I have stretch marks on my hips from puberty, but I never got them from pregnancy. Neither did my mom. We were both religious cocoa butter users, though, so whether or not it was that or genetics or both, I don't know. But just because you have some elsewhere doesn't mean you'll get them on your belly. Keep creaming in the meantime, though! My linea negra stuck around for a good six months or so. It faded over time but I could definitely still notice it quite a while after birth. P.S. - If the cake thing becomes a frequent craving, you can replace the egg and oil in boxed cake mixes with a can of soda to reduce the amount of fat in the cake. Just mix the cake mix and soda, and you're good to go. It might end up sticking to the pan a bit more than usual, but the consistency is similar and it still tastes great! Can't help with the calories in frosting, though :)

Jennifer, if it makes you feel better, I just turned the computer with the picture of your cankles toward my husband and said, "Remember when my ankles were like this?" His reply? "Yours were worse than hers!" So that should make you feel a little better. :) Honestly, my ankles became cankles for the last two full months of my pregnancy and no amount of keeping my feet up made them go down. The last three weeks of my pregnancy, they looked so horrible that my boss felt bad and told me to work from home three days a week to keep them up full time. It didn't help that it was August in Texas, so you tend to swell in the heat! I used oils and creams on my belly every day, and I got lucky in one sense...the stretch marks I do have only run about an inch or two long and they are below my belly button, so I can still wear a bikini. What happened is that my baby was turned one way and stetched that skin out down low, then she changed position and for the rest of my pregnancy, it was kind of like I had a wattle of stretched out skin hanging loose below my bump LOL. They are so faint and low that I barely notice them...it bothers me more that the skin there is still loose and my belly button, which was a cute, little innie before, is now a larger, deep, cavelike innie. But I most miss my old breasts. I did not breastfeed, but still had to endure the milk coming in. Before, I had small but extremely perky breasts that stood straight out on my chest. After one week with porn star boobs, the milk went away, and my formerly perky boobs looked like two deflated balloons that now hang about an inch lower and rub against the top of my stomach instead of standing straight out. So sad, but a small price to pay in the end for my angel girl who smothers me in kisses and sings songs to me everyday!

i have 4 kids and im 12 wks preggo no stretchmarks on tummy never had cankles i always used palmers coco butter and it is proven to prevent stretchmarks (the special kind) i have the dark line down my tummy but strange enough i always had it since i was a kid it darkened while im preggo then lightens back up a few months after birth