Linea Nigra and Stretch Marks

Sigh. I knew I was unlikely to be in the minority of women who escape stretch marks in pregnancy, but I had high hopes. After all, I hit 30 weeks without incident, but I knew I was on borrowed time since evidently they often don't show up until the 3rd trimester. And, sure enough, there is some weirdness happening to my bump now that wasn't there a week ago.

It still isn't a traditional stretch mark per se - the long jagged lines that are already all over my womanly curves from past weight gain are what I think of as "classic" stretch marks. This is more of a stretch spot. It's an area about the size of a pencil eraser, red and shiny, approximately a centimeter above my distended belly button. And when I say I'm getting a linea nigra, it too doesn't have the presentation I had expected. It didn't start coming in until the 7th month, and it's slowly getting darker from the bottom up. Honestly, my bump is so big now that I rarely see it, although that makes it kind of startling when I do glance in the mirror.

Between the line, the weirdness of my belly button - which is only partially an outie, and partially a flat area of some funky-looking skin - and this new red patch, I will say that my belly is beginning to truly not look like my belly anymore. Up until now it was still recognizably mine, just bigger, but now the alien takeover is moving into a new phase. The fact that it often moves in unpredictable ways of its own accord doesn't really hurt the general out-of-body feeling it has going for it. (Seriously, what are you doing in there, unborn child? Redecorating?) And I can't wait to reread this post in a few weeks or months and see how much more it has changed!