High Heel Pregnancy

I read a magazine yesterday and found some funny pictures there that I want to share here with you. Unfortunately, I can not include one of those pictures here for you to see and I can not find one on the website either. But don’t worry; I can explain those pictures here for you. The theme is about some cute and pretty dresses for pregnant women. The pictures displayed three models as pregnant women wearing short gown, short skirt and high heels. Due to this, I think I want to discuss about “inconsistency” here.

I truly agree that those dresses are fascinating that even an un-pregnant women herself would love to wear one of those clothes. But, I really amazed to see those “pregnant women” wearing high heels. Wow! I can not imagine the pain I get if I use high heels during my pregnancy.

Those models don’t have swollen ankles also. Where will you find a woman carrying a baby in her big belly but still have her beautifully shape ankle anyway? Tell me. The other weird things I found is that their bellies are the only parts of their body that look big. No big arms, no swollen leg, no swollen noses, no big breasts, nothing. They look just like fairies on their pregnancy time. Imagine a big belly on a slim shaped woman. Can it be real?

In my opinion, if designers want to sell special clothes made for pregnant women, then they should use the real pregnant women as their models also. Do not cheat your readers by displaying a few slim shaped models with big pillows on their bellies just to make them pregnant alike. That’s not consistent. Everyone knows that those slim shaped models will look great on any kind of clothes anyway. The problem is, will it look great too on real pregnant women? No one can ever tell if you don’t use them as your models, right?

So, please be consistent. Use a proper models for you clothes theme.

Pregnancy clothes are fit for pregnant women also. Leave those stretch small size clothes for the slim shaped un-pregnant models anyway.

Being A Single Mom

Being a single mom is not easy at all. I totally understand this one even if I’m not one of you, single moms out there. And in my own life I found it’s hard to raise children when I already have my husband by my side. I like to talk about this actually after I met an old friend who raises her two daughters by herself and stay unmarried. And I hold my lips so tight so that the questions like “Why” and “What’s happened?” didn’t come out through my lips. I realize that it’s her own life and I respect all of her choices after all.

I’m not discussing about many possibilities which can make a woman make a decision to become a single mom here. I’m sure that every one has her own reason for that. Some reasons perhaps because the death of her husband, divorce or even pregnancy before marriage. So what? It doesn’t matter. I just want to talk about how this single mom will fight the world like a warrior.

Single mom needs and must become a mother and a father at the same time for her kids. Being a mom itself is not easy. So, if you can be both of them at the same time, then you are a truly warrior in this life. Because you choose to receive such a responsibility and put those burdens on your own two shoulders. What could be braver than that?

I read some articles about this topic too on various books and magazines. They also include several single moms there to tell the readers about their opinions and experiences. And I found out that most of these single moms are not “walking alone” actually. Maybe they don’t have husbands beside them, but they’re still having their moms, brothers, sisters and closest friends as well to help them out. Especially when the single mom must leave her kids to work for her living, she can ask for help from them.

Maybe, you are one of these warriors. But you still need your own social life. The problem is that almost every single mom loses their “me time” because they’ve already given their entire time for their kids. But this is not good for your soul. You need to make sure that you still can see someone to talk with or to share with. They don’t have to be a boy friend at all. But you can make friends with your neighbors or clubs for instance, so that they can be your friends when your family members are not around.

Anyway, your kids still need a figure of a right man in their life, especially when you raise boys. Daughters can get along with their mothers but boys need “father profile” in their lives. It would be better if single moms can still have a good relationship with their ex-spouses so that the kids still having their dads around. But if they don’t, moms can pick one of male members in her family to take that position. Boys can learn about those “boy things” from him. Because even a mother herself can not fulfill this needs perfectly. It may works on our daughters but it doesn’t mean that it will work for our boys also. So, give some spaces for other male figures to help you on this one.

Single moms can also share their experiences and problems with other single moms in other places through cyber world. There are a lot of mailing lists and forums available on the internet for you. Interactions among single moms can bring a positive effect on your life, because you can share your experiences with other women who walk on the same path with you. They may already face a certain kind of problems before you and already get a clue for it. Then you can have some benefits from this friendship, right?

Anyway, still you are a super mom with or without all of these topics, moms! So, seize your days. You are warrior mothers, and I admire your strength, firmness and sacrifices always.

My Swollen Legs

We have talked about the skin changes we had during pregnancy a few days ago. If you want to refresh your mind about that, you can click here to find out more. For now, let’s talk about the change we have around legs and feet. As you can see, a pregnant woman can almost lost her ankle shape or her legs shape as well. Why is this happen?

First, we have the swollen legs.

This can be happen because the body itself has hold more blood than usual during pregnancy. The blood circulation from the lower part of the body to the upper part has become hampered. This also can be happen because pregnant woman’s big womb has given too much pressure to the veins which carry the blood from lower part to upper part of the body. This can cause the swollen legs.
How to overcome it?
First, you can lie down and put your legs about 20-30 cm higher for about 15-20 minutes.
Second, you can try to sleep on your left or right side of your body to avoid too much pressure to the vena cava so that the blood circulation will not be hampered.
You can also increase do some twists to each legs as exercise.

The second, we have the stiff feet.
The also happen because the blood circulation is hampered. Only this time, the pressure is around the hip area. The other reason why we have stiff feet is because the composition between calcium and phosphor on the blood is not balance.
How to overcome it?
Try to sit down and put your legs straight on the floor. Then try to pull the palm of stiff legs with one of your hand. You can ask for help if you find you big belly is too big to do such an exercise.
Try to stand right away and reduce the pain by massage the stiff muscle with hands until the pain decreasing itself.
This stiff muscle can also be prevented by avoiding any kind of salty foods.

The last one is varicose vein.

It happens when we can see the veins swollen and appear near the skin’s surface. This could be happen because pregnant woman must carry a heavy burden (her own body and womb) every where during pregnancy. This burden hampered the blood circulation while the blood volume itself has increased rapidly to provide more oxygen for the baby inside the womb.
How to overcome it?
Lift you legs as often as you can. Use a chair or a table to prop your legs and keep your legs higher when you sit down.
You can also do some exercises like walking around. Do this continually to prevent this varicose vein to appear.

Well, that’s all for legs and feet. Next time, we will continue our discussion with other things about pregnancy again.

Batik, Proudly Indonesia

This is truly one of the best times I have as an Indonesian. UNESCO has officially proclaimed Batik from Indonesia as one of world heritages. I believe this is really a moment to be proud of.

Batik has become our cultural heritage for centuries. But, apparently Malaysia has always tried to claim it as their country’s heritage in many times. And it really breaks your heart when you find someone else is claiming one of your belongings. There is nothing wrong if you admire other country’s culture; but if you come up by claiming it as your own just because you like it, then you must be completely out of your mind!

Unfortunately, people of Indonesia respond this problem in a positive way. Actually, we used to regarded Batik as an old fashion way. Almost every young people refused to use Batik as fashion item. Only people in a certain kind of job such as the government’s employees or students from certain schools use Batik as an obligation uniform.

That’s all. You can not expect a young lady uses Batik as a gown to go to a party or something.

But after Malaysia claimed Batik as it’s own, this condition changed. It seems like people of Indonesia finally realized the presence of this precious culture heritage among them and start to use it in almost every fashion items that are available. Every Indonesian designers design various kinds of fashion wears using Batik. This is open the way for Batik to reach the high end people also and become the fashion item. Every body has at least one piece of Batik on their wardrobes and proudly wears it to many special events such as wedding party and stuffs.

Batik has also become a unique fashion items among teenagers and young people. Many girly and boyish clothes are made from batik. You can even find clothes for toddlers and kids made from Batik also. All the stores that sell Batik confirmed that the sale of Batik has increased from time to time. Batik is one of our ancestors’ heritages that we should be proud of. And when UNESCO proclaimed it as world’s heritage, what could be better than that?

Still we need to show how proud we are of this Batik, right? This is why we need to use Batik together tomorrow, on 2nd October 2009 to celebrate the UNESCO statement. You can choose to wear Batik as clothes, purses, accessories, shawls, belts, or anything made from Batik.

Give the whole day on 2nd October for Batik. It’s a perfect way to show that we finally open our eyes for this priceless heritage and tell those people who intend to take it away from us to stay away. Batik belongs to Indonesia. But, still we proudly present you…Batik from Indonesia.