PUPPS

While at my check up with the midwife last week she examined my belly and noticed a small patch of about 10 red bumps near the top of my belly button. I told her I didn't know what they were but I assumed with all the hormonal changes that they were little zits. She agreed saying that was definitely possible but that it also could be PUPPS, which stands for "pruritic urticarial papules and plaques of pregnancy." These words mean absolutely nothing to me, just medical language garbage. While the cause of PUPPS isn't yet known it is believed to come from damage to the connective skin tissues from a rapidly growing belly. She told me to apply cortizone cream on them and see if it helps any.

Ive been using the cream for three days now and things are starting to look a little more pleasant on the belly. The red bumps are still visible but they are less inflamed looking.

This brings to me to a similar topic of the photoshopped belly. Pregnant bellies that we see in the media are not normal, they are photoshopped to death. They are not perfectly round, most seem to be typically pointy. They are not free from blemishes or hairs. Extreme hormonal changes that occur during pregnancy would never let a blemish-free belly pass by. Un-photoshopped bellies are beautiful, they just aren't what we, as a society, are used to seeing in the media. While I haven't fallen victim to the stretch mark doom yet, between PUPPS and that extra layer of peach fuzz my belly definitely isn't magazine worthy. And I wouldn't want it to be.