Pregnancy Week By Week Guide

YOUR FERTILE WINDOW IS APPROACHING

Being stressed can affect your ability to conceive. Take a breather, go for a short getaway, or learn to meditate. Don’t be afraid to seek help from others if you need to.

THE FIRST SYMPOTMS OF PREGNANCY

The first change you will most likely notice is your chest. Your breast may increase in size quite rapidly, looking bigger and feeling heavier. The skin around the nipples wills also become darker and you may notice blue veins appearing around your breasts. Feeling emotional one minute and happy the next minute? Craving for chocolate, durian or laksa? Experience dizziness in the morning or any time of the day? All these cravings and experiences are normal due to the fluctuating oestrogen hormone in your body.

WORKOUT IN YOUR WOMB

While full muscle control is a long way off, your little one is now starting to get the hang of his motor coordination and flexing his fingers and toes! And even though you probably can’t feel it yet, baby’s also practising his punches and kicks safe within the cushiony walls of your tummy. Don’t worry, you’ll begin to feel those movements soon enough!

TALK TO BABY

While the jury is out as to whether playing Mozart to your baby in-utero will produce a music prodigy, it’s proven that babies can begin to sense what ishappening in the world outside the womb and recognize voices or songsthat they hear once they come out. Make time to talk to baby – you couldeven make it part of your bedtime routine – to begin that specialparent-child bond. If you don’t know what to say, try reading a book,poem, or simply singing a song to baby.

OH, CLEAVAGE!

Even though there are still a few more months to go, your body is beginning to prepare for your motherly duties of breastfeeding. Your breasts are likely to grow bigger as milk glands prepare for that first feed, especially if this is your second or subsequent pregnancy.

TINY FINGERS, TINY TOES

Your baby’s nails have reached the tippy tips of his little fingers and toes. And you’ll be surprised how fast those tiny nails grow once he is born! Better get that nail clipper ready…

GETTING READY

During these last few weeks, you may be hit with the urge to get everything ship-shape and in perfect order for the new arrival, from packing the baby’s room to organizing your storeroom to restocking your kitchen! This ‘nesting instinct’ usually signals that D-day is pretty near, and may be a response to the increased adrenaline in your system. Conversely, you may not feel any such burst of energy at all, and instead be perfectly content to slump on the couch in front of the telly the whole day…

Now We Wait…

Many people will tell you all sorts of ways to get your labour going. It’s been suggested that walking, sex, nipple stimulation, and drinking herbal remedies and coconut water will help kickstart the process – but there’s limited scientific evidence to back up these claims. Furthermore, while nipple stimulation may release oxytoxin in your body, which in turn helps to bring on the contractions, those contractions can end up being very long and strong, making the whole process quite unbearable for some. Our best advice – let nature take its course…