battle scars that i shall embrace

Ok, ok, those stretch marks don't belong me. But they could by the time I deliver!

The whole smooth Demi Moore/Brooke Shields/Kate Moss preggo tummy is a MYTH. It's either Photoshop/Digital Imaging/ make-up.

I do have some freaky red stretch marks on my tum, but not as bad as what's in the photo. I found the photo on this site with a section called "Belly Gallery" that had a range of photos of preggo stretch marks throughout different stages of pregnancy.

I confess that the photo was of some comfort for vain me. But I've decided to embrace them stretch marks as battle scars.

More so since I discovered this week that HH can't have kids. I didn't know how to console her. After going through almost 9 months of pregnancy, feeling the first kicks and hiccups, looking at the foetus grow from a tiny booger to a 3kg baby sucking its thumb on the ultrasound monitor...
The best I could muster was "I'm so sorry". I won't even pretend to fathom the agony she must be going through.

It was a reality check for Andy & I. We realise now how easy our (unplanned) pregnancy was and how we've taken for granted our whole journey, which truly has been smooth sailing so far.

The miserable 4 months of unrelenting nausea that made me consider surrogate motherhood, the sleepless nights from our jungle-gym-baby practicing somersaults, and yes, the 'unsightly' stretch marks that now paint my belly - they're all battle scars that I am so grateful for.