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
Even your vision can change when you are pregnant. The actual eyeball changes shape. Do not worry unless you are having blurred vision, seeing spots, or having headaches. Again, first pregnancies have a small chance of developing preeclampsia—which is a blood pressure disorder that causes protein to spill in your urine. The cause is unknown, but it does warrant a trip to your doctor’s office and may be cause for induction if it is severe. An induction means that your labor will be artificially started with either topical medications to soften your cervix or IV meds such as Pitocin. Baby is bigger than a grapefruit by now and probably weighs 5-6 pounds. All that weight and the pressure means frequent urination of tiny– little bits of urine. It’s so annoying because you’ll feel like the bladder is full and all that comes out is a few drops! Then as soon as you get dressed, the pee comes out unexpectantly if you cough, laugh, or walk too fast. Keep a panty liner handy or a change of undies. Remember, it’s waddle time until after the baby is born and the longer the baby stays inside, the better it is because full-term babies eat and sleep better. Premature babies (any babies born before 37 weeks) have a higher chance of complications, too. And let’s face it, the baby is much easier to care for in your uterus because once out—you’ll be attending to the baby 24/7.
Baby Development
Your baby is about 5 pounds now or the size of a grapefruit and is probably 18-19 inches long. He or she will probably not get any longer, but the fat will keep growing. Babies nowadays tend to be a bit bigger than 50 years ago when more mother’s smoked. High pitched sounds are easiest for baby to hear. Movements will not slow down but may change in intensity since stretching and kicking are the results of bigger and stronger limbs. You may feel hungry all the time, but that will decrease the closer you get to your due date. Fingernails and toenails are present, and you swear he or she is digging a hole in your uterus. Watch for contractions and leakage of fluid because watery leakage fluid could mean your water broke. If you suspect that, call your practitioner. Hang in there, the end of pregnancy is closer than you think.
Pregnancy Nutrition Week 6
There is no life without water. It’s the reason that planet earth has living creatures. H2O helps all the nutrients get into the bloodstream, cross the placenta, and enter your baby through the umbilical cord. Water flushes out all the waste products that the body and placenta produce through the kidneys’ filtration system. Water balances how much edema is in the tissues. If water is too low, fluid is pushed into the tissue and leads to swelling because it has to balance the salt (sodium) and pH. It seems paradoxical, but unless you have heart or kidney failure, you almost cannot drink too much water except in rare cases of water intoxication. That only occurs if you continuously drink water—like more than 20 glasses a day. No chance it will happen to you because dehydration is more common in pregnancy and can lead to headaches, muscle cramps, and fatigue. Drink up ladies and make your urine a pale yellow or clear is even better.