The Truth About Stretching

WARNING: If you're disturbed by belly pics and stretch marks, you may not want to read on

I think that every woman who is pregnant, trying to get pregnant, or dreams of someday being pregnant imagines herself with a perfect, beautiful belly. Like the ones you see in those Coco Butter commercials, all big and round and stretch mark free.

Unfortunately, that image isn't the reality for 50 - 90% of all pregnant women. And news flash, Coco Butter does NOT prevent stretch marks. So the women in their ads are just naturally blessed with stretchy skin (I know some of you are currently wishing some other heinous pregnancy issue on them, like severe morning sickness...oh that's just me!?!).

There wasn't really much hope for me in this situation. I started pregnancy with stretch marks on my belly from prior weight gain. Gluttony, happy marriage, graduate school, age, etc all contributed to my gain over the years which eventually lead to diabetes. Once I was diagnosed in August 2010 (the same day of my graduation dinner) I quickly lost about 30 lbs. Believe it or not, that still didn't bring me to the weight that is healthy, so I started my pregnancy "overweight" (I use quotations because it makes me feel better #comfortquotations) and with stretch marks.

As my belly got bigger with Baby B, to my complete surprise, my stretch marks started getting bigger too. And redder! Whoa! Where'd these come from!? Despite considering myself a rational person, I must have somewhere deep down still imagined that my belly would be picture perfect. I was mortified and embarrassed, in fact most women are and won't talk about it even though they're in the majority.

But something funny started happening. The bigger my belly got, the bigger my stretch marks got, the more proud I became of them. I think I commented to Johnathan, "These have gotten so gnarly I'm kinda proud of them." I think it ties back to my intrigue with scars and scar stories. We all have one scar or another, with an awesome story to go along with it. Try comparing scar stories with people sometime, it's a guaranteed good time had by all. Some of mine include: go-cart through a barbed wire fence and shovel through the knee while buried in the sand (thanks bro!).

So here I am, with these stretch marks that will most likely stay with me the rest of my life (like a scar). And the story behind it!? I lovingly grew, and sacrificed, and gave birth to the most beautiful little human being. The light and love of Johnathan and my life. The little girl that will change our lives forever. And this "scar"? It's just my badge of honor and my awesome story to tell... later.