I’m never the one to refuse a pampering session, especially when it’s endorsed by my husband, so we asked our sister-in-law. She said there’s a new mommy & baby spa center in town, and they happened to have a 50% discount for all treatment. Hearing the word discount, I said yes immediately.

Now, I can’t seem to recall the place’s name… Was it Mom N Me? Mom N Baby? Mommy N Me? I can’t be too sure (couldn’t find it on Google as well), but the location is on Pringgading street. For the purpose of this post, I’m just gonna use Mommy N Me.

So here’s the review:

MOMMY N ME

Complain on my part: Lower back pain, particularly on the right side.

Treatment: Mommy massage + body scrubs (2 hours).

Charge: IDR220.000 (normal price), 50% discount.

Plus points:
- Cheap! Definitely value for money.
- Quiet, good for relaxation. In fact, the place was so quiet that I was the only guest for the entire 2 hours of my stay over there.
- Love the scrub session! I chose milk scrub and it left my skin smooth, hydrated and smelled really good.
- The room wasn’t that spectacular, but it was clean, so was the bathroom.

Minus points:
- I’m not a fan of hard-pressure massage. I already told the masseuse to turn it down a little bit, but it was still too much for me.
- They said that it was a 2-hour session, but the whole thing was over within 90 minutes.

Overall comments: The lower back pain is still there because the masseuse wouldn’t do anything to that area, in fear that it would affect the baby. It was a so so massage, but the scrub session was nice.

Will I come again? Probably not. Apart from the obvious reason that I don’t live in Semarang, the massage itself was not something special.

———-

Last weekend, I had to supervise another TVC shooting and it lasted for two full days.

I realized now that shooting is definitely not a friendly activity for a pregnant mama like me. By the end of day one, my tummy was bloated and gassy. By the end of day two, I had sore muscles all over my body and drop dead exhausted.

On Sunday, I decided to get a massage session at Mom n Jo and here’s the review:

MOM N JO
House of Mom n Jo
Darmawangsa IV no. 8
Jakarta Selatan
Ph: 021-7278 0760

Complain on my part: Aching muscles all over my body, lower back pain, cramping calf.

Treatment: Pre-baby Bliss Massage (80 minutes)

Charge: IDR250.000

Plus points:
- Super cozy/relaxing/cute place! Loved it since the first time I stepped in to their threshold. The room was exceptional.
- Definitely my kind of massage. Just the right amount of pressure to make me relaxed without having to cringe in pain.
- The masseuse was definitely more professional and gentler, really knew what she was doing.
- I love the fact that they washed my feet first before the massage.

Minus points:
- I’m mostly disturbed by the sound crying babies from the next room. While I can’t blame the babies, but I was looking for a relaxation time, and the sound of crying babies every now and then weren’t exactly relaxing. They should do something about it, maybe sound-proof the rooms?
- Slightly expensive, but I got what I’d paid for.
- I wish that they let us take shower before leaving to wash off the greasy massage oil.

Overall comments: Love it! Had a very lovely massage session. The lower back pain is still there because of the same reason as the Semarang’s massage session. I guess I just have to suck it up. But the rest of my body ache was gone! Even the cramping calf felt a lot better.

Will I come again? Yes, definitely!

———-

Any other recommendation for a massage place for pregnant women?

A: The book said that Princess can open her eyes now and very sensitive to lights, she will move when she sees the light. *points flashlight to the tummy area*

Suddenly Little Princess makes a sudden and abrupt movement.

A: *grinning ear to ear* She totally moves! Here, give it a try! *gives the flashlight to Diaz*

D: You’re being mean to her! Poor Princess! Do you want someone to point some lights on your eyes? No, right? What makes you think she wants it? *confiscates the flashlight*

A: *dejectedly* But it’s cute… *heads down in shame*

I feel like my tummy has been growing before my very own eyes at a head-spinning rate for the past 4 weeks.

The first 20 weeks, Princess was growing ever slowly that it made me wonder if she was really there. But she seemed to be catching a little thing called growth spurt for the past month and doesn’t want to waste any more time to grow.

I’m not complaining of course, just wonderstruck. As I’ve mentioned before, pregnancy is very magical.

During the day she’s pretty much calmed down, only kicks me here and there randomly. Usually when I’m sitting down and my upper body is leaning forward, she kicks me in the lower tummy area. I’m guessing that this kind of position is kind of squeezing her and she doesn’t like it.

After lunch time is somersaults time for her. I’m guessing that she’s quite an eater, happy whenever I’m feeding her. I hope that it’s a good sign and she won’t be a picky eater later on.

Her most active time is around 11PM until midnight, when it’s almost downtime for me and I’m happily lounging around. That’s when her kicks are the strongest, so strong that I can see my tummy somewhat moving on it’s own.

Sometimes I even need to talk to her, just to calm her down. I will say something like, “it’s late Princess, go to sleep okay? Tomorrow you can kick all you want again”. Some time it works, other time it doesn’t.

Her kicks are not strong enough to disturb my sleep… Yet, so I don’t know whether she’s somersaulting all night long or not. But in the morning, when I wake up, she kicks me here and there. Makes me wonder if she ever sleeps at night?

I hope that it’s not a sign of her future’s sleeping pattern, you know sleeping during the day and awake at night, because then I will be in so much trouble.

My fellow Mom bloggers, what do you think of this matter?

The pants were passed on to me by my boss, who got it from an ex-colleague, who was pregnant two years ago. Stealing a title from a book, this is the ‘sisterhood of maternity pants’.

I like the idea of passing on maternity clothes, because let’s face it we won’t wear them much longer and they’re only comfortable when you’re actually pregnant, otherwise they’re just exceptionally large clothings.

Yesterday we saw you again and I can’t stop wondering how miraculous you are.

Months ago, when we first saw you on the screen, you were just a minuscule blob. Now you’re already a tiny person of your own. Ten cute fingers. A fast beating heart with four little chambers. Spine that runs through your back. Two little legs that actively kick my uterus’ wall everyday (not that I mind). A set of brain that is fully formed. And the list goes on.

We even saw your face, albeit a bit blurry, you were yawning when the nice doctor hovered the sonogram wand over your face. Your cute nose was all crunched up and your eyes were closed. I can’t tell whether you look like your Daddy or me but I’ve been secretly hoping that you’d inherit my big, round eyes and your Daddy’s adorable dimples.

For the past couple of weeks, I’ve noticed that your kicks are getting stronger. So strong that I could see my tummy is moving on its own. I’ve been telling your father that you must be getting bigger, if you can move my belly on your own. And you most certainly are, Little Bird! You are now weigh 580 grams!

Keep up the good work, Princess! Kick me hard if you’re hungry and I haven’t fed you. Sometimes I can be too consumed with life, but rest assured that I’m constantly learning to put your needs first before everything else.

My love magnitude for you grows even stronger by day. I don’t know how you look like, how you sound like, or what kind of personalities you have, but one thing that I know for sure is that I love and adore you, so much. And I’m sure your Daddy also feels the same way.

Sixteen more weeks before we finally meet you in person. We’re jiggling in anticipation, but as I’ve said it so many times already, take all the time you need before making your grand entrance. Keep growing my miraculous Princess! We’ll be patiently waiting until you’re ready.

In the mean time, we’re also getting ready for you. We picked a beautiful name for you, but still debating on your middle name. Last weekend, we went to the furniture shop and we found a gorgeous crib for you to sleep in, I think you’ll love it. And I’m currently on constant shopping mode for your wardrobe collection.

Love you with all my beating heart,

Mommy

What to buy? What size? Will she outgrown this dress quickly?

Seriously, baby shopping is a whole new territory for me. I have no clue whatsoever and it becomes so overwhelming when you’re actually in the store. For each item that I bought, I spent a good 15 minutes staring at it.

Eventually, I pulled myself together and managed to buy some cute outfits for the Little Miss.

Nevertheless, it was super fun and I think I’ve found a new addiction (which will do some damages to our bank accounts).

Here are some of the great ones, it’s just way too cute that I just have to share it.

One name in particular struck the both of us and it kept coming up on our conversations. None of our friends have named their daughters with that name, thus far (hopefully won’t be). We even checked with Diaz’s niece, whether she had a friend with that name in school and she said no.

It’s a classic French name, which turns out to be a derivation of a Saint’s name – an important one and well-mentioned in the Bible, and the more I think about it, the more it’s grown on me. So one night…
A: Let’s name our baby with X!
D: Huh?
A: Do you like the name right?
D: Yes!
A: I also like the name, so let’s just name the baby with it!
D: Ok!

And that’s how we settled with Princess’ given name. There’s still a chance that we might change our minds, but so far we’ve found a name for her.

The next set of problems aroused when I wanted to find her a middle name but Diaz was adamant to just keep it simple with 2 names only (given and family name).
D: Why would you want to give more names? It’s useless anyway!
A: I want her to be unique!
D: She’s already unique on her own!
A: Good point, but still…

Then I found out from my friend that these days you need to have three names if you wanna register for a new passport. I don’t know whether it’s true or not but I used it as a leverage

This morning, I finally sold the idea that we need to find a middle name.

So the naming game continues…