Not really any point to this thread other than to voice my frustration at the obstacles involved in making this happen.

I know I'm not the only belly button aficionado here, and size comparisons (e.g. before/after) are a kink of mine.  I've always been intrigued by the idea of how much a belly button stretches out.  When it pops out or completely flattens you don't really get a good sense of where the belly button ends and normal belly skin begins.

So my custom idea is to get a really slender model and, very early in her pregnancy, have her use a Sharpie to draw a circle right along the inner rim of her belly button.  She also measures how wide it is.  She retraces the circle every 2-3 days for the rest of her pregnancy so that it doesn't fade.  At the end, her belly is huge and her belly button is flat or popped out, but you can easily see just how far her belly button stretched out.  Then she could use the measurement from before and draw a smaller circle inside the larger circle to drive home how much it grew.

The problems involved in making this happen:

• Finding the right model early enough in pregnancy
  
• Finding a model that will be on the scene that long
  
• Finding a model that wants permanent marker on her belly for 9 months
  
• Getting lucky enough that the model gets big enough and her belly button does what you want
  

Anyway... carry on.

I see we have had similar thoughts! My own idea would be to not necessarily draw around the belly button (which would be more of an accurate, visual representation), but to measure it with something like a tape measure. Not a metal one - a paper one which is more flexible. Measure it's length, width and depth as accurately as possible. My idea of a visual representation would be to take pictures of this.

I think you’d stand a better chance of a model doing this rather than having permanent marker (or whatever) on her belly throughout the pregnancy!

I did once consider including such a thing when I was story writing here (something I've not had very little time to do in recent years, unfortunately). Whilst there's written and visual documentation of how much the belly itself expands during pregnancy, there's nothing out there about the size differences to the biggest feature on it - the belly button. I will admit it's something which has frustrated me! Believe me, this is something I've spent literally hours of researching online from a variety of sources. Details on belly button changes during pregnancy are generalistic.

As I've said in the past, I'm not the greatest of fans of popped out belly buttons. I know and accept I'm in a minority on that one. They don't 'do' anything for me and the larger they are, the more off-putting I find them to be. Ones which are perhaps only just 'proud' of the belly's surface are fine, but those which an inch or so out - no. Not for me, personally.

My own favourites are those which, like the belly's skin, distorts/stretches over time, shallow out and flatten - just leaving 'wrinkled marks' (the depths of the innie is flat or near-flat to the surface) if you know what I mean. My own ideal pregnant belly button would be one which remains largely unaltered until around the 20 week mark. Maybe with slight widening or shallowing. 20-30 weeks the process of distortion begins to accelerate with 30+ weeks, the strain against the outward push and stretched skin takes it's toll and perhaps the original shape is almost lost. The final few weeks it would either be stretched near flat or part of it may slightly push proud of the surface. The vast majority of the stories I’ve written, which focus on pregnancy progression, broadly follow this path when it comes to the belly button.

Anyway, thanks for creating this post. I'd love a more 'scientific study' on pregnant belly button rim changes. About time the humble belly button got more of an in-depth (pun possibly intended) look-in!