Week Eight Of Pregnancy

Week 8 Of Your Baby’s Development!

Your Baby is the Size of a Kidney Bean

Your rapidly growing yet still tiny baby is consistently moving inside your womb, even though you wont yet be aware of it. In fact, a close view of the little embryo will show that the baby is looking less like a reptilian and getting closer to looking like a cute baby now!

Week 8 marks a lot of changes in the baby. Now approximately 1.6 cm in length and has nearly lost the embryonic tail. All the muscles, nerves and organs of the baby have now started functioning and the nerve cells in the brain are reaching out and getting connected with each other, leading to the development of primitive neural pathways. The feet of the baby no longer have that webbed appearance and the hands are now bending close to the wrist. The eyelids are more visible and covering a greater part of the baby’s eyes. The taste buds have also begun to form on your baby’s tongue.

Week 8 Of Your Health, Mind & Body Changes!

By the 8^th week, it is common for expecting mothers to feel their bras getting tighter. In fact, you might soon need a bra that is at least a cup size larger and offers greater support. The increased hormone levels in your body are causing all kinds of tissue changes including the increase in the size of your breasts. They are actually getting ready for the process of lactation.

Are you feeling constantly tired? Don’t worry, this is quite normal since hormonal changes, especially the increase in the levels of progesterone, might be leading to this sluggishness. Vomiting and nausea is still a common complaint at this time for many expectant mothers. Your sleep might be disturbed, particularly if you need to keep going to the bathroom to empty your bladder.

It isn’t unusual to experience sharp pains on the sides of the pelvis at this stage.
The pain might especially arise when you’re twisting or standing up after a long time. The uterus is slowly becoming heavier and putting a strain on the muscles and ligaments holding the uterus in its place. Plus, the hormone relaxin is peaking during this trimester (and later again in the third trimester) to allow for stretching of your ligaments, muscles and rib cage as your baby takes up more room.

Try this: avoid sneezing while lying down at this stage, as your ligaments softening can cause pain when this occurs.

Week 8 Of Your Next Steps!

• Take care of your posture from here on in, to help prevent injury as your ligaments soften and stretch to accomodate baby and your growing uterus.
• Is heartburn bothering you? Try eating small meals more frequently rather than having three big ones in a day. This might help reduce heartburn during pregnancy.
• Chat to your obstetrician, doctor or midwife about upcoming antenatal screening tests. While traditionally you have the nucal screen test ( an ultrasound and blood test) at 12 weeks to screen for certain chromosomal abnormalities such as down syndrome, there are also now other options to screen for this.