Week 36 – stretch marks

I thought I would be ok about getting stretch marks, I thought of them as a kind of badge of pregnancy, an initiation into the exclusive motherhood club. This week I discovered I have some and I am not at all happy about it. They started as a bruise under one breast and are now 3 red lines. I noticed them when I was trying on a maternity bra (Bravado, leopard skin, very comfy) normally I don’t get that close to a mirror to see what’s going on. I obscure most of my full length mirror at home. I wonder what sort of state the underside of my tummy will be in after this baby comes out. Worrying about bikini lines seem a very distant memory.

I have also started to feel prematurely nostalgic for this pregnancy. I am used to being kicked from the inside and having to wee every 5 minutes. And what excuse will I have for stuffing my face full of cake and sweeties when the baby is out? I will have to ‘fess up to being fat instead of pregnant. This baby is definitely going to interfere with my sleep pattern (lots and often) and I only have to worry about my own bladder control while it’s inside. The other new thing this week is the demise of my pelvic floor muscles. Years of exercises and I still managed to wet myself if caught unawares by a sneeze or a joke. This is great fun for my ‘friends’ who find the sight of a fat
girl running to the loo in desperation extremely funny. It is not great fun for me.