Pretty Mom

Something that's been bugging me for awhile now is how do I get back into shape after delivery. I haven't been able to do that after my first child was born, but I am determined to do it after my second child is born. And what I mean by "get back into shape" is going back to my pre-marriage days. Ya ya. I think maybe my ideal weight was when I first started working. I need to get back to that, if that is even possible. The first thing that I want to do once confinement and everything else is completed (jamu, urut, etc) is to get laser treatment and laser off all my pregnancy stretchmarks. Back in my first pregnancy, I only began applying the cocoa butter lotion on my belly after the itching started, and so it did not help to prevent stretch marks from appearing. This time I started applying the lotion in my 2nd month of pregnancy, so now that the skin on my tummy is really stretching (I'm at 5 months), it doesn't itch as much. I remember back when I was pregnant with Salma, the itchiness was so bad that I scratched all the time. We are not supposed to do this, because scratching will further inflame the skin and cause scars. Which lead to stretch marks. As a result of my folly, I have like literally hundreds of stretch marks on my tummy. My daughter plays with them sometimes... she runs her hand over them like it's a harp.

So that's my first plan, to get laser treatment. Hopefully the price will not go up by the time I am ready to do it. I've already done my research and know just the place to do it. If there is too much excess skin, maybe I will get a tummy tuck (if I can afford it). If not, then urut or massage to get rid of it. I don't even think that's possible though. But maybe it is.

Go to regular facials is my other plan. As we get older, we need more help to maintain good skin, so I need to go to facials more. I stopped going during this pregnancy, but I really should continue. My skin is terrible right now, so dry.

Then the final part of the plan is just continuous regular exercise. Maybe also focusing on upper body strength. Which I have zero of. I literally have zero upper body strength. I wouldn't be able to pull myself up over a wall, for example. During the team building event my former company had when I first joined back in 2005 I think it was, we went to this place in Kuching, and all of us had to climb over a wall. I couldn't do it, and my boss had to throw me over the wall. Yes, really. There were two guys seated at the top of the wall that had to catch me and pull me up. I remember the episode clearly because he did it without warning me. I was just suddenly propelled into the air and caught by 2 of my colleagues and just tossed over. It really happened that way. Thank God I didn't weigh all that much back then... or else it would've been too embarrassing.

Oh and the very last thing after delivering my second child is that I need to improve my make-up skills. I've stopped wearing make up during pregnancy because for some reason it makes my skin itchy. But I feel like I really need to learn how to apply all the facial stuff properly to maintain good skin. It's not enough to just wash it off with facial wash, I think. I don't want to clog my pores and stuff, and I have to really learn how to do it right.

The thing that I admire most about Korean girl groups (right now they are really big in Asia, more popular than J-pop girl bands) is not their slim figure and overall prettiness, but their eye make-up. Their eye make-up really makes their eyes pop out.

Still shots taken from KARA's music video for "Jumping".
I wanted to put up "before and after" pics but suddenly got too lazy.

I've seen pics of a few of them when they have no make up on, and they just look like regular Koreans (not necessarily having big eyes, the usual mata sepet la). Then when they have their eye make-up on, suddenly, their eyes are bigger and more sparkly... and as if they didn't have mata sepet. Ya ya, I don't have mata sepet, but just the fact that good eye make-up can make your eyes look gorgeous is fascinating to me. I want to try and copy it. Not that I would want to put on fake eyelashes to go to work every morning, but maybe just for fun when going out or something like that.

And that's my plan for becoming a pretty mom...