Random Skin changes

On Saturday I spent the day garage saling with a friend. The day was gorgeous so I wore one of my summer pregnancy tops as opposed to an oversized t-shirt. Except in the shade, I didn’t need a jacket. It was the first time I gave strangers the opportunity to see my belly and the first time people started asking me, “When are you due?” It was a little odd. It wasn’t a good or bad it just caught me off guard. Thankfully I didn’t get any unsolicited advice. I’ve heard and read stories about it, but with exception to my mother telling me what to eat, I haven’t run into it. – Where oh where is a piece of actual wood?

The only problem that I did have was at one sale this lady had two sleepsacks / sleep blankets that were red and had, “Baby’s first Christmas” embroidered on it. They were both new with the tags still on, so I snatched one up and asked her how much she wanted for it. This is how it all began. I now know more about that woman and her twin granddaughters than I ever cared to know. Don’t get me wrong, the lady was very nice and at first it was sweet to hear about her tiny twin granddaughters in California, but after a while I could feel the sun starting to burn my shoulders. I felt like a trapped animal, and she continued with telling me about her daughter-in-law finding two very nice cribs on craigslist for $100 from a woman that had triplets – that’s fantastic, but I can feel my scalp burning now. There was no shade on this woman’s driveway. I should have asked her for some juice or other refreshment - even prisoners of war get water. We finally made our escape when another pair of garage salers were drawn in.

Normally I don’t burn this easily. I’ve heard that the skin changes when you’re pregnant, so here is yet another symptom. I actually did experience skin color changes very early in my pregnancy and forgot to list it as one of my many first trimester symptoms, but I’ll get to that later. For now, on to our irregularly scheduled program…

Kurt and my parents all commented on my sunburn that night and I told them about the garage sale lady. The next day when Kurt and I were in the shower he asked, “What’s that on your shoulder?” He was pointing to the back of my shoulder; gee, I don’t know could you be more vague? “I don’t know. Does it look like a mole? What color is it?” I asked. He described it as a very dark brown ring that was white in the center. Then he asked me if it was a pimple. “Does brown with white in the center sound like a pimple to you?” I was a little freaked out, but as it turns out it was just one of my chickenpox scars that got too much sun – it turned brown while the rest of my shoulder was red and the scar part stayed white. It wasn’t even as freakish looking as he made it out. Remind me never to pay attention to his descriptions of things when he’s not even wearing his contacts. I blamed the garage sale lady for the burn and Kurt said, “I never thought I’d ever tell you this but don’t be so fucking polite! Next time just leave!”

The other skin issue I had was actually one of my very first symptoms that I had forgotten about. My armpits actually got extremely dark. It was February so this wasn’t just some odd tanning and when I say dark I mean three shades of pantyhose darker than my normal winter color. It looked horribly out of place – similar to those people that spend their life working outside in the sun wearing a t-shit and then one day they go shirtless. The parts seem to come from another person and attached to a very pale torso. I stopped using the only product (other than soap) that I use in my armpits. I used Jason Natural - Deodorant Apricot w/Vitamin E Stick without any problems for more than a year – now I use Crystal which is 100% natural mineral salts and Kurt must give my hell about my “magic rock”. *eye roll*