The advent of the stretch mark

I have been such a slacker lately and I haven't blogged in so long, and I have to admit that it's mainly because the latest pregnancy-related developments haven't been all that positive for me. One of the most awful ones is the advent of the stretch mark. In spite of how proud I was to have gone so far without any, the awful little things finally showed up about two weeks ago, only to be made worse by my outbreak of PUPPP, which apparently starts first in the stretch marks on the belly:

BOOO! Oh, and this picture is funny too because you can see how enormous my belly tattoo has become! I was so disappointed to see those stretch marks, and even now when I look at my belly I get sad, but I'm sure they'll heal up eventually (I hope anyway). What's made it all worse, also, is that I've had to discontinue my ritual use of cocoa butter because it was aggravating the PUPPP and making it that much worse. I've switched to some other anti-itch lotions that work quite well, but much to my dismay because I've become so addicted to cocoa butter over the last few years...and even H noted that I "no longer smell like chocolate". Yes, it's unfortunate that they're here, but I guess it's just one more thing to add onto the list of sacrifices I'll make to keep this baby healthy. Oh, and I'm sure that list will get MUCH longer as his life goes on. What a blessing!