Week 32: Itchy & Scratchy

Officially 8 months along now! And the beach ball I swallowed itches more and more every day. Do you know what that means? It means my skin is stretching. You know what happens when your skin stretches to proportions that accommodate a small planet? Well, depending upon the elasticity of one’s skin, or lack thereof, it could mean stretch marks. The dreaded stretch marks.

I got off pretty easy last time. Three or four lines on each hip that faded fairly quickly. No grooves, gouges or roadmaps on my stomach. But holy cannoli am I BIGGER with this baby. My giant hubby insists this is because I’m carrying his equally giant dinosaur sized baby. Maybe. Whatever the reason I gained all the weight I was supposed to by month 6.

Whoops.

This happened to me last time too. You’re medically advised to gain no more than 30 pounds. That 30 pounds usually melts off very quickly after delivery. I gained approx. 60. I went from 135 lbs (which I already thought was terribly fat at 24 yrs old…….such a moron) to 196……I stopped looking at the scale at 196, the week I delivered.

I promise you that’s where I’m headed again. I don’t think I’ll ever tip the scales over the ominous 200 mark but…..never, ever, ever say never-never.

The interesting thing is my doctor has said nothing on the subject of my weight gain. My former OB had made me feel lousy for it. “You can’t gain 10 lbs a month” she’d said (and I’d thought “Oh you wanna bet?”) and even though I did just that I thankfully returned to my original size….eventually. But I wonder if this doctor, this time around, doesn’t bother admonishing me because of my age. Does he know something that I don’t? Does he assume my body is now a lost cause?

I should ask him, but I’m too chicken! Because this is the part where my youth screams “WAIT……I’m too young to die!”