Seventh week of pregnancy
Seven Weeks Pregnant
YOUR BABY
Your baby is growing rapidly and developing organs. This week your baby is working on its kidneys along with other organs. The crown-torump length is about ¼ inch (7 to 9 millimeters). Finger rays (the equivalent of pre-fi ngers) are also forming.
While your baby is a girl or a boy from the moment of conception, you can’t physically distinguish the sex yet, even though the genital tubercle (what will become the penis or clitoris) is present.
Your baby’s face is not very baby-like yet. This week the nasal pits are developing, and the eyes are very large and lidless. The intestines are forming inside the umbilical cord and will move into your baby’s abdomen.
If you were to have an ultrasound at this point in your pregnancy and you were really in your 7th week, you should see a fetal pole with a heartbeat. If you don’t, chances are you are not as far along as you thought and a repeat ultrasound in a week’s time will tell a different story.
Watch What You Eat for Baby
Pregnancy is often touted as the time that you get to eat for two. It’s probably better to think of it as the time in your life when what you eat is twice as important, but you don’t need to eat twice as much food. In fact, you probably only need an average of 300 extra calories a day when pregnant.
Three hundred calories is the equivalent of an extra snack. It’s always better to make sure that you’re eating something that is good for you than to waste those calories on a candy bar. This is where many moms go astray. They use the extra calories to fi ll their bodies with junk food rather than any number of healthy options. Good choices include fresh fruits and vegetables or protein such as peanut butter, nuts, or cheese.
Eating a variety of foods, choosing from many colors and families, will help you fulfi ll the nutrient requirements you and your baby have during pregnancy.
Being pregnant is a big change for you. are you up to the challenge?
There are also lists of things that you should avoid during your pregnancy. Some are no brainers such as alcoholic beverages, but there are other categories of foods that aren’t as commonly thought of as problematic including raw fruits and vegetables that haven’t been washed and soft, unpasteurized cheese, such as Gorgonzola or Brie.
The general rules are that all of your foods should be washed thoroughly before you eat them. Your meats should always be cooked medium to well done to ensure that all of the bacteria have been destroyed. Avoid raw fi sh such as sushi and sashimi. Not heeding these precautions can needlessly expose you and your baby to food borne illnesses. Talk to your practitioner about any specifi c food allergies you have prior to pregnancy.
Find Out What Takes Place during Prenatal Appointments
Prenatal visits are not only an opportunity for you to ask questions and to seek advice and support but also a chance for your practitioner to watch how your baby is growing and how your body responds to pregnancy. This is done by taking a series of measurements throughout the course of your pregnancy. Some measurements are external factors such as your weight or how large your uterus is growing, and others involve screening your urine for protein and checking your blood pressure.
What happens at prenatal visits throughout your pregnancy varies only slightly. Typically they include the following:
• Weight check
• Blood pressure check
• Urine screening
• Lab work, as needed
• Uterus measuring
• Listening to your baby’s heart (after week 12)
• Discussing your questions and concerns
• Vaginal exams (rarely, because they can cause infection)
Your particular health profi le and the health of your baby may indicate that other screenings are appropriate or necessary. Be sure to ask if you have questions about what to expect from your prenatal care.
Weight gain in the fi rst trimester is fairly limited. You should aim to gain weight slowly and steadily, avoiding large gains made quickly when possible.
Insomnia can be an early symptom of pregnancy. Various exercises and relaxation techniques can help, sometimes it’s just a passing issue.
Deal with Insomnia
Most women will have difficulty sleeping at some point in their pregnancies. Insomnia generally takes two forms: not being able to fall asleep or waking up and not being able to get back to sleep. Either form can really disrupt your sleep schedule, and some women are unlucky enough to experience both forms.
While you’re not yet experiencing the extreme pregnancy sensations that will keep you awake in the later months, such as a large abdomen and a kicking baby, what you may feel is extreme fatigue without the relief of sleep, a racing mind that keeps you awake, or simply an unexplained inability to sleep.
To help relieve your insomnia, try some or all of the following:
• Exercise during the day but not prior to bedtime.
• Avoid caff einated beverages after mid-afternoon.
• Do not eat just before going to bed.
• Practice relaxation or meditation before bedtime to clear your mind.
• Drink warm milk before going to bed.
• Take a warm bath before going to bed.
• Read before you fall asleep.
• Keep to a set bedtime.
• Don’t take too many or overlong naps.
If you find that you’re not able to get back to sleep or if the above strategies don’t help, you should avoid just lying in bed and stewing over the problem. Yes, you can’t sleep, and it’s not fair. But after about twenty minutes, you should get up and do something for a while.
You might watch television, read, write a letter, or catch up on the mail. After twenty to thirty minutes, try to sleep again, and hopefully you will be more successful. Be sure to talk to your practitioner about sleeplessness if it becomes a common occurrence.
Decide When to Tell Others about the Pregnancy
There is a huge diff erence between telling your husband that you’re pregnant and telling, say, your family. And beyond family and close friends, there is the question of when to tell the rest of the world. For starters, let’s think about your boss.
Most experts agree that telling your boss you are pregnant in the fi rst trimester is probably not advisable unless your job needs to be adjusted because of your pregnancy, in which case it is imperative that you tell him or her immediately. In other cases, you should wait until your pregnancy is well established and you have mentally worked out some of the details of your maternity leave and how your work will be handled while you’re pregnant and while you’re gone.
Telling the rest of the world is a personal decision. You have to remember that telling anyone creates the possibility of a leak, so take that into consideration before confi ding in others, particularly people who aren’t that close to you.
This advice is especially recommended for kids who have trouble keeping secrets. Don’t tell your older kids until you’re ready for the announcement to be shared far and wide. In fact, this is a great way to spread the news if you aren’t interested in spreading it yourself.
Cope with Being Pregnant after a Previous Loss
If you have been pregnant before, and your baby died either through miscarriage, stillbirth, or infant death, pregnancy may be a particularly diffi cult time for you. You may not feel all of the happy emotions that you felt with your previous pregnancy, and your concerns may be great. It is important that you fi nd a way to share these concerns with your spouse, with others in a support group, or with your practitioner so they don’t build up inside, which can lead to depression. They do not make you a bad parent.
While it may not be easy to view this pregnancy as separate from the past, try to fi nd diff erences when you can and celebrate milestones as they arrive. For example, if you had a miscarriage early in a prior pregnancy, celebrate when you pass that week. Try to rejoice in aspects of your new pregnancy, such as seeing your baby’s heartbeat or feeling your baby kick.
Be sure to talk with your practitioner about getting support and help from him or her and from others as well. Your doctor or midwife should provide suggestions for what you can do to help ease your fears. But he or she can only help if you open up and talk honestly about your feelings.
While you may be leery of joining a support group, many couples find them very beneficial. They offer a place where it’s okay not to be excited simply about being pregnant and a chance to talk to others who have been in the same place as you, even if they are further along in their journeys. If you can’t find a local group to join, look for an online community on the Internet.
Brushing your teeth may trigger gagging in early pregnancy, but that doesn’t mean you should skip oral hygiene. The following tips can make toothbrush time less traumatic:
• Buy a new toothbrush with soft bristles.
• Switch from a mint-fl avored toothpaste to something that doesn’t nauseate you.
• Go easy on the back of your tongue and use less pressure.
• Adjust the water temperature to make sure it’s comfortable for your stomach.
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