Love Lines vs Stretch Marks

I know stretch marks. I've had the "joy" of stretch marks since I was 15. I was a very late bloomer, and didn't hit puberty till the summer between freshman and sophmore years in high school. I was the classic flat chested kid. I can clearly remember the taunts - "Roses are red, violets are black, why is your chest as flat as your back!" And I also remember in Jr. High being embarassed to change at gym because all the other girls were wearing bras but my mom wasn't going to spend money on something I didn't even need.

Then aunt flow hit. And in one summer I went from concave chest to full C cup. And it didn't stop there. Before I got pregnant, my chest was a size 38 E. That's right, E as in ENORMOUS! (Side note, I cannot find a nursing bra big enough.) So needless to say, the rapid expansion of mammary tissue did not coincide with the rate my skin was growing. I had Giant reddish purple streaks all over my chest. I was too embarassed to wear anything that scooped down even a little as these stretch marks come to about an inch shy of my collar bone.

My mom didn't help matters. If even a little of my marks were showing she'd point it out to me. She didn't do it to be mean. She does the same thing if my bra strap is showing to this day. She is very conservative herself, and would've been embarassed if they were on her and anyone saw them. So she was just trying to save me some embarassment. She just didn't realize that instead of helping, she was making me more self conscious.

So, lets skip foward to the following summer. I am about a D cup now, andI still have those blaring stretch marks. I wanted to go swimming with my friends badly, but i was so embarassed about my stretch marks that if I went, I wore a tshirt. And, seriously, how UN-fun is swimming in a tshirt. One day, I was with my friends and I was complaining about my tshirt, and they were like, "We don't even understand why you're wearing it. We don't care about your boobs."

It was pretty eye opening for a 16 ish girl. All anyone had ever concentrated on before was my lack of boobs. Now that I had them, no one cared? Then I realized that none of my friends had ever concentrated on my lack of or gain of boobs. It was just the bullies and pricks. So, off came my shirt and I had a blast the rest of the summer.

Also, due to the fact that I was no longer hiding myself under a big old tshirt, My boobs got exposed to sunlight. You hear advertisements for all those fancy creams and crap to get rid of stretch marks, right? Ignore them. They are a waste of money. If you've gotten stretch marks, you will ALWAYS have them. The good news is that they don't always have to be purplish red! I got sunburned once, and when my sun burn went away, the color of my marks was drastically reduced. Don't get me wrong, it sucked being sun burned. But I realized that the sun and time were the only things that were going to make them get fainter.

Today, I still have all my giant lines running over my boobs, but they're the same color as my skin. The only way you can tell they're there at all is to run your finger over them and feel the indentation.

I noticed a few weeks ago that I am getting them now on my belly. And you know what, I was SO EXCITED! I called my DH in and said, I'm finally getting some Love Lines! It means he is growing!! I don't know yet if I will sun the red out of these after Trevor is born, but I do know that I am not ashamed in the slightest of these marks, these Love Lines. Because that is exactly what they are, Love Lines. I love my baby so much and he isn't even born yet. They remind me daily of the wonderous miracle growing inside of me, and how lucky I am that he picked me to be his mommy.

I've gotta stop now because I'm over here having a pregnant cry now. Heh.