Pregnancy: Week - 3
How your baby is growing:
The tiny ball of cells, that is your baby, arrives in your uterus this week and implants into the uterine wall. Your baby, now called a Blastocyst, is hollow and fluid filled, and is only about 0.1-0.2 mm in diameter. That’s smaller than the period on the end of this sentence. The cells within your Blastocyst (Don’t worry, you will think of a much better name for your baby later on) will continue to divide. Amniotic fluid begins to build around your baby within its cavity within your uterine wall that will later become the amniotic sack which will protect and cushion him or her during their nine month stay inside of you.
How your body is changing:
You may experience light spotting this week. This spotting is called implantation bleeding, and is the first sign of pregnancy. As the name implies implantation bleeding occurs when your baby implants in the uterine wall. Not all women experience implantation bleeding, and some women experience more bleeding than others. You may even mistake this spotting as a light period.
Now that your baby has implanted in the uterine wall, the portion of the cells within it, which will later become the placenta, will begin to release the pregnancy hormone called HCG (human chorionic gonadotropin). This is the hormone that pregnancy tests detect to give a positive result. HCG also signals the ovaries to stop producing eggs so you cannot fertilize a second baby while pregnant with this one! It also triggers the release of hormones to stop your uterus from shedding its lining each month. This means, no more periods.
Though some women continue to experience light periods for the first few months, if you continue to have periods late into your pregnancy you should let your doctor know.
How your life is changing:
If you’ve been trying to conceive, week three can be an agonizing week. You may or may not be pregnant but no test will tell you yet. Week three is simply a waiting week and it can seem unbearably cruel. There is some relief however, many women report experiencing early signs of pregnancy as soon as implantation bleeding occurs. So though you may not be able to get a definitive yes or no, a maybe could be obtained.
What is a wonderful task to take your mind off wondering for a short while? Go out and buy a pack of pregnancy tests if you don’t already have one. You’ll want at least two tests to be sure your result is accurate.
Also remember it is especially important to maintain the healthy diet and habit discussed in week one now and during your entire pregnancy. All of vital organs of your baby will begin to develop within the coming weeks and any nutritional inadequacy or toxin can effect your baby’s growth and development.
You may also want to know:
You can watch out for some early signs of pregnancy. At the same time you need to understand that there can be other reasons for those symptoms. Some of those signs are:
-
Body temperature remaining high. If you were charting your body temperature to determine when you were ovulating and it remained high this week, this is a good sign.
Other causes: Fever, impending menstruation (PMS) -
Food cravings. Weird food cravings often occur later in pregnancy and are a result of the body missing certain vitamins or nutrients. You will crave foods that contain these nutritional elements.
Other causes: Poor diet, lack of a certain nutrient. -
Frequent urination. This effect is caused by different factors throughout the pregnancy, early on it’s a hormonal side effect, later it can be caused by the baby pushing on your bladder.
Other causes: Urinary tract infection, diabetes, increasing liquid intake, or taking excessive diuretics. -
Sore or tender breasts.
Other causes: Hormonal imbalance, birth control pills, impending menstruation (PMS) -
Increased sense of smell.
Other causes: imagination? -
Increased fatigue.
Other causes: Stress, exhaustion, depression, illnesses -
Headaches.
Other causes: Dehydration, caffeine withdrawal, impending menstruation, eye strain. Headaches can be caused by a plethora of things. -
Loss of appetite.
Other causes: Endless. -
Darkening of the area of around your nipples.
Other causes: Hormonal imbalance -
Nausea and vomiting, also known as morning sickness. This symptom usually doesn’t hit most women for a few more weeks.
Other causes: Food poisoning, stress, or other stomach disorders. - Lastly the most well known pregnancy symptom, a missed period, though you likely won’t experience this until next week at least.