Pregnancy Hives? Dry and yet oddly oily skin? And other pregnancy induced skin issues....

Ok fellow friends who've been down this road before...what is up with the strangeness of pregnancy skin? I know I'm more prone than your average person to develop freakishly random bouts of hives for no apparently good reason (Abby and Chrissy, you might recall a certain severe "sesame seed allergy" induced case...which may or may not have been related to extreme stats finals anxiety...).  I have been known to have other sensitive skin issues related to using new products, etc.  However...for some reason this week, my skin has hit some new peak of weirdness.  The skin from which my eyebrow hair grows is flaking - literally just peeling! And yet, I'm broken out in the space between my eyebrows! How can skin less than 1.5" apart have such vastly different degrees of moisturization? And, as I type, I've developed several randomly spaced hives on my chin, right temple, and under my neck, which I seem to get some variation of about once per week.  They always just go away on their own accord, but still odd and mostly annoying. And the itchy skin thing I've read about...it's starting. I'm trying to moisturize daily with the Palmer's cocoa butter lotion, which smells fabulous and feels great, but by midday by midsection (and the girls, sadly) are itchy all over again!

Anyway, not much more substantial to report at this moment other than my sneaking suspicion that skin conditions are dramatically impacted by pregnancy hormones.  Baby seems to be growing and stretching a lot this week, as I've noticed on and off mild crampy, tightening feelings in my uterus since Sunday (Hmmm, when I describe it like that, it sounds suspiciously like Braxton Hicks...could it really be Braxton Hicks already? I think I'm going to stay in denial of that one for a little longer).   I mean, I noticed it first while standing outside, doing nothing at all, observing my mom on the roof in case I needed to call 911 if she fell off.  Then I noticed it again this morning when I first woke up from a sound sleep, again doing nothing physical.  Nothing alarming, and certainly nothing to make me think I need to call my midwife, but I do notice something is going on in there, whether it's a bit of a growth spurt, some BH or some other random weird pregnancy thing I have yet to find an explanation for :)

2 days of the short work week down, 1 to go and then it's Turkey Time :) And 9 days until the ultrasound!