Just call me "Stretch"

I noticed my first stretch mark the same day I noticed the rash that would later be identified as shingles - sometime mid-July. It was about two inches long, pale purple, and on the underside of my belly. I had been using the straight cocoa butter as well as the organic stretch mark cream on my stomach since I found out I was pregnant, hoping they would prevent the stretch marks from happening. I also was thinking, that maybe because they waited so long to show, they would not end up being so bad.

Boy, was I wrong!!!

I have so many! It's like they're breeding themselves. They're in almost perfect concentric circles around my navel. I know they're more genetic than anything, and I knew my mom had them really bad, but I was kinda hoping it was because she had THREE kids. I keep telling myself they're for a good cause, and a small price to pay, but there is no getting around the fact that they're just plain UGLY. I supposed that if they just looked ugly and that was it, well, no big deal. Not like I ever really showed off my stomach anyway.

But the past couple of days - they ITCH. Especially the ones near the bottom of my stomach, where I can't see. Today, it was so bad, that I actually went to go look at my stomach in the mirror, out of fear that the rash came back. Instead, what I found, were bright red, angry, swollen stretch marks. These were nothing like the pale purple ones that were showing before. Those, I could see, but if I rubbed my hand over them, I couldn't feel them at all. The new ones are saying LOOK AT US, FEEL US, NOTHING YOU CAN DO ABOUT IT, HAHAHAHAHA!

I grabbed an ice pack out of the freezer and I have been sitting with it on my lap so that my stomach's underside can rest on it. This has helped with the itching and the pain immensely. That makes me happy. However, I can tell you someone who isn't very happy about it:

Sawyer. Oh, he does NOT like me chilling his warm little cave. He's been kicking and smacking things about down there since a few minutes after I put that ice pack there! He's like, KNOCK IT OFF, WOMAN!!! THAT'S COLD!!! Poor baby. I took off the ice pack, and now he has hiccups.

I went to the doctor yesterday, and everything is still going well. His heartrate has dropped to 140 bpm. My uterus is measuring right where it should be. I'm up 16 lbs overall so far. She said he still should have room to move about, so there's no way to tell which end of him is up at this point.

He's very active these past few days. The night before last, I swear, it looked like I had three of them in there duking it out or something. It was so entertaining to watch all of the jerking and rolling over my entire belly. It lasted about 20 minutes too.

Monday we went shopping. We needed to find an outfit for his first pictures! We went to the ghetto "outlet" mall in Tempe. That' place is such a joke, outlets my foot. There are a few stores that I think would qualify, but most of it is ghetto crap hoochie/thug wear. We found some Carter's receiving blankets at Burlington Coat Factory in our frog theme and colors, along with a little pumpkin hat that said "trick or treat" on it that will go perfectly with the jackolantern onesie from last week.

I made it about a quarter of the way around the mall before I had to stop and sit down. I was hot, sweaty, and out of breath, like I just went hiking or something. It's really ridiculous. I'm looking forward to having my full lung capacity again!

After we left the mall, with NO first photo outfit, we ended up cruising over to Babies R Us to look for something there. While they had a lot of really really cute stuff that would have been perfect, none of it was small enough for a newborn. THAT is lame. We did score these awesome long johns though:

Check out the back:

This coming weekend we're buying the carseat. Hopefully I can find a nice, simple, lightweight, DARK colored robe for the hospital, and coordinating slippers. I need to start packing my hospital bag I guess.

Six and a half weeks to go!!!