Pregnancy Diary

Archive for the ‘Pregnancy Week 10’ Category

Your Baby’s Growth and Development

This week marks the beginning of the fetal period, which lasts until birth. Your baby’s body systems, such as circulatory, nervous, reproductive and digestive, are fully formed during this time. His heart is beating approximately 160-170 beats per minute. Your baby is 27 – 35 mm or 1.06 – 1.38 inches with 1/2 the length being attributed to the head. He weighs between 3 – 4 grams (or less than 1/2 ounce), or 4 paper clips.

Your baby will become much more active than before, but unfortunately, his movements are still too small for you to notice. He will be moving his arms and legs, which can be seen on an ultrasound. Your baby’s joints are fully formed, as are his tiny hands, feet, fingers and toes. At this age, he would be able to grab an object, if it were placed in his hand, as he grows more and more sensitive to touch. Your baby’s eyes are open most of the time but the eyelids are beginning to fuse – they will stay that way until you reach approximately 25 to 27 weeks. The external genitalia are beginning to show your baby’s gender and both the external ears and upper lip are completely formed now. Your baby’s biggest accomplishment this week is the disappearance of the tail!

Also, your baby is breathing. This breathing activity is noticeable as he “breathes” am niotic fluid. He is beginning to urinate as well.

Your Body During Pregnancy Calendar Week 10

In most women, morning sickness begins to improve after the pregnancy calendar week 10. However, it’s not uncommon to still be experiencing symptoms such as fatigue, breast tenderness, and frequent urination.

During pregnancy calendar week 10, constipation is a common problem. Laxatives and mineral oil pills are not recommended for use during pregnancy, but products such as Metamucil and Colace may provide relief. Eating a high-fiber diet, drinking plenty of water, and exercising on a regular basis will help prevent future problems. Iron tablets can sometimes aggravate constipation, but you should never stop taking your prenatal supplements without consulting your healthcare provider.

Many pregnant women also experience occasional headaches at this time in their pregnancies. This can be problematic, since aspirin and ibuprofen are not recommended for use during pregnancy. Tylenol is considered safe to use on an occasional basis, but natural headache remedies are preferred. Resting in a dark room, practicing basic relaxation techniques, massaging peppermint oil into your temples, and snacking to maintain stable blood sugar levels can alleviate your headache symptoms. If you have a tension headache, you may want to apply an ice pack to the base of your neck. For a sinus headache, try using a warm compress around your eyes and nose.

Calcium Builds Strong Bones

Many women of childbearing age don’t get enough calcium in their diets. Calcium intake is extremely important during pregnancy. Calcium helps form your baby’s bones, aids in proper heart function, and conducts nerve impulses.

It may surprise you to learn that an expectant mother needs twice the amount of calcium in her diet as a non-pregnant woman. The recommended daily allowance of calcium for a pregnant woman is 1,200 milligrams. If you don’t consume enough of this essential mineral, your baby will weaken your bones and teeth by taking what he/she needs from your body. This places you at an increased risk of developing osteoporosis later in life.

Adding foods such as soymilk, nonfat yogurt, cottage cheese, and parmesan cheese to your diet can help you get the calcium you need. Even collards, chickpeas, broccoli, lentils, sweet potatoes, and tofu are good sources of calcium. If these choices don’t sound appealing, consider adding calcium-fortified foods such as orange juice, bread, cereal, and waffles to your meal plan.

Getting Tested

Around this time, your doctor will probably send you for a blood test to find out whether you are immunized against varicella, measles, mumps, and rubella (German measles), as well as to determine your blood type and Rh factor. Rh factor is a substance found in the red blood cells of most people. If you don’t have it (Rh negative) but your baby does (Rh positive), complications can result when the baby’s blood cells enter your bloodstream. Your doctor can prevent Rh incompatibility problems by giving you a vaccine of Rh-immune globulin at 28 weeks and again after delivery.

Commonly asked quesitions in week 10:

What is Placenta Previa?
During pregnancy, your body creates a temporary organ called the placenta. The placenta is necessary during pregnancy in order for your baby to grow and be healthy. After the birth of your baby, your doctor or midwife will also have you deliver the placenta, as it is no longer needed. Read more…

How can I get more sleep?
Sleep! That wonderful time where you get to lay down, close your eyes, and enjoy a comfortable, uninterrupted, peaceful night’s sleep at the end of a long day. Unless of course, you are pregnant! Read more…

Should I be sleeping on my left side?
Throughout pregnancy I laid on my left side as the American Pregnancy Association and most doctors recommend. This prevents compressing the inferior vena cava, which runs along the right side of your body. It also avoids putting pressure on the uterus, which happens if a pregnant woman sleeps on her back. Finally, sleeping on your left side increases the flow of blood and nutrients to the placenta. Read more…

Why am I having such crazy dreams?
Vivid dreams are common during pregnancy, especially during the third trimester, as you await baby?s arrival. Many of them are easy to interpret. For instance, dreaming that you are falling from a great height, running away or trapped somewhere, such as an enclosed room, probably reflect your concern about losing your freedom. Read more…

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Vivid dreams are common during pregnancy, especially during the third trimester, as you await baby?s arrival. Many of them are easy to interpret. For instance, dreaming that you are falling from a great height, running away or trapped somewhere, such as an enclosed room, probably reflect your concern about losing your freedom.

Last night, I awoke after having a very vivid, scary, but in the end, enlightening dream. I must share it, as it?s been running through my mind repeatedly today: I was lying in bed (in the dream), my husband asleep beside me. Somehow I knew I had to get up and walk to an extremely eerie, dark and haunted place to rescue my children, who were in danger. I looked at my husband but chose not to disturb him; I knew this was my job and no one else could do it for me. I walked through dark fog, where scary beings lurked and made disturbing sounds. I felt afraid, yet determined to get my children. I found one, picked him up and carried him back to the safe room where my husband slept. Then I went back for my other son and delivered him safely to that safe place. Then I realized I had someone else I needed to rescue. I went back to the haunted place and stopped this time, at a huge, animated, frightening tree, which moved as though it wanted to grab me. Instead, though, I grabbed one of its branches and saw another little boy clinging to it. I forced the branch down and gently dropped the boy onto soft, safe grass or hay. He looked tattered but I grabbed him and saved him, too.

Then I was wide awake. I knew, after that dream, that I could handle the fears and anxieties I?ve been having about having a third baby soon. I knew I?d faced my inner demons. I felt suddenly lighter, in control and more at peace than I?ve felt in a long time. I lay awake for over an hour, and some questions I?ve been unable to answer lately suddenly were answered. I made instant decisions related to work (part-time freelance writing, of course). I felt instantly less needy towards my husband (I?ve been a bit emotional/hormonal lately, as many pregnant women are). I felt a huge sense of relief.

Dreams like this are gifts. They help us to better cope and understand ourselves. I hope that every woman dealing with the ups and downs of pregnancy and motherhood are lucky enough to receive such gifts through their dreams. I recommend keeping a dream journal at your bedside. Even dreams whose meanings may not seem as blatantly clear as mine was may show their meanings and make sense after you?ve written them down and thought about them the next day.

Dreams can be useful tools for helping your subconscious deal with the normal anxieties, fears and insecurities many women have during pregnancy. Use them to understand your own complex feelings and better deal with them.

I miss sleeping on my stomach.

Throughout pregnancy I laid on my left side as the American Pregnancy Association and most doctors recommend. This prevents compressing the inferior vena cava, which runs along the right side of your body. It also avoids putting pressure on the uterus, which happens if a pregnant woman sleeps on her back. Finally, sleeping on your left side increases the flow of blood and nutrients to the placenta.

I realized how much I miss sleeping on my back the other day when a pregnant friend of mine asked about a comfortable sleeping position for the late stages of pregnancy. Since I’ve been breastfeeding, I avoid lying on my stomach because I’ve been told it can slow milk production. It would be uncomfortable to lie on my stomach, anyway, as my breasts fill up with milk about three hours into the night. So it’s been more than a year than I’ve slept on my stomach–formerly my favorite sleep position!

But back to my friend’s question: what are the most comfortable sleeping positions in the second half of pregnancy when your belly seems to get in the way no matter how you turn?

The answer lies (no pun intended) in pillows — and lots of them.

If your partner doesn’t mind and there’s room in your bed, you may want to place a pillow behind you to keep you from rolling onto your back in your sleep. As your pregnancy progresses and you get larger, the pressure on your uterus from lying on your back may wake you. And it’s not that easy to roll back onto your side.

I found it comfortable to lie with my legs bent and a small pillow between my knees, too.

Finally, the third—and some people may say the most important – pillow should go under your abdomen in front of you to support your belly. Personally, I also liked clutching a pillow to my chest. It made me more comfortable and helped alleviate the tenderness in my breasts.

If you have a full-size body pillow you can use it to support most of your body to keep you comfortable. Since pregnant women tend to be warm all the time you’ll want to opt for one with a cool linen cover.

If you are also suffering from heartburn, the American Pregnancy Association recommends sleeping propped up with pillows. I know pregnant women who slept sitting up in an easy chair because it was the only way they could get comfortable. Hopefully the pillows will help you and you won’t have to go to such extreme measures.

Pregnancy goes by so very quickly. Before long you won’t need pillows to help you find unusual but comfortable sleep positions. Instead, you’ll spend half the night be contorting to fit yourself and your spouse around a co-sleeping toddler who is taking up more room than anyone could imagine for a three-foot tall human being.

Sleep! That wonderful time where you get to lay down, close your eyes, and enjoy a comfortable, uninterrupted, peaceful night’s sleep at the end of a long day. Unless of course, you are pregnant!

After a woman’s baby is born the advice you will probably most often hear her give is, “Sleep while you can!”, however this is really easier said than done. Most pregnant women are awakened at least once or twice during the night from the beginning of their pregnancies to a bladder that is calling and just can’t wait till morning. If they are lucky, this will slow down during the second trimester as their body adjusts to the pregnancy and the baby grows.

Unfortunately, the second trimester doesn’t last long enough! Once the third trimester comes, so does the yelling of the bladder, as well as other problems making a good nights sleep become something most pregnant women just dream of.

For the women who sleep on their stomachs or backs when not pregnant, they will find that by the third trimester they will have to find a way to get comfortable in a new position. With a big belly, there is now no way to sleep on your tummy and it gets painful to lie on your back, putting all the weight of your belly on your back. This leaves 2 choices for most women, the right side or the left side. Still getting comfortable isn’t as easy and some might think.

As the belly gets bigger, it also gets heavier. You might try to lay on your right or left side, only to discover that the baby is rolled up on that side of your belly and that he doesn’t like this position. The lack of support to your belly and heaviness of the belly might cause you to have to roll over. Then there is another problem you might encounter. While asleep, laying on one side or the other, the baby might decide to start poking and kicking you on that side waking you up, and making the comfort you finally found go away.

Some women have increased back and leg pain while pregnant which doesn’t help with the night time comfort. One solution that works for many women is easy and cheap. Pillows! You will often see pictures of pregnant women at the end of pregnancy surrounded by pillows as they lay in bed, taking up so much room that sometimes their husband looks very crowded. The most popular places for a pillow are between the knees and under the belly. The pillows help support and prop up the belly and legs so that MAYBE comfort can be found. Sometimes women will put on behind their back as well. Some pregnant women will make use of body pillows during the last weeks of their pregnancy to give their whole body extra support.

Tossing and turning is a sure sign that the end of pregnancy is near. Between the frequent bathroom trips, the comfort level (or lack thereof), and the constant thoughts, questions and worries running through a woman’s head, you might as well give up the idea of an uninterrupted, peaceful nights sleep for at least the next several months.

During pregnancy, your body creates a temporary organ called the placenta. The placenta is necessary during pregnancy in order for your baby to grow and be healthy. After the birth of your baby, your doctor or midwife will also have you deliver the placenta, as it is no longer needed.

The placenta is created during the first trimester but is not fully functional until the second trimester when it takes over all the nutrient production and waste management for the baby. The placenta is both genetically and biologically composed of two equal parts from the fetus and the mother. It is connected to the uterine wall and connected to the baby through the umbilical cord. It receives nutrients and oxygen and filters out any waste from the mother’s blood before delivering the blood to the baby via the umbilical cord.

Until the placenta takes over, a woman naturally produces progesterone to keep the baby viable. As soon as the placenta takes over it starts creating its own progesterone to sustain the pregnancy. After delivery of the placenta the cord is clamped near the baby and cut off permanently disconnecting the baby from the placenta. The entrance of the umbilical cord into the baby’s body later becomes the baby’s belly button.

Some cultures practice placentophagy which is the eating of the placenta. Those who do this believe that eating the placenta helps prevent postpartum depression and other complications. However, modern doctors and midwives do not believe that eating the placenta will actually help reduce the occurrence of postpartum depression.

In some pregnancies, placenta previa can occur. Placenta previa is a condition where the placenta covers at least part of the cervix, which is the opening that the baby will come through when born vaginally. This happens in about one of every 200 pregnancies. There are 3 types of placenta previa.

Complete
Complete placenta previa is the placenta covering the entire cervix. This can cause bleeding throughout the pregnancy, growth retardation and congenital defects in baby. It will also mean that a woman will need a c-section when it comes time to deliver her baby.

Partial
Partial placenta previa is a partial covering of cervix is covered. This can be anywhere from 1/4 to 3/4 of the cervix. This can also cause bleeding and may lead to a c-section.

Marginal
Marginal placenta previa occurs when just a small portion, or just the edge of the cervix, is covered. In this case, as the pregnancy progresses, the placenta will generally move up and out of the way, allowing a clear passage for the baby to be born vaginally.

If you experience bleeding during your pregnancy, you should talk to your doctor and rule out the possibility of any bleeding being caused by placenta previa.