More on stretch marks

When I told my friend, Sherri, last Monday that two stretch marks had appeared, she literally gasped and said, "Already?" She then advised me to get used to it. New stretch marks would be a daily occurrence.

I might as well own the truth: I didn't believe her. I thought she was exaggerating. I thought to myself, "How bad could it be?" I guess my friend, Amy, is wearing off on me. She's an eternal optimist, always asking questions such as "How bad could it be?" or "How hard could it be?" and truly thinking all the while that it -- no matter what "it" might be -- could never be that bad or that hard.

Well, I now know how bad it can be. New stretch marks, albeit small ones, are appearing almost daily. Good grief. I'm not even very big. Not compared to other six-month-pregnant bellies that I see online.

Another milestone

I knew I was forgetting something yesterday when I was talking about milestones. Here's a dubious one. My first stretch marks appeared this past week. People are saying it's early. Sigh. It's not exactly unexpected. I've seen my mother's stomach. I already knew I didn't have good genes for stretch marks. Contrary to what some might think, you can't control, reduce, or eliminate strech marks by applying lotions, cocoa butter, etc. (Products claiming otherwise are lying.) You either have genes that are resistant to strech marks or you don't. Apparently, I don't.

Milestones

I've neglected to note some important milestones. On Friday, March 10, Bob thinks he felt the baby move. The following Wednesday, Kidney Bean was kicking really hard, and Bob felt four really strong kicks. Since then, I've been able to see my own belly move during some of the stronger kicks. K.B. is kicking incessantly this very moment.

Last week, the upper part of my belly popped right out. Previously, only my lower belly showed much growth. Even so, I still don't look pregnant. I never realized just how important maternity clothes were in contributing to making one look pregnant. If you're clothes look like maternity clothes, then you look pregnant. If you're clothes don't look like maternity clothes, then you might just look fat instead. :)

Reality

I'm going to have a baby in less than four months. Me, of all people. A baby. And by "have a baby," I don't mean deliver one. I mean I'm going to have one. A whole baby. To take care of. It won't survive without me to take care of it. The reality of the responsibility is overwhelming.

Big baby?

Just came from the doctor's office. Saw a fabulous OB named Dr. Rider. She's the best! I love her to death and wish she could deliver me.

Gained another five pounds, which makes fifteen pounds so far this pregnancy. Blood pressure remains excellent. However, baby appears to have had an early growth spurt. I'm twenty-four weeks, but my uterus is measuring thirty weeks! This was unexpected because so far, every ultrasound and uterine measurement has been right in line with my due date.

Even though Dr. Rider didn't say so, gestational diabetes springs immediately to mind. The sugar test is standard at twenty-four weeks, so I was scheduled for it. However, if it weren't standard, I'm sure she would have ordered it for me. You can't ignore such sudden growth. If I'm still measuring large at the next visit, she'll order an ultrasound. If my sugar test show high-blood sugar levels, though, I hope they won't wait until my next visit to tell me.

Oh, yeah. Fantastic news! You know how you're not supposed to eat undercooked eggs? Well, that rule only applies to egg whites! I can start eating my eggs over easy again! Laugh if you will, but eating them scrambled has been a real sacrifice for me. :)

Forgot to mention: Slight hint of edema.

New milestone

My wedding ring has been getting tighter and tighter, so last night I finally pulled it off to see if I could still get it off. It almost didn't come off. I really had to pull, and it hurt like crazy.

I don't know about you, but whenever I've gained a couple of pounds in the past, my ring would be hard to get off, but it would slide back on fairly easily. Not this time. I almost didn't get it back on, and then I started crying. Not because I was fat, but because I couldn't wear my wedding ring. I finally forced it back on, which was a really bad move. My finger was now throbbing and went numb overnight.

I tried to get it off using the dental-floss trick this morning, but I couldn't remember how the trick worked, and I did it wrong. Then I tried dishsoap and hand lotion, but to no avail. Finally this afternoon I looked up the dental-floss trick. I found a message board with a ton of tricks, such as wrapping dental floss around your finger to bind it, using Windex, soap, warm water, cool water, etc. Apparently though, the secret jeweler trick is Preparation-H -- yes, folks, that right, use hemmorroid cream to reduce swelling and remove your ring.

I decided to save that one as a last resort. I wrapped some floss around my finger and soaped it up. It took a couple minutes of painful tugging, but I finally got the ring off. I think I'm going to buy a bigger replacement ring, because I can't stand the thought of walking around without a wedding band, especially not when I'm pregnant. I'm way too old to be walking around looking like I got pregnant by accident. :)