Welcome to the Pregged pregnancy week-by-week series. Each week-by-week post is separated into three handy sections.
1. Mom – Section one covers the changes mom will experience and the things she may need to consider health-wise.
2. Baby – Section two looks at the development of the fetus and what’s going on with baby inside the womb.
3. Nutrition – Section three covers nutrition for each week of pregnancy so that you know what foods are important to include in your diet at each stage.
6 WEEKS PREGNANT – MOM
Congratulations, you’ve made it half-way through the pregnancy and about half-way through the second trimester. The kicks are getting stronger and your appetite is strong. Weight gain for you is probably 8-10 pounds and the baby only 8-9 ounces, but the baby’s weight will start accelerating rapidly now– so good nutrition is a must. By now, you might be feeling a little winded when you walk or talk. It might be mild anemia or low iron. Good sources of iron include red meat, beans, pork, dried fruits, spinach, wheat germ and oatmeal. Your blood level will be measured again in 6-8 weeks when you get the diabetes test. You might start feeling tightening of the uterine wall that is painless. It’s really weird especially when you put your hand over your uterus. It feels like the tip of your nose, not squishy like your cheek. It’s no cause for alarm so long as you don’t feel cramping or pain with them. They are called Braxton-Hicks contractions. They are not regular and tend to go away when you do something different like take a walk if you are resting. You will feel them on and off for the duration of pregnancy. They are the most common false alarms for real labor.
Baby Development
Help! I’m tired of hanging out in here. Baby is halfway to babyhood even though 37 weeks and beyond is considered plenty of time for baby to be mature—as in mature-functional organs. Different organs mature at different times with the heart leading the way since it is the first one to begin to function in the 5th week of pregnancy. Unlike the lungs, liver, intestinal tract, and brain, most organs are not impacted by an early arrival. Kidneys, bladder, and genital tract are least likely to experience difficulty even when born severely premature at 24-25 weeks which is considered the lowest cutoff for survival as long as the weight is close to 500 grams or almost a pound. Of course, there are many more factors such as presence or absence of an infection, the reason for the early birth, and mode of delivery such as a cesarean section that factor into a baby’s ability to survive outside of the womb. Countless grandparents can attest to being born so small that they were put in a shoe box to sleep. Amazing! Keep drinking plenty of fluids because the amniotic fluid level depends on the mom’s water intake. At 20 weeks, the baby weighs as much as a nice ribeye steak or 10 ounces.
Pregnancy Nutrition Week 6
Pumping iron can be done in the gym as well as the kitchen. Foods that contain this vital element are: beans, soy products, oat bran, barley, pumpkin seeds, dried fruits, spinach, seaweed, Jerusalem artichokes, and blackstrap molasses all have some iron in them, but you’ll also need to take an iron supplement to make sure you’re meeting your daily quota Vitamin B12: Your mission as a pregnant vegan is to make sure you’re getting enough of this complex vitamin which primarily comes from animal protein. Vitamin B12 partners with folic acid to help with proper fetal development and making more red blood cells—a requirement to grow the blood volume in pregnancy. You’ll probably need to get your B12 from a supplement (ask your practitioner if you need more than what’s provided in your prenatal vitamin.