Week 5: Early Signs Of Pregnancy

At five weeks pregnant some women are not even aware that they are pregnant yet but your Baby is already growing and developing faster than you can probably imagine and the miracle of the process of the creation of a new life is already in full swing.

Your Baby at Five Weeks Pregnant

Becoming a baby takes a lot of hard work  — after all, every one of the the major, and minor, basic bodily systems (digestive, circulatory, nervous, and so on) and organs (heart, lungs, stomach) must be formed from scratch out of that clump of cells that is the initial result of conception. At five weeks gestation your Baby is now officially an embryo. Right now they do not look too much like a Baby though, they look more like a very tiny tadpole (complete with small tail.) The Baby’s circulatory system and heart are developing rapidly and at five weeks sometimes a faint heartbeat can be detected by a very sensitive ultrasound machine. Also growing rapidly is the neural tube which will develop into the brain and spinal cord.

Your Body at Five Weeks Pregnant

By now you will have noticed all the early signs of pregnancy – nausea, fatigue, a missed period – and a simple over the counter pregnancy test will confirm that fact. Do not be too surprised though if the happy news ends up triggering lots of different emotions for you as your hormones are beginning to ‘rage’ as well. Have a peek at the infographic on the left to see what we mean!

Pregnancy Symptoms at Five Weeks Pregnant

Increased Need to Pee – This is one of the most annoying and downright nasty early pregnancy symptoms for many women. It is however unavoidable. The higher levels of hCG now present in your systems actually make your kidneys work far more efficiently, thus the increased need to rush to the loo, often at very inconvenient times!

Do not however be tempted to cut back on liquids. Proper hydration is crucial for you and for Baby right now and dehydration could be very dangerous for you both. Avoiding liquids that act as diuretics, especially anything with caffeine can help a lot though, as can keeping a small supply of pantyliners on hand, in case of small accidents.

Always Tired – The simple fact is that at this stage of pregnancy the life support system for your Baby – the placenta – is being created by your body’s system and that Herculean effort saps a lot of Mum’s energy. Don’t try and fight the drowsies too hard though. Nap whenever you can and if you are too tired to keep up with all your activities its OK. It is never to early in your pregnancy to start enlisting – and accepting – help from other people, especially your partner.

Tender Breasts – The increase in estrogen and progesterone are mainly to blame for this uncomfortable early pregnancy symptom. There is also fat (good fat) forming to prepare to support breast feeding, even at this early stage. A really well fitting bra will help a great deal.

Nausea – As many women quickly discover the term ‘morning sickness’ is very misleading indeed and many experience nausea all day long. The actual causes of this sickness are a combination of a number of different factors including hormonal changes, bodily changes and emotional upset.

It is OK to become a grazer right now. You do not need a lot of extra calories yet (and you will never need more than about 300-350 extra a day throughout the course of your pregnancy, unless you are very underweight at conception) If you do find that keeping anything at all down, especially if liquids won’t stay down, give your OB GYN a call to ask for their advice.

One common pregnancy myth is that there is something wrong if you do not experience morning sickness. This is absolutely not true. Medical science is still not even quite sure what threw exact causes of pregnancy sickness are but a lack of it is just REALLY good luck and something to be rather happy about rather than worry!

These pregnancy symptoms – and many of the others still to come – are triggered mainly by the flood of hormones that begins building up from this week on. The main ‘culprits’ are estrogen, which maintains the production and function of other hormones, progesterone, which will maintain the healthy function of the placenta, prevent the muscles of the uterus from contracting and to stimulate the growth of new breast tissue; and hCG to support the corpus luteum, which produces progesterone.

Week 5 Pregnancy Tip – To Share or Not to Share? – That positive pregnancy test was hugely thrilling and exciting for you as a couple but are you really ready to share the news with the world? That is something for the two of you to discuss. Some women are more comfortable reserving the news until after the twelve week mark, when the risk of miscarriage is significantly decreased. So guys, ask your other half if she’s OK with idea of spreading the news right now before you do!

A mum to be will also have very definite ideas about who gets to hear the news first. The infographic on the left was the result of a survey of nearly 750,000 Moms and as you can see, Dad and the family almost also come first so if you share the news with your buddies first (however excited you are) it is unlikely to be an unpopular choice!

When you are ready to share your happy news you might want to give a little thought as to just how you do that. It has become very easy simply to use an easy social media medium like Facebook to share news with lots of people but that may not be the best choice here, at least until you have made sure that all of your closest family and friends heard from you personally first.

With all of these unpleasant pregnancy ‘side effects’going on it’s nice if you take very opportunity you can to have a bit of fun with the process whenever you can. Coming up with a cute and creative way to announce your good news is one of those chances. Creative parents to be have done everything from replacing the fortunes in a fortune cookie to sending out copies of that first ultrasound picture to all of their friends and family.