Hollywood Stretchmarks!
Friday, December 23, 2005
This morning I discovered real stretch marks (no, that's not a picture of me)!! I totally blame them on my prenatal yoga class last night. I closed on my house (yippee!) and went directly from the title company to yoga even though I didn't have time to go home and get some stretchy pants. So, there I was, trying to do yoga in my non-stretchy, too-small (it was laundry day and I was washing my two pair of pants that actually fit), khaki pants. It didn't work well and right where I was squeezed the most during the whole class, I now have three stretch marks!! These aren't the fine little lines that I got before (that have already faded). These are Hollywood style stretch marks! I'm just worried that they are like runs in nylons and it's just a matter of time before they take off and run up my whole belly! Oh, well. I've decided to change my attitude about labor. Rather than dreading the labor, I'm just going to look forward to it and embrace the experience. I used to work with a woman who, when pregnant went on and on about how exciting labor was going to be and how she couldn't wait. We all thought she was out of her mind and said to ourselves, "She has no idea what she's going to go through". As it turns out, she had a 2 hour labor! So, I've decided to take on her attitude in the hopes of shortening my labor and enjoying the last few weeks/months of pregnancy.
Sometime I get these HORRIBLE leg cramps at night. So, I decided that the next time it happened I would just pretend it was a contraction and breathe through it. I thought it would be a good chance to practice my hypnobirthing. Yeah right. I had one last night I was whimpering through the whole thing. I hope contractions aren't that intense!
posted by Avorie @ 9:03 AM,
4 Comments:
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At 10:19 AM,
said...
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Try eating bananas for leg cramps - I read somewhere that they are from a lack of potassium.
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At 11:47 PM,
said...
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I'm sorry, but that IS what the contractions are like, only they start out mild and build in intensity, then ramp on down again. And yes, EXCELLENT opportunity to practice your relaxation techniques. Honestly, though, giving birth is exhilirating. It's a lot of hard work and pretty darned painful at times, but so so so worth it. It addition to the joy of finally meeting your baby, there's this incredible rush of endorphins. It's just... well, I can't even describe it. I'm a little sad that I'll never be experiencing it again.
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At 9:27 AM,
said...
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I've had horrible leg cramps too, and bananas, fake salt, real sea salt, and tonic water all did nothing. I recommend stretching your calves at night before bed.
For me, the cramps seem the worst when I've been on my feet or otherwise "overactive" that day, and stretching at least helped a little bit. Changing position also helped -- if I could stand up and stretch the calf some, it worked better for easing the cramp than just pulling on my toes.
I never did try placing a bar of soap under the sheets of the bed, it just sounded too silly, but Snopes says that the soap thing isn't necessarily an urban myth. -
At 8:47 AM,
Erika said...
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Please, that picture scared me out of my seat. I saw my first (vertical) stretch marks this morning.
