Pantang with three

I’m not going to attempt to write a backstory to all this. As it is now, I currently have an almost pre-schooler, a toddler and a newborn. I’m nearing the end of pantang but it wasn’t much of a pantang to be honest. I broke all the rules of pantang. Not wearing socks? Checked. Go up and down the stairs? Checked. No urut? Checked. Carry heavy objects? Checked. The heavy object is actually my one year old bumbling Ibrahim who’s 9.5kg.

Aiyaya…

As my number of births go up, I start to have a different perspective on pantang. Right now, for me berpantang is being comfortable, enjoying my time with the babies, eating healthy food most of the time and funny enough, catching up on afternoon naps. I have a newborn and a toddler.. can’t say I’m catching up on nighttime sleep.

The first week was a breeze. (My confinement is always at mom’s house and we have a maid. It was very manageable because my mom basically insists that I do nothing at all other than to tend to the newborn)

The second week was when the horror started. Naila came back from school with a viral fever that turned out to be HMFD. Then, surprise.. Ibrahim caught it. So bye-bye sleep. He couldn’t sleep, couldn’t eat and can’t even drink his milk. It was horrible! My poor baby.

The worst part is when I cannot touch or hold him because we didn’t want it to spread to the baby. HMFD is worse than chicken pox. I mean the effect on him. He was crying and wanted to be carried all the time.

But luckily the baby didn’t catch it.

By now nothing is shocking anymore. I’ve become the unfazed mother.

Daughter HMFD with 2 babies in the house? Manageable.

One year old crying asking to be picked up while holding newborn? Manageable.

3 kids crying for milk at the same time? Manageable.

I’m not saying that I’m doing it all alone.. I’ve got mom, dad, husband, bibik and my two brothers occasionally. So it’s VERY manageable. I’ll say compared to when I was alone handling only one baby. That was harder because I’ve got no one to pass the baby to.

My pantang days are almost over. We’re ganna have to settle into the new normal. I never ever in a billion years imagine that I’ll be a mom of three by 30 but it’s always funny how things turn out, right?