Welcome to the Pregged pregnancy week-by-week series. Each week-by-week post is separated into three handy sections.
1. Mom – Section one covers the changes mom will experience and the things she may need to consider health-wise.
2. Baby – Section two looks at the development of the fetus and what’s going on with baby inside the womb.
3. Nutrition – Section three covers nutrition for each week of pregnancy so that you know what foods are important to include in your diet at each stage.
6 WEEKS PREGNANT – MOM
It’s not quite time for the ninth inning stretch, but progress is being made.
Baby has hopefully settled into the head first position, but sometimes the little buggers wait until the last minute. The threat of a cesarean section can even make them switch from breech to head first. As your baby gets settled into a proper (you hope) position for birth, the overall body swelling leads to the sciatic nerve becoming inflamed. The sciatic nerve can cause you to experience sharp, shooting pain, tingling, achiness, or numbness that starts in your butt and radiates down the back of your legs — otherwise known as sciatica. Try not to sleep curled in a ball or sit for long periods of time as that puts the sciatica on stretch. A heating pad, a warm bath, or just some self-imposed bed rest can help with the discomfort. The blood volume of pregnancy dilutes your irons, but anemia is rare. However, your doctor will tell you if you are deficient. Some iron-rich foods: chicken, beans, spinach, tofu, beef and enriched cereals are great options because iron supplements aggravate constipation. Time for the diabetes screen if it wasn’t done at 26 weeks.
Baby Development
If there are two babies in your uterus, things are getting a little crowded now and downright nasty if they are in the same amniotic sac—but that’s rare. Space is at a premium, and they will roll around and shift like crazy to find their place. Keep those small frequent meals going even if you only have one inside, because they are hungry little parasites that need food to grow. At 28 weeks, the hiccupping and breathing motions are becoming more frequent although some do not hiccup much at all. This is all training for coming into the atmosphere. The baby cannot breathe on his or her own but is making more surfactant—or the enzyme needed to keep the air sacs (alveoli) open for business. Brain activity is becoming more advanced, and eyelashes are peaking out. You are now officially in your last trimester.
Pregnancy Nutrition Week 6
Two trimesters down and one to go!
Eat often but not much – it sounds easier than it is!
Speed up your kitchen. If a 30-minute meal takes 20 minutes more than you’ve got, make sure you have the right gear on hand, and use it. Your microwave can do more than warm a cup of tea: It reheats your leftovers, defrosts your frozens in a flash, and can even be used to cook a whole dinner!
On the flip side, a slow cooker can be your best time-saver. Cleanup’s a breeze, too. Rely on your blender to produce smoothies in a few seconds, your food processor to chop everything before you count to five, and a toaster oven to warm (or melt) anything in less time than it takes to preheat your oven.
Your freezer is your friend; cook once and fill it many times over with nutritious leftovers. It’s just as easy (easier, even) to make a large tray of lasagna as it is to make a single plateful. Slice the leftovers into individual portions and then freeze to reheat and feast another day (and another, and another).