I'm a full-time mummy

I was just sharing with my mummy group in Facebook recently that my first pregnancy checkup for this baby is at 10 weeks and the next one will be when I'm about 28 weeks into pregnancy and some asked me why am I doing so.

And that leads me to writing this post today...

Well, firstly, do note that for my first 2 pregnancies, from 1st to about 7th month pregnancy, I went for monthly checkups and then fortnightly and then gave birth.

But for this round, the reason why I reduced the number of checkups are:

• My 2 previous pregnancies and labors are normal and without any complications so my gynae is OK with this arrangement.
  

• I'm tired. I cannot afford to lug my 2 kiddos along EVERY MONTH now.

• The distance between my house to my hospital is 40 minutes EACH WAY. I really appreciate less travelling time now especially if 2 kiddos are tagging along everywhere I go (different story if we are going on holiday okay?)
  

• My gynae is very busy (and so am I)

Don't get me wrong... I will definitely monitor my progress even though I'm not seeing my gynae every month. Just that, I feel this round, I am more relaxed and not too pressured to be going for my checkups every month. Of course, because of the lack of checkups, I do sometimes forgot how many weeks pregnant I was and had to keep checking on Babycenter website :P

As for antenatal pills, oh well, I buy my own vitamins and pills from the local pharmacy near my housing area. Just folic acid, Obimin and vitamin C daily for now. I've been taking the same thing for the previous 2 pregnancies anyway.

I also read one of my blog followers commenting that she is not going for so many checkups during pregnancy as too much ultrasound will affect the baby's foetal development. I googled around for more information as I'm not aware of this and yes, of course I am curious to know whether there are risks to having too many ultrasounds or not!

You can read up the articles I found here on why it is best to avoid ultrasound scanning during pregnancy and why nobody has ever found them to be harmful and another science-based article here. Of course there are a whole lot more articles out there for you to research and read up on and decide for yourself.

My personal opinion? I think ultrasounds are good where by it helps to alert us if there's any complications or risks to the baby or mum but if your pregnancy is normal and no risks foreseen (or no historical healthy risks on yourself or your parents' side) then it should be fine not to do so many ultrasounds.

So, how often do you go for your antenatal checkups when you are/were pregnant and do you think ultrasounds are risky?

We had our brunch on Saturday 4th May 2013 and we thought, oh well, let's just go to Bird Park again since there's nothing to do at home. So we headed there. And I tried snapping as much pictures as I possibly can...

My 4 years old boy was particularly mesmerised with the peacocks this round. Previously? Not much interest. This time, one of the peacocks opened up its tails and showed everyone nearby its feathers (not much left actually) and my boy stood and watched with much interest.

I also took the chance to explain to him that male animals are particularly more colorful than the female ones because they need to attract the female's attention. And this time, we also get to see a peahen and its baby! Cute! I also explained to my boy why the pea chick keeps tagging along to its mummy (for protection and food)

I thought things will get back to normal once we went back home. That's when I realised my boy's memory is still fresh and strong. Because I started seeing things like this from my 4 years old boy...

** Disclaimer: FYI, I have not even started teaching my boy how to draw because uhmmm... I am not a good artist at all, in fact I shudder everytime we have Arts class during school days especially when it comes to drawing activities... crafts no problem... but drawing... I am very weak in this... so anyway, the drawings by my boy is solely his own creation and imagination...

Amazing right?!

That's all the updates I can share for now, feel free to ask and share if you have feedback!

Oh boy... I never know this topic would spark such reactions from my FB page! Last Friday, I shared a conversation I had with my 4 years old boy about penis and vagina and right after I posted that conversation on my FB page, the comments (negative at first) started pouring in...

*** Btw, please note that I normally blog few days to 2 weeks in advance so the date and time on the screenshots you see in this post are captured earlier on 19th April 2013.

So, like I said, the first few comments pouring in were not so discouraging... in fact, some are saying that my 4 years old boy is too young to be knowing this and being taught about this. To be honest, I was shocked to read comments like these... 

You see, being a Chinese born and living in one of the Asian countries (Malaysia to be exact), we are not exactly taught to be so open-minded about the birds and the bees, about how we get our menses etc etc. When I first had my period at 13 years old, my late mum did not explain to me why I was suddenly bleeding down there (I was so scared I was dying but more scared to ask what's happening) and she just took out a sanitary pad and slapped it onto my panty and went on with her daily home routines. I found out bits and pieces about menses few months before from a primary school friend who had her period then but I do not know what to expect and how it would be. Until I got it myself.

So back to penis and vagina.

At first I was feeling down, reading those negative comments shooting me for teaching my boy all this stuff at such an early age (seriously how old should a child be to be taught these things?) and so I replied with this...

I almost wanted to delete the posting on my FB page but decided to write out my opinions on why I don't see anything wrong with what I'm doing... and then the supports poured in. Yay! Read on for more positive feedbacks...

I like the humorous side of this feedback:

And I appreciate and feel so touched by the support comments like these as well...

If you want to read more on what other mums think about being truthful and just teaching the facts about the correct naming terms for our body parts to our children, do feel free to hop over to my FB post and scroll through all the comments in the thread (** Note that the negative ones are way at the bottom as comment with replies and likes get pushed up on top).

I personally learned a few extra things that I have never even thought of (the importance of me teaching my children about this!) such as:

Seriously, I don't know about how the law is in Malaysia when it comes to child sexual abuse cases, but I never realised how important it is for our child to learn to name their body parts correctly until I started this FB post. Now, do know that it is very helpful and IMPORTANT for your children to know the names of their body parts as their statements will weigh more when they know the correct names of their body parts if they are victims of sexual abuse.

Imagine your child's case being dismissed because your child does not know how to pronounce his penis or her vagina using the right words. Will you as a judge believe a child who tells you 'This man touches my down part?' Which down part? What does it mean?

So, parents, remember it is VERY important to teach your child the names of their body parts correctly and not substitute them with baby words or etc etc.

Thank you again for all who left positive and encouraging comments in that humble (and really harmless) FB post of mine. Never had I imagined it would spark such reactions from my fans, on the bright side, I am happy to learn that many parents out there are on the same page as me and I pray and hope that more and more parents will come to a realisation that teaching our children (however young) the correct names for their body parts is NOTHING wrong and SHAMEFUL at all.