Ripley wrote:i want to comment on the acne. Personal story here, so scroll past if you are not interested. i had ACNE. It was BAD. It was not on my face, but started on my neck and LITERALLY covered my upper body from my neck to my stomach, back and arms to my elbows. There were new pimples every day- about 20. I took no photos of my pregnancy because of how bad my acne was. There was clear skin maybe 2 cm between each pimple. I saw a dermatologist who said it was the worst pregnancy acne he had ever seen... I was even asked to be a demonstration for the doctors doing residency in dermatology. My hormones just went SUPER CRAZY. i would shower and have BAD body odour again about and hour later. I washed my hair and it was greasy about 5 hours later. And no, i did not over shower or over wash. The doctors were stumped, especially since my face was clear. It was indicative of steroid induced acne. I take steroids only because i don't make stress hormones and need to take steroids to make up for the ones i don't make. So it is just a replacement dose for what other people make naturally. So i should not have had steroid induced acne since it was just a replacement dose. And the whole greasy hair and strong body odor had doctors stumped too.
Sorry for the long post, but any time i see someone with acne, i think pshhht. Give me a break. I have never seen anyone with it like i had it and i did not even want to go out in public, i am not joking or exaggerating. It went to my lower back and all over my preggo belly. it was horrible.
I know hormones from pregnancy (even periods) can cause bad acne and I am sorry you dealt with that. I had it in my teen years. I just wanted her to know that over washing is worse than not washing. Drinking a lot of water can also help clear the skin along with eating cleaner.
I do not really suffer with it anymore, thankfully. It always gave me low self esteem though and I was embarrassed by it, even though many people deal with acne/white heads/black heads.
Also, I am sorry you dealt with it. Acne is no fun. Pregnancies have been fairly good on my face except near the end my face bloats up like a balloon lol.