Time for some real talk: Stretch marks and weight gain in pregnancy

This will be a pretty quick post as it was originally an Instagram post that got too long so I decided to just make it a short blog post! I am absolutely certain that most women deal with some body image issues during pregnancy. My body is expanding in ways I’ve never seen before and while that is a miracle, it can also occasionally be a little triggering and I just wanted to share my experiences lately knowing that many women have probably experienced very similar things.

About 3 weeks ago a bunch of stretch marks popped up seemingly overnight and then at the next weigh-in, a few days after the stretch marks appeared, I had gained nearly 10 pounds in one week which for about 2 days caused me to completely spiral. It triggered that culturally ingrained part of my brain that told me weight gain was not ok. Pregnancy has been tough on me! I haven’t exercised much beyond walking and I’ve just eaten whatever foods I can stomach basically. And seeing that sudden weight gain made me spend several days questioning my eating habits of late and if I’ve been doing the best things for myself and the babies. My thinking veered in an unhealthy direction at first but I quickly focused back on my health instead of what the scale says. So lately I’ve tapped back into that intuitive eating that I focus on at home which is difficult in the hospital when food arrives on a schedule and not necessarily when I need it and the meals aren’t really what I would prepare for myself. But a few small changes have helped me feel more in control and more at peace with whatever weight gain does occur.  

The stretch marks didn’t trigger me as much as the weight gain but the concern with my stretch marks is that they have been a little painful! I’ve been using lotion on my belly religiously for most of the pregnancy. I’ve used Nivea cocoa butter, Burt’s Bees Mama Bee belly butter, Lucia Bay argan oil, Palmer’s cocoa butter formula with vitamin E massage lotion for stretch marks, and I just introduced vitamin E oil. For the past few days I’ve been popping open one of the vitamin E capsules and massaging that into the stretch marks that are painful. I’m still having some discomfort but my husband thinks the vitamin E seems to be helping the most of all. Since I’ve been in the hospital I’ve been trying to lotion/oil my belly at least twice a day and since I got the vitamin E oil I’ve been doing a third daily application of stretch mark treatment! My goal is just to minimize them as much as possible and mostly to reduce the discomfort they’ve been causing lately.

Weight gain and stretch marks are such a weird and confusing part of pregnancy. Our bodies have to change. That’s a fact but it doesn’t necessarily make that easy to accept. I love my bump! And I’m trying to embrace every aspect of it, especially because I only have 2 weeks left with it!