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
Basketball belly time at 27 weeks pregnant, your uterus has swelled, expanded, and pushed away all the bowels that are crowded up under the lungs. In fact, almost everything swells including the face. It’s called edema. Severe facial edema is worrisome for a condition known as preeclampsia (or toxemia in the past) which is elevated blood pressure, headaches, and protein in the urine. The cause is unknown, but it can be dangerous especially if it starts this early. Report any headaches or visual symptoms if you are also swelling a lot. To get puff relief, avoid sitting or standing for a long time, try some pregnancy-appropriate exercise like walking or swimming (if your practitioner okays it) and sit or sleep with your feet elevated. All of this excess water will be peed out for days after you deliver. Do not restrict water intake as that will make matters worse and you could get dizzy from low blood pressure.
You know it’s wise to sign up for a birthing class. But it’s also smart to take an infant CPR class and even an infant care class, too. It’s time to buy a car seat because the majority of hospitals won’t let you leave with your newborn if you don’t have a car seat?
Baby Development
A head of lettuce may not weigh 2 pounds, but your little person probably does now at 27 weeks. The lungs, liver, and immune system aren’t quite ready to do their job outside of the uterus, but he or she would still have an excellent survival rate if born now. Like baby seats, it’s best to stay strapped inside! The immune system gets more protection from the antibodies in mama’s milk so get those nipples ready. He or she will develop sleep-wake cycles and actually start to get a good nights rest due to REM (rapid eye movement) sleep that begins at this time along with dreaming. Pray for a sound sleeper. He may even be looking around his home right now because the eyelids can open at 27 weeks. How cute is that?
Pregnancy Nutrition Week 6
Still too busy to eat healthily? The prospect of eating well while running all over town living your daily life makes for quite the challenge. Sure, it would be a piece of cake to nourish yourself and your baby if there were more than ten minutes to prepare meals. Shop smart. Before you race through the aisles to fill your cart with what most quickly catches your eye, make a list of healthy staples you’ll need to get you through the week, such as yogurt, pre-shredded or sliced low-fat cheese, milk, plenty of fruits, meats, poultry, legumes, breads, and eggs. Fill your pantry for the weeks ahead (saving yourself another trip to the store). But when it comes to produce, snacks and dairy products think small, convenient, and ready-to-eat bags, or tubs of food such as raisins, peanuts, cottage cheese, yogurt, and trail mix.