8 Weeks Pregnant

When you are 8 weeks pregnant, your baby is growing at an amazing rate – about a millimeter every day and now is the size of a kidney bean. This week you’ll see webbed fingers and feet and toes poking out as her lips, nose, eyelids, legs and back slowly take shape. Her heart is beating at an incredible rate of 150 times per minute almost twice as fast as yours!! In her brain, nerve cells are branching out to connect with each other to form neutral pathways. Though you may be daydreaming abut your baby’s sex, when you are 8 weeks pregnant, the external genitals still haven’t developed well enough to reveal whether it is a boy or girl. Though you cannot feel it, your baby is constantly moving and shifting as she twitches her tiny trunk and limbs.
A little about your body when you are 8 weeks pregnant – though your kidney sized baby isn’t causing you to show it yet, chances are that your clothes have started to become tighter around the tummy and you’ll need a bigger bra. You may be feeling queasy very often but don’t worry your baby is just fine. During this time try to eat often but only a little at a time which will also help you to battle with another woe which will appear soon – pregnancy heartburn. This will pass as you enter the second trimester so look at the positive side to keep your spirits up – morning sickness is a sure sign of healthy pregnancy!!
Always consider fruits as your best friend while you are expecting. It not only helps to get the essential vitamins and other nutrients that is good for both you and your baby but plays a stellar role in keeping regular. Another good news is that the right fruit can replace just about any vegetable that you’ve developed an aversion for or the nausea that you are feeling when you are 8 weeks pregnant. A good rule for nutritional thumb when it comes to fruits and veggies: Stronger colors spell better nutrition. But it’s what‘s inside that counts. So select your fruits by the color of its “inner” color when shopping and you’ll find their weight in gold!! For example, a cantaloupe pales in comparison with a red apple on the outside but the “inside” story tells you an entirely different story – the deeply hued flesh of the lemon far outscores the white apple in vitamin and mineral content!

Now that you are 8 weeks pregnant, you may still be feeling tired with all the hard work going inside in the making of your baby. Try to get help from your family and friends who will help you to boost up your energy and help you to cope with your fatigue. At 8 weeks pregnant you will still be feeling queasy. Try foods that have ginger as it helps you to reduce the nausea and vomiting that you feel during pregnancy.  Go in for chewable prenatal vitamins during dinner than on an empty stomach – it will make you feel less queasy!!
When you are 8 weeks pregnant those swell pregnancy hormones makes you swell as they slow down your metabolism. Don’t forget to take plenty of fluids and stick to a healthy diet to avoid constipation which can aggravate your bloated feeling.
As we all know, there is nothing like fiber to fight against sluggish intestines and helps with the constipation that you may be bound to have when you are 8 weeks pregnant. But if you are not used to a fiber rich diet, pace it out or you’ll find yourself gassier than ever before! Replace the white rice with brown and have it with you roasted chicken and veggies without overloading your system.
Another common feature that we see along with bloating and constipation when you are 8 weeks pregnant is flatulence (aka farting). This happens because the hormone relaxin along with progesterone helps to relax the muscles in your body including the ones in the gastrointestinal tract. It causes the food to move more slowly which causes to indigestion and gassiness. Try to relax when you eat – tension can cause you to swallow some air along with your food which will form gas pockets in your belly.
Food cravings and aversions will continue even when you are 8 weeks pregnant. But if you crave for clay and/or laundry starch which is know as “pica” call your practitioner as this could be a sign of nutritional deficiency, especially iron…!! You will also have a heightened sense of smell when preparing food when you are 8 weeks pregnant. Cook with your window open or you can have something which doesn’t need cooking or just cook foods that doesn’t make you sick.
Another new symptom that you will notice when you are 8 weeks pregnant is the new body fluid that has been introduced by estrogen – which causes leucorrhea, a thin, milky vaginal discharge which stimulates the body’s mucous membrane. Leucorrhea protects the birth canal from infection by maintaining a healthy balance of bacteria so don’t try to douche or wash it away!!
Occasional headaches, faintness or dizziness are something that you can expect when you are 8 weeks pregnant. Make sure you get enough rest and don’t tire yourself. Keep eating to protect your blood sugar from dropping which can trigger headaches. The faintness and dizziness may be because your body isn’t producing enough blood to fill your rapidly expanding circulatory system which is getting ready to meet the requirements of your baby’s needs. When you feel this sensation just lie down for a while and if that’s not possible just sit down somewhere and bend as far forward as you can and put your head between your knees – it will do the trick and you’ll feel better in no time!!