Okay, I'm not going to lie, but one of the first things I thought about after finding out I was pregnant, besides the obvious excitement, was "Oh man, I hope I don't get stretch marks". So, of course I went out and bought all the lotions and the oils and started slathering my belly with them even before my belly started to show and guess what? I STILL got them.

Sure, they weren't too bad and they didn't appear until I was about 7 months, but I still wasn't happy about it. I looked at them every day and wondered how the heck am I going to wear a bikini now..? Until one day, when my beautiful son was about 4 months old and I was standing in front of the mirror holding him while he slept. I was wearing pajama pants and a nursing bra, staring at the little purple lines and then I realized this...

My baby is going to grow up. Holy shit, he's already growing up! I know it's going to go fast!

So one day when my precious little baby is all of the sudden a grown man I will look at my stretch marks and remember how it felt when I found out I was going to be a Mother.

One day when my boy moves out, marries his sweetheart and has children of his own, I will look at my stretch marks and remember how amazing it was watching him grow and become the amazing person I know he will be.

My stretch marks are what my son left behind to remind me that even when he's older, one time he was my little baby and my body was his home. They are there to remind me about how amazing it is to give a person life and watch them grow.

I look at my stretch marks now and I feel nothing but love for them.

They're beautiful.

They tell the story of my son.

To be given a permanent reminder on your body of such a precious time in your life is a great thing and women should cherish their stretch marks for the story they tell. I know I do now. ❤

I love my son.

I love my body for the amazing abilities it has proven to me that it's capable of.

And I love my stretch marks.