More babies & Feb Home-Saved Seed Winners

Rayyan is recovering well no more fluid around the heart. But the doctor did caution us about his arteri pulmonari is still narrow and leaking. At the moment, I am so happy to see Rayyan very cheerful after what he has gone through. His personality dramatically changes after recovering from surgery more cheerful, happy, chatty and more confidant. He used to be very anti-social and so serious face most of the time, always hiding his face to other people. We were struggling on putting him weight as he don't have that much energy to eat and usually vomit during his feeds. It must not be pleasant experience for him because of that he don't enjoy food. Now he begin to like food and always ask you he wants the food you are eating which can make mummy cries tears of joy. Hooray, no more vomits but he must learn how to chew. We hope he gain weight and thrive after surgery or else we have to feed him through tube again as supplement in 2 weeks time.

 Finally we got around choosing which garden will our February home-saved seeds travel randomly. I written the name on the paper, roll them, shake and my 3 assistants chose~
Rayyan pick ONE ~ Onenezz (I had difficulty coaxing him to give me take a look at the paper, its mine he said).
Ilhan pick Bangchik ~ My Little Vegetable Garden (absorb watching in the night garden, picking more than one not listening).
Lenay pick Catmint ~ Diary of A Suburbun Gardener

Autumn is near and we feel like we have second spring at the moment. Plants are loving the weather showing fast growth and hopefully giving us more produce. I have also noticed many self-sowed seedling around the garden. Self-sowed flowers that I had planned to sow like calendula and nasturtium. Maybe I don't have to sow them now just scoop these seedlings and rearangging them with brassicas later. We have one periwinkle plant which have been in the garden before we moved here, its perennial and very hardy survived through each season by it ownself. This month I found many of perwinkle babies around the garden. Catmint has made a recent post which is very interesting about 10 invasive weeds in Australia and one of it is periwinkle! A very nice read so hop to her blog from the link above.

 March is also the month to sow herb. We have many varieties of herbs to try this year~chervil, dill, fennel,ect. Hopefully with all this herbs in my hands, I will try new recipes and skill up my lack of culinary knowledge in using herbs. I can thick off sowing lemon basil this month as I found several seedlings in one of the containers. This year we collected some coriander, celery and parsley seeds. The bolted plants flower on different time so I did not have to worry about cross pollination. However these plants were growing approximately close to each other less than 50cm apart. Now in this patch, I have hundreds of self-sowed seedlings which look almost similar to each other and I cannot identify which is which as these 3 plants are umbeliffers. Umbellifers (coriander, celery and parsley) seedlings at early true leaves stage development does look similar to each other. I have to be more patient and wait for them to grow before making a decision about these babies.

Self-sowed tomatoes and pumpkins seedlings are also growing in the garden. I may keep tomatoes but not pumpkin. Let see if we get lucky this year with harvesting tomatoes in winter. We were lucky with chilies fruiting in last winter. Sunflower seedlings also popping out from compost. If they bloom will be very excited , if not chop as green manure.

Any self-sowed plants in your garden at the moment?

How about a "Companion Plant" week somewhere in the month of April?

It will be nice to share some ideas about maximising the use of space and crops with companion planting and, less energy, time and money to deal with pest.

Home Sweet Home

Hooray!We finally in Adelaide yesterday afternoon. There is a little bit of fluid around Rayyan heart but the medical team in RCH let us go home and WCH will follow up on Rayyan's condition. Rayyan arteri pulmonori is still narrow and there is a little bit of leak after surgery according to the ECHO results. Well before the surgery, Rayyan was mostly depending on his shunt (bypass) for oxygen to flow to the lung and his oxygen saturation was about 70%. Before having a shunt was much worse, oxygen saturation sometimes drop to 40% and frequent "tet spell". We are very aware that in a few more years, Rayyan might have to undergo surgery again although he just had complete corrective heart surgery. We really appreciate if anyone can give us advice on which health insurance company is good to have in Malaysia (just in case and it is good to be ready for anything).

Ilhan almost gave my cousin, Lenay a heart attack. He was so happy after we call to inform in a few hours will be Adelaide, he bump his head on the floor. We are not sure how did that accident happened but he must have been jumping on the sofa and slip just as I was saying goodbye to Lenay on the phone.Lenay said her hand was shaking so badly, she spilled traditional ointment (ubat gamat) all over the floor. Ouch, a very nasty bump on the forehead.

There were many cucumbers that Lenay harvested while we were away, so we joined the West Croydon Community Fruit and Veggie Swap this morning. We brought cucumbers, chives and spring onions to share

and returned home with

Garlic cloves and other stuff that we ordered from New Gippsland Seed & Bulbs company has arrived which I ordered before we left for Melbourne. I can't wait to plant garlic cloves next month. I ordered 50 garlic cloves that consist variety of Adelaide Red, Oriental Purple and Italian (common). 50 cloves are not enough, so I might have to get some more bulbs. On average weekly we used about 3 garlic bulbs (3bulb X 4 weeks X 12 month = 144 bulb) which means we need to grow more than 144 cloves.

It will be our first time growing beetroot and ranunculus this autumn.

It feel so good to be home.

Rayyan had a very sound sleep last night.

Rayyan sleeping in Ronald McDonald House

Rayyan has been discharged from the hospital today. He is allowed to stay with us in our accomodation, Ronald McDonald House which is just accross the road from the hospital. If anything happens, the hospital and emergency ward is very close about 5 minutes walk and we can call the medical team.We only need to bring Rayyan in to do some medical check up every morning. He was very subdued and not himself before they took out all his wires and tubes that were attached at his body. However, when they took it out, he was so happy and become very chatty, smiling and occasionally became very cheeky.

He is not taking much fluid as he supposed to, a constant battle on making sure he is growing well and putting on weight. But he tolerates solid food much better after having surgery. He still a bit wobbly on his legs but not stopping him from moving around a lot. Few weeks later, probably I will need to be much more faster to chase him.

The medical team said at first we might be able to fly back to Adelaide on friday. Scanning his heart today, there were more fluid around the heart so probably next week depend on his condition. Women and Children Hospital Adelaide will follow up with Rayyan health when we returned.

march container gardening

This is how the backyard container look like the day before we left Adelaide for Rayyan surgery at Royal Children Hospital,Melbourne. We all feel very homesick now and missing Ilhan very much who is in good hands with my cousin, Lenay.I feel very guilty towards Ilhan on the same day Rayyan having his surgery, he was not feeling well.But he feels better now and missing Rayyan.I think our whole family caught the same bug,my husband had it first.Then passed it to me and the kids. Rayyan had a bad night yesterday with bad cough, constipated,heart rate beating  fast and feeling sore.Both of us finally catch up some sleep in the afternoon when we were transfered to isolation room for a while. 

Okra burgundy has just  start to produce those edible pods. Hopefully when we returned, we have many Mei Qing Choi F1 to harvest. I tried sowing many supermarket bought rockmelon seeds last spring and many bear small fruit before we left. I hope we have some ripe rockmelon this year. 

Bitter gourd has many fruits at the moment from my phone conservation with my cousin. I wonder if we can preserve bitter gourd. I asked my cousin to freeze one bitter gourd and I try cooking it later to test whether it can be frozen. The JAP pumpkin has also finally produce female flower. I planted 2 sweet potato shoots in 2 containers, growing really well but have come very invasive. 

Sweet potato plants taking over adjacent containers. I think we will sow many leek this autumn because it can be left in the garden growing for a long time and harvest when you need it. Leek in curry and korma taste very sweet.

We are missing fresh organic  vegetables very much. Rayyan is refusing vegetable puree at the moment, only takes fruit puree or yogurt. I think I spoilt the kids with  organic veggies.Rayyan have been very brave & a good patient probably want to go home ASAP too.

7west ward,RCH

Rayyan was so thirsty when he woke up, but still was restricted with his fluid intake. He was unhappy about that so we had pacified him with wet cotton buds.

Rayyan was moved to cardiac ward from ICU yesterday afternoon. His Pottasium level was very low than normal range but he is in stable condition.He look a bit overwhelm & quiet yesterday, so serious face. He was very brave yesterday, did not even cried when the nurse pricked his finger to take some blood sample.

Took out his oxygen tube & nasal gastro tube this morning. Hopefully we won't have to rely on the nasal gastro tube to feed him or put on weight. He did have a big appetite this morning and no fuss during feeding. A very rare photo of Rayyan without tube on his face. He wants to be carried but not possible at the moment with all those wires attached at his neck & other part of his bodies. To be honest, Rayyan really surprised me this time, he acted more mature for his age.He has gone through a lot at a very young age.

THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR YOUR PRAYERS. HE LOOKS SO MUCH STRONGER & HEALTHY SINCE HE WAS BORN.

little warrior doing well

Rayyan is recovering well in Intensive Care Unit. After operation yesterday, the ICU team were busy making his heart rate slow down as it was rapidly high, making sure his blood pressure goes up on average level and cool down his body temperature as he was feverish.

Today noon, he was breathing by his own and not relying on machine anymore. In the afternoon, when we were resting in the parents room, a father of one the patient in the same ward with Rayyan came to us and told us that Rayyan was sitting! We were so surprised and rush to Rayyan's bed. The first word he was saying was AIR (WATER) many times. I want water mama...he must be really thirsty. But he cannot drink as much as he wanted because he is still restricted to certain amount of fluid taken into his body. Not really please with mama as he was really thirsty and hungry. But it is such a good sign as he have some appetite to eat:), although he still can't.

Thank you very much for all your prayers.