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Melissa Javan | Content Creator & Social Media Manager

@melissajavan

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I'm a former journalist who's had the privilege to pivot as a Writer 🥂

I've done:
✍️ Copywriting for websites and e-books
💌 Email marketing
🤳 Content creation and engagement strategies for social media platforms

I have experience in the advertising industry and recently have worked in the TV industry.

Currently, I'm looking for a role (permanent or freelance). DM me if you come across any roles I can apply for, please 🙏 by @melissajavan

Proof of life, as they say 😊🥰. How you doin'? by @melissajavan

Being pregnant was a privilege, but once the baby was pushed out, it was such a relief!

Pregnancy can be savage: overwhelming hormones, not being able to eat what you want (heartburn sucks), countless nights of insomnia, and and and...

The amazing thing is that your body adjusts beautifully even if you have a spinal condition (I have scoliosis).

And I had so many worries during my pregnancy, so when the baby was pushed out, I again realised that my body is capable - even if my mind could not comprehend it.

Being pregnant was a blessing even if the blessing sometimes brought hard times.

I thank God for the privilege I had to be pregnant. by @melissajavan

"Will your husband cope on his own with your daughter?"

I was in hospital for a week before giving birth, and last week (four weeks after giving birth) I was booked into the hospital again for six days.

Yes, my husband coped.

He doesn't do the things like I do it but both him and my seven year old survived.

They even went to a kiddies party on Saturday and on Sunday they viewed a house.

The thing is, I've realised that as a mother I cannot do it all, I need to involve my husband and make him take ownership of certain tasks.

Like he does the school runs, prepares school lunches for our seven year old and attends most of the extramural activities including dentist appointments (and he has to make the booking too) or after-school classes.

He helps my seven year old wash her hair or supervises her when she wants to do it herself.

He's the cook of the house - I was told by him it's better to cook with olive oil rather than cooking oil.

I cannot do it all, and yes it was hard to ask my husband in the beginning to do certain things, especially because I grew up thinking men and women should have certain traditional roles.

Sometimes it's hard to ask him to do certain things because I assume that he must read my mind. He doesn't read my mind.

But, in the end, husband copes with the household and our seven year old whenever I'm away.

It's all because I let go of the thinking that as a woman and mom I must do it all. by @melissajavan

The other side of curly hair...

I was supposed to wash and plait my hair last Monday, but I didn't have the energy for it.

The next day I went for a follow up visit at the hospital and was then booked in for five days to get antibiotics via a drip.

Guys, when I say I don't have energy, yor, the fatigue is real. It's like my hands told me "don't make me do this".

Maybe I'm just lazy or I'm picking my battles as a mom of a newborn baby?

Anyways, hospital visit went okay, I'm well. I didn't pack in much for the hospital, no hair stuff. Also, I had a huge needle in my one hand for five whole days - working with one hand ain't nice.

I'm being discharged from the hospital today and I have to do something about my hair...

Any tips are welcome. Do you think I can save this hair?

#curlyhairdontcare #curlfriends #badhairdaydontcare #postpartumjourney #postpartumlife by @melissajavan

I kept my pregnancy a secret because I was a bit scared. You know, my first pregnancy ended in a miscarriage and after a baby loss, you feel to keep things quiet.

And yes this was my third pregnancy, but I never really got over the first pregnancy's loss.

Sadly, a week after giving birth I was send to the hospital to get treatment for an infection. I was send to see a gynaecologist and I had my baby with me, the nurses at this particular ward, asked me to wait outside the ward because there were mommies in that ward that had just given birth and lost their babies. I felt so sad for them.

Yes, I've had loved ones say to me that I should be positive, and I was positive in my own way, I was just quiet about it.

I kept my (then) unborn baby to myself and I spoke positive to myself. I was a little fearful to share the news, in fear that someone will speak bad to us, in fear that I might experience a loss.

Don't discard your feelings, don't feel bad about how you process things, I tell myself. Do you.

But, in your fear and in your doubtful thoughts, talk about your feelings and your experience; even if it means that the close ones you share it with doesn't understand why you are doing what it is you're doing.

Because I believe that talking about it, it is part of healing and it is part of having faith that the future has good possibilities.

I think I only shared about my pregnancy at 38 weeks along, and I did it scared.

#JavanThings #pregnancydiaries #southafricanmomblogger by @melissajavan

"I can do hard things."
- A quote by @michelle_expert; a good reminder for myself this week.

📸: @daylightphotogr by @melissajavan

A lot of times taking care of your health is not sexy, it's not cute. Most times you feel like you want to delay the process, you want to cancel the appointment... Telling yourself "let me do this tomorrow or next week instead."

But in the end you have to force yourself to get yourself checked out, you have to remind yourself why you're taking care of yourself. "I'm doing this for my kids."

And sometimes if you get it checked out sooner, you might get a treatment that's not so bad. It might give you a sigh of relief.

So, listen to your body, look at the signs. Go get yourself checked out even if it feels uncomfortable 😣... by @melissajavan

I didn't think I could do natural birth...

I was doubtful, I thought my pelvis would be too small to push out a baby, I thought that my spinal condition Scoliosis would interfere with the process.

I opted for an elective csection, especially since I heard there would be a very little risk with my previous pregnancy that ended up in an emergency csection.

But some doctors sounded positive about natural birth, it was almost as if they indirectly said "you got this" but they wouldn't say that, they would only say "it's your decision".

I checked out videos online of doula's and midwives and they explained how it comes about that your body can do the natural birth.

And the day before I had decided to give birth naturally, I realised that I'd been telling myself negative things. I had to tell myself to stop it, I had to relearn telling myself "I am capable, my body is capable".

And two weeks ago I kept repeating these words while in labour, while pushing my baby out, i kept saying "I am capable, my body is capable" and this was despite me having the doubts.

Sometimes we feel like we're the black sheep, we feel like we'll be that small percentage that gets the bad things happening to us, because "the bad things always happens to me".

But, sometimes we have to take a chance on ourselves and remind ourselves: Maybe this time things will be different, maybe this experience will be good, maybe this experience will be with ease, maybe I should instead say "I am capable... My experience will be filled with ease".

And then two weeks later you find yourself feeling good after a coarse salt bath, thinking "I'm glad I took a chance" and "I'm glad I changed what I said to myself".

#JavanThings #momtoanewborn #newbornmomlife #southafricanmommyblogger #southafricanmom by @melissajavan

With my previous pregnancy, I was afraid to ask questions, I didn't know what to ask.

This time around I'm okay with being vulnerable. One question I was happy I asked someone recently, was: Why do you think you did natural birth so easily?

This person had several children and when she gave birth, the baby would be born within minutes.

She told me exercise helps, she walks a lot and had a lot of sex. Plus when it was close to her due date she would listen to her body and she remembered her previous experiences, like she had certain cues for when it was time to go to the hospital.

After our conversation I remembered how before I was just scared to ask anything from anyone, I guess I didn't want to look like a rookie, or just dumb.

The reality is, there's no such thing as a dumb question and most people are just happy to share what they know.

#JavanThings by @melissajavan

Are you a crier or not?

Pregnancy makes you very vulnerable - if you're not a crier (like I am) you will be humbled and cry a river for just about anything.

With each of my pregnancies, my hormones were sky high.

Normally I'm the straight faced person, the person with the "try me" face.

But as soon as I'm pregnant, I cry when I laugh, I cry when I have empathy for a situation, and I cry when I tell a sad story even if it's not even about me, tears just start streaming down my face; I just can't control it.

The best thing about this is when I want to laugh, I put on a comedy special and it feels like a great therapeutic session.

Although it has been frustrating to be such a crier the past few months, I've embraced it. I'm happy that I could experience this part of pregnancy.

What about your pregnancy experience surprised you? Let me know in the comments below.

#JavanThings by @melissajavan

When you don't have money for a photo shoot...

Get some flowers or any props (buy & support a small business owner if you can).
Prep some outfits to wear.
Then, check out Instagram or Pinterest for ideas on how to pose for your shoot.
Get a chair, stack some books on it. Place your camera on there...
Set the camera's timer, and voila!

#JavanThings #pregnancyphotoshoot #pregnancyphotoshootideas #pregnantmommy #southafricanmomblogger by @melissajavan