Day: August 29, 2022

Lily-Rose’s first road trip!

| Fahim & Yasmine

Just 6 weeks in, Lily-Rose was ready to take on the long drive! Well, to be clear, a two-and-a half hour long drive. We were visiting Lily’s dear uncle Ziz who is currently studying in a boarding school in Ipoh.

Since it was our first time bringing our little third wheeler out of the state, I wanted to be fully prepared for the trip and had packed up all of her stuffs the night before. Diapers, baby wipes, 3 sets of clothes, muslins, baby lotion, milk, breast pump things, pacifiers — well, the whole inventory, basically.

We were traveling for the entire day, so we were extra careful to ensure that everything Lily needed was in the bag. The last thing we wanted was a crying baby spoiling the fun.

Now tell me, would it be parenting if you’re getting enough sleep? Well, that is the price to pay if you’re thinking about having a child. Welcome to the land of “bye-bye beauty sleep you no longer exists” because once you’re a parent, you’re officially nocturnals. A three hour nap is common. A five-hour nap is like winning a lottery. Now that I’m a mother, I finally understood the value of a having really good eye cream (to tone down these expensive eyebags of course), which I still need to get my hands on!

Anyway, after a few minutes of having an existential crisis in bed, I realized that it was indeed the morning of August 27th 2022, and I swallowed in the fact that I was a mother to a child who’s about to go on her very first cuti-cuti Malaysia. So, I jumped off bed, rushed to shower, got ready, pumped, packed my things, and made sure to pee several times before leaving because I would never step inside an RnR toilet for the life of me. They’re disgusting. I mean, why can’t we have clean toilets like in Japan, am I right? Exactly.

We eventually left home at 9 am and drove for 2.5 hours to Ipoh. Lily-Rose slept all the way, only woke up for feeding. Mommy managed to pump. Daddy did a great job on the road. Everything was excellenté!

We arrived at STAR, the boarding school, at 11:45 am to pick up her uncle, then drove off to Ipoh Parade for lunch. We were midway eating at Chicken Rice Shop as per Ziz’s request when Lily woke up for milk and a nappy change. Therefore, daddy took her up to the baby room to do all that while I stayed with Ziz to finish lunch and got his weekly tidbits at Jaya grocer.

Also, kudos to Ipoh parade for having such a spacious and a cozy baby room!

After eating and a little bit of shopping, it was time to send her uncle back to STAR. It was pouring cats and dogs when we arrived there, which was great for Ziz so he got to sleep to the calming sound of raindrops…. nope, not jealous here 😌, but also meant that we had to be mighty careful on the road.

We then left STAR at 3 pm, and made our journey back to KL. We stopped by a gas station in Sg Buloh for a quick pit stop. Changed Lily’s diaper, her clothes, and fed her to sleep. I also had a quick change of clothes to a proper evening wear, and managed to do my make up for my mother in law’s birthday dinner.

The dinner was at 6 pm so we reached earlier than the crowd to settle in. It was lovely meeting everyone after awhile but Lily got fussy midway through dinner because she was clearly overtired as this was way out of her routine.

Finally, we got home at 8:45 pm, gave Lily a bath, fed her, and put her to sleep. Lily was the happiest baby because she had a really long nap. Mommy and daddy were dead tired, so we both had an early night too. 😴

The dinner

👯‍♀️ 👯‍♀️
with our mother-in-law

Lily-Rose’s first KLCC park outing

| Fahim & Yasmine

Well, now that we officially have a third-wheeler in the house (+ Oreo our furry child, but he doesn’t go out much), I guess it’s fair to commemorate every weekend trip like a mini celebration. I mean, why not, right? At least I get to finally update this blog after what seemed like a gazillion years. 🤪

And yes, you guessed it right — I’m typing this out while holding Lily in one arm. 😌 Being a parent really does make one a multi-tasker, if one isn’t already.

So, here goes.

On the 20th of August, the three of us (mainly decided by the two adults lol) finally stepped outside of our lovely abode to do something productive. We didn’t want to go someplace crowded, and we wanted fresh air, so to the park it was! We decided for KLCC park because it was nearby, we’re very familiar with it, and we know it was stroller-friendly.

But oh so long were the easy-going days. Normally, if the plan was to reach some place by 8 am, we would get up by 7:30, get ready, pack up a bottle of water, wallets, phones, the electronics — watches for tracking and airpods for music, oh you know, the essentials — and off we go!

However, now that we have our little third wheeler, the essentials come with a pretty long list. Now, we need to pack up a baby bag, throw in some diapers, a change of clothes — oh wait, maybe add in an extra change of clothes, cos you know… just in case, a muslin, baby wipes, a carrier — you know in case she gets all fussy and needs to be carried, a pacifier, hot water, warm water, formula — again just in case breast milk isn’t enough, 2-maybe-3 bottles of milk prepared, the whole shebang of breast pump things, cooler bags to keep the fresh milks, car seat, stroller, and the list goes on.

Mind you, this is just for a 2-hour outing, maximum 3.

Some will probably say that we’re being paranoid to pack up so much crap for just a trip to the park, but I say it’s better to be safe than sorry.

Well, where was I? Oh yes, the plan was to reach the park by 8 am. Well, everyone got up by 7:30. But who are we kidding, with daddy having to shower Lily, get her ready, feed her, and mommy having to pump, pack, and not forgetting that we both needed to get ready too, we finally reached the park at 10! Hahahaaha 🤪 Yes, yes, we have a lot to work on the timing but give us new parents a break please.

Lily was asleep when we reached the park. It was 10 am, so fortunately there were not a lot of people walking/jogging about. We had the place pretty much to ourselves. Mommy managed to get some steps in, while of course pushing the stroller, and daddy went for a jog. We had such a nice time. Although we managed just a couple of rounds, we loved that we get to be out and about again, just like pre-pregnancy days. We hope that soon we would get to introduce our little Lily to more adventures, and to share our love for hiking with her. We’ll get there soon, but for now, baby steps.

All in all, Lily-Rose’s first trip ever, albeit just KLCC park, was a success. She behaved the entire experience and I was just the happiest mom. It’s safe to say, she loved going to parks now. Hoping it’s a weekly thing, fingers crossed. 🤞🏻