Pregnancy: Week - 10
How your baby is growing:
By week ten all of your baby’s major systems are formed including its circulatory, nervous, reproductive and digestive systems. The liver has taken over the work of the yolk sac, which is now slowly disappearing. The webbing between the baby’s tiny fingers and toes has vanished as well and joints have completed, which means it can now bend and flex its fully formed arms and legs. This week your baby also begins swallowing amniotic fluid and urinating. Even though your baby is just a little over an inch long and weighs less than a quarter of an ounce it in essence is a tiny complete human. All that’s left now is rapid weight gain, growth and some fine tuning and re-proportioning (Your baby still has quite the bulging forehead to fit all that new brain matter). The placenta has also almost fully formed which will have an added perk we’ll get to in just a moment.
How your body is changing:
By this time your uterus is nearly three times the size it was before you became pregnant which is about the size of a grapefruit or soft ball. Most women, at least those pregnant with their first child, are just now actually seeing their weight gain. Pants may no longer be able to be zipped, tight clothing feels uncomfortable and your waist line is disappearing. It’s a good idea to not invest in maternity clothes at this point, but simply loose clothing.
Also due to that increased blood volume in the body, your veins will become far more visible. If your veins are close to the surface to begin with you may be able to see almost all of them in a winding blue spider web across your chest and shoulders most prominently. For the most part these may look odd to you, but their harmless and go away after you’ve have the baby. However sometimes women will develop varicose veins during pregnancy. These are veins that bulge and puff out near the surface of the skin that tend to itch and hurt. Rarely varicose veins can lead to blood clots. Varicose veins usually improve after the birth, but don’t always go away.
So you’re getting fat and covered in veins, guess what else? The placenta mentioned earlier, is beginning to take over hormone production for you new baby. What that means for you? Chances are some of the lovely symptoms those hormones have reeked upon you will begin to diminish in the coming weeks. It’s all up hill from here…minus one little thing, constipation.
Most experts seem to agree that constipation in early pregnancy is indeed caused by hormones, so why this “fun little pregnancy joy” hits around week ten as hormones begin to decrease, is difficult to understand. Either way, hormones affect the muscles in bowels causing constipation which could end up plaguing through-out your entire pregnancy, though not all women experience this symptom. Put quite simply, no pregnancy is exactly alike; it is just to give an idea of what awaits you every week.
How your life is changing:
If you are suffering from constipation, there are some small life changes you can enact to reduce and possibly eliminate the problem.
- Drink plenty of water, six to eight glasses to be exact. On top of being important to your health and amniotic fluid production for your baby, proper fluid intake will do wonders for constipation.
- Eat plenty of Fiber. A balanced diet is important in more ways than one during pregnancy. Eating fruits, vegetables and whole grains will help relieve digestive system aliments.
- Cut iron. If your pre-natal pill has extra iron, it could be culprit. Be sure to ask your doctor to be sure you iron levels are healthy before you do this however, constipation is better than anemia.
- Exercise regularly. When your belly is bloated and painful, who wants to exercise? But even getting up and walking will help stimulate bowel movement.
You may also want to know:
You can reduce your risk of getting varicose veins in a few ways.
- Strive to keep your weight gain healthy. Some women view pregnancy as an excuse to eat everything and anything and they forget, not all the weight they are gaining is just “baby fat” so to speak.
- Exercise regularly. This one keep coming up doesn’t it? Regular exercise will improve circulation.
- Try to sit or sleep with your legs elevated. Don’t sit cross legged or sitting on your legs.
- Sleep or lay on your left side, this takes pressure off the inferior vena cava (large vein in your right side) and improves circulation to the lower half of your body.