The Baby Shower!

Dear baby,

Today was your 'Mandi Belawat', how I explain it, your baby shower. Apparently this is a Brunei Malay thing. They don't have it where else with other malays in Singapore or Malaysia. The 'Mandi Belawat' is reserved for the first born, traditionally held right after the confinement period to celebrate the new arrival and that mommy and baby is doing well.

I'm not sure how it was back in the old days but nowadays, the time to have the 'Mandi Belawat' is anytime within the baby's first year, and that it's a dress up affair. It was said this is the last chance the mommies get to be queen for a day again apart from the wedding. Also supposedly the mommies were suppose to be able to fit back into their wedding outfit. I'm not sure how they were able to do it after only 40 days of giving birth, mommy still got that extra 10kg after you came out to get rid off and it has already been 5 months!

For the event mommy decided on a black pink jubbah and dressed it up with a head gear and wore one of mommy's wedding tiaras. Auntie Nadia did mommy's make up and Auntie Choo came over right after her AGM and was happily snapping away with her new camera. Auntie Adeline did an unexpected turn up whom mommy hadn't seen in 4 years. And Uncle Erwan and Auntie Mimi came too.

You had to be wrapped up in a 'kain jong sarat', the traditional gold woven cloth, and you wore the gold bracelet atok gave you and the gold chain and pendant nini noi and auntie lin got for you. And you were wearing one of the baju kurongs nini noi made from raya.

While we waited for us to make an entrance you decided it was time to nurse and nap. By the time we came downstairs you were fast asleep. You slept right through the 'tahlil' and mommy presented you to each and every guest that came. Each guest would dab a liquid powder made from ground up uncooked rice grains using pandan leave brush and a gold ring tied on it's end and sprinkled you with 'bunga rampai' and wish you. Mommy got the same treatment too. Needless to say it had to be wiped off after every few guests.

Mommy insisted to be the one that would carry you around and boy were my arms tired. And I was sweating like crazy as it was hot. Mommy was worried the make up would run. One of daddy's cousin had to dab mommy's face to stop the sweat from making little streams. It was that hot. When mommy passed by the hallway mirror had a quick look and make up still looked good. When I told Auntie Nadia about it she said the make up was suppose to look better when you perspire.

After mommy was done taking you to all the female guests, it was daddy's turn to take you to all the male guests. But before that, we cleaned you up from all the dabs and flowers. You were still asleep. While daddy did his round mommy went back to all the female guests to salam and thank them for their wishes and contribution.

Apparently you were wide awake when daddy took you, with a scowl on your face, heheh...

Daddy handed you back to me and we went upstairs to nurse a bit more and change diaper, you decided to empty your bowels somewhere during the event.

After mommy rested up a bit and with Auntie Choo's help taking care of you, we headed back down. You got taken by somebody and mommy had something to eat as there were still lots of food left.

Since we hired a photographer to capture the event mommy got him to do a photoshoot of you and us, a nice family shot. By then all the guests had left. And when it was all quiet, Uncle Rashid and Auntie Lina came with Rafie! They couldn't come any earlier but mommy glad they came anyway, we still had lots of food left and we hung out for a couple of hours catching up on happenings.

By the time we got home it had been a long day. Daddy tallied up the contributions that was given and all in all you made almost 3k not including jewelleries. More savings for you!

It was an interesting experience as on mommy's side we never had a baby shower because we follow nenek's malaysian heritage.

I promised your grand uncle who lives in peninsula malaysia to send him pictures of the event and see how big you've become.

For a baby, even before you were born, your lucky star has already been shining bright, and may it continue to shine bright for always.

Love,

Mommy