street song (which will eventually get him to sing along in his sleepy voice).

Sometimes when time doesn't permit, I just carry him into the bathroom. This move would have 2 possible consequences - he'll straight away enjoy the running water OR temper tantrum. It's usually the former. But the latter, I just do what I need to do and ignore his cries.

I try to get him to wake up by 7.30am. But again, this only works when I'm around. When I'm not, others don't try as hard as I do to get him to wake up.

Motherhood has taught me many things. To be strong, patient...and cold hearted! I force Raees to follow the timing I've set for him even when he resists. Someone needs to show authority towards him in a way to teach that not everything is his way.

I've also started pinching him when he misbehaves. Lightly of course. I use to 'pap' (lightly hit) him but it didn't work. He ends up extending his hands to me for me to 'pap'! Bertuah punya budak.

Ladies and gentlemen, looks like I've become the 'garang' (strict) mom.

Always thought I'd be the cool one.

I'm Sorry But I Heart London

I know, I know...I don't deserve to be called a blogger if I could hardly spend time updating it :(

But this time around I have a great excuse! I'm not making up excuses, really! Just look where I've been!

Yeap, it's as fun as it looks! It was really nice to feel the cold breeze for once. My trip to London was part of my feature on the Airbus A380. We were shooting about 70% of the time on the 13.5 hour flight there! Once we got there, we did a bit of shooting here and there. The Harry Potter studio tour was added in for us though. Thanks MAS!

In total we spent 9 days shooting at KLIA and in London. It was amazing that I had the chance to explore and experience the aircraft. Another reason why I love my job :)

Check out my story tomorrow night on Majalah 3 titled 'Gergasi Di Angkasa' at 9 pm only on TV3!

3 Weeks Before The Due Date

I couldn't believe I did Majalah 3 til I was about 5-6 months pregnant in 2009. I was still going out at around 4 months pregnant and it wasn't an easy assignment either. It was a feature about an abandoned tin mine in Pahang, which I personally went in to check out.

Anyhoo, later on I was transferred to do Stock Watch, TV3's business programme back then. Although the assignments were not as demanding as compared to Majalah 3, I still went out shooting when I was heavily pregnant. Plus, I even did a standupper (read: report on location).

Why did I suddenly bring this up? No, there's no bun in my oven just yet. I came across a report I did for Stock Watch in late July 2009, about 3 weeks before I was due! Some of you may know that my tummy was already huge at 6 months. By this time, I was already full term, so I looked like I was gonna explode. Take a look for yourself...my standupper at the beginning and the end of this report.

Oh yeah, that's my voice doing the voice over too. Hubby didn't recognise it! Maybe because it's one of those rare occasions where I do english voice overs. Or is it the pregnancy voice? More abdomen  power?

Heaven On Earth

A couple months back I had the privilege of going to Pulau Layang-Layang, about 165 nautical miles from mainland Sabah. It's a very small island, really. It's in the middle of no where..well, actually it's in the middle of South China Sea but it takes about an hour to get there by charter flight.

Charter flight is the ONLY way to get to this island - unless you travel by sea. It is arranged by the resort on the island, Avillion Layang Layang. My schedule and deadline was tight. The charter flight was full and I couldn't postpone the assignment. I was lucky coz the Royal Malaysian Air Force happened to be doing night landing exercise with its Charlie C-130 during the dates I was scheduled to be there. So we hitched a ride! :)

The runway is shorter than usual - so our landing was rather rough. I was there to feature the island's very own navy people. Yeah, it has a runway, a resort AND a whole navy base. Pretty neat for a tiny island.

Sure, it was fun shooting on the island. I enjoyed the beautiful view and the navy people treated us well. But the highlight of my 4-day trip was the nearby man-made island. It was specially made for migratory birds.

Here I was able to go up close to these beautiful birds!

The story behind this bird island (which I never had the chance to share in Majalah 3):

The birds were originally on Pulau Layang-Layang and they were disrupting the flights landing and take off. The bird island was created to get the birds to move there. How did they do it? They brought the eggs and the younglings to the island. The birds, being very protective, followed where the eggs/younglings were placed. They eventually settled there until today.

So when I was there, I was reminded not to touch the eggs or the baby birds - or they might get unhappy with me. With their large number - I was afraid of the consequences.

In fact as I sat quietly just enjoying the beautiful creatures in front of me, the birds warned me to stay away by flying towards me and going really close above my head.

We had to watch our steps too coz there were eggs on the ground!

We then took the boat about 100m away from the bird island, to a historical structure.

This is what is left of the original site where the first military people were placed back in the 1980s.

These birds don't seem to mind staying in the rubble. We were quite close to it and they didn't budge. But we mind our distance anyway because they have longer necks and beaks.

Just one of the reasons why I *heart* my job. It brings me places I would've only dreamed of going, see spectacular things along the way and learn so much. And there's more to come! :)

School Boy!

Being the only grandchild has its perks. At home, particularly, I get undivided attention from EVERYONE. All my needs are well taken care of. I get to sleep on the bed. I don't fight with anyone for the toys or iPad or chocolates or anything, really. I get everything I want, when I want it...so to speak.

I'm 3 years old now and you know, I don't face that much challenges in life, except when I'm forced to take medication or when I meet my cousin Raiyan, who fights for stuff with me all the time. But that's another story. I'm talking about the day to day life. It has gotten quite...boring.

Realising this, mommy signed me up to a weekly play gym session at Empire Shopping Gallery. Although I didn't join in the activities all the time, I have developed my social skills quite well. There was a time when I was checking out this girl. I came from behind, flipped her ponytail and ran away. Heee :D

Mommy was pleased with my progress throughout the 3 months I was there that she decided that I'm ready for school! I attended a 2-day trial session. Mommy sticked around the first day. But on the second day, she tried leaving me behind. Guess what? I didn't cry.

So in July, I became part of Bahtera Ilmu Child Development Center located in Bukit Jelutong, Shah Alam. And no, I haven't been crying at school. Except that one time when the teacher didn't let me run around the parking lot.

There are just 5 of us in the 3-year-old class and being the baby of the class, I get the most attention from the teachers. Interestingly, in my second week of school, I experienced my first sports day! Mommy had to stick with me throughout the time because I tend to wander around.

Us 3-year-olds and the 4-year-olds were combined to play some simple games at the garden. And at the end of the day, I received my first trophy! I very proud of my trophy. I carried it around...and gave it a kiss every now and then.

This is the beginning of a very interesting journey in my life...learning, playing and making friends. Most recently, I've been giving the girls in my class a kiss and hindustan around the table with them. Mommy calls me a Romeo :)

Time For Berbuka Already?

Just after 1 week of Ramadan, Raees suprised the whole family with his latest ability - azan! Sejuk perut ibu mengandung when I heard him azan whole heartedly.

I couldn't help playing this video over and over again. Here you see him azan while playing with some toy and towards the end...ah well, just watch and see it for yourself :)

What You Didn't Know - Majalah 3 Taiwan

I'm totally excited about my return to Majalah 3! And my first story will be aired tomorrow. Yahoo! It's also one of the most challenging story for me. Emotionally on location and physically during post production.
There's so many things to share about my experience with this story that I don't know where to start. How about some did-you-know's? Yeah, I'll do do that.
Did you know....
1. 90% of the shoot was done in Tzu Chi University, Hualien, Taiwan.

In the morgue

2. The university is 100% vegetarian. Lucky us!

3. We got our own bowl and water container to eat at the campus cafeteria. Everyone washes their own utensils. Go green!

Breakfast

4. This was my second time there, doing this story. First time was 6 years ago for MedikTV. And this time around it's more detailed and comprehensive.

5. I met the same Malaysian student I met 6 years ago. Back then she was a first year student. Now she's an intern.

6. It's summer in Taiwan and there were sand flies in Hualien that bites. Many people were seen scratching away, including us. And my technician got it worse..

They itch!

7. I experienced my first earth quake. It was 5 am and my bed just shook. I was frightened but went back to bed soon after because I was informed that quakes are a norm in Hualien. 

8. It was my first time shooting in HD (semangat after the Singapore HD workshop).

9. 90% of the shoot was done with DSLR camera.

Canon 5D Mark II

10. The crew and I were on location as early as 4am to shoot the technicians preparing the bodies.
11. The first time I came face to face with all the bodies exposed in the operation theater, I dared not step inside until they were all covered.

12. Throughout the shoot I stayed in a 3-bedroom apartment ALONE! No, nothing weird happened. Alhamdulillah.. The crew were 2 floors above me.

Living room, dining room and kitchen at the back

13. I cried during the burial ceremony...

14. I gave a token to the family of the deceased. They decided to top it up and donate the money to the university.

15. The mother of the 33-year-old made me cry (again) during her speech although I didn't understand a word she was saying.

16. We spent 8 days in Taiwan but we only had an hour to go Taipei city center, which was just before we board the flight back home.

Taipei 101 - Tallest building in the world (still?)

17. I had tissues beside me when I edited the story.

18. The external hard disk (that contained ALL the visuals from the shoot) was suddenly unreadable...6 days before transmission!!!
19. I made backups for all my files and my editing project as a safety measure. So I didn't lose anything. Phew! My precaution paid off.

Main external hard disk, back up hard disk and my trusted MacBook Pro

20. Had so many technical difficulties along the way because of my first experience with HD. It wasn't pretty. Late nights / no sleep / no eat...alas, I got through it!

Totally satisfied that it's finally done and ready to roll! Don't forget to watch the show this Saturday (tomorrow!) at 9pm. I'll just post the promo again. Feel free to share it! Appreciate the support :)

Majalah 3 Comeback

I was in Taiwan for 8 days recently doing my comeback story for Majalah 3. Yes, I'm back! Been super duper busy getting the 1-hour feature story done for this weekend. I will write more about it. In the mean time, here's the promo! :)

The Breastfeeding Forum

Waddaya know..it's my 600th post on this blog!! And I'm glad to say this little blog milestone also includes a story about milestone in my life. 

I gave my first breastfeeding talk :)

It's more of a forum actually, with the wonderful ladies at Petronas.

They have a very strong breastfeeding support group within the company and they have events like these on an annual basis. I'm glad to be invited as one of the panelist. The title of the forum was "Cabaran Menyusu Si Kecil" (Challenges in Breastfeeding Your Child). With me were three other mothers, all Petronas employees.

The forum was to share our experience in breastfeeding as a fulltime working mom. Each of us have different challenges. I assume you all know what my challenge was, right? Travelling and fully breastfeeding (come on, if you don't know it yet, read the archive). The others had really interesting stories too!

One lady is breastfeeding by exclusive pumping. You heard that right. Her child refuses to direct feed so she pumps all the time! The other lady works in a 'hazardous' environment and still breastfeeds her child. The other happens to be the president of the breastfeeding support group, who, like me, travels a lot. And yet she managed to breastfeed all 4 of her children!

It was truly inspiring listening to their stories and I hope what I shared also helped inspire the ladies of Petronas (also known as Petronita) in breastfeeding.

You know, I've always wanted to share my experience with an audience. I'm glad I was given chance to do so :)