6 Weeks Pregnant: Symptoms and What to Expect
Your Growing Embryo at 6 Weeks
Your baby is now the size of a super small Chiclet at 0.15”. Congrats!
- At this time amazingly a faint heartbeat can sometimes be heard if you listen very closely. Blood has begun circulating making all the works start to function a lot better. Your baby now has fingers and toes that can be fully recognized.
- A big reminder, of how much work your body is actually doing at the moment, is when you cue into the amniotic sac, placenta, and the umbilical cord all maturing this week and taking on full responsibility.
- This is key to making a healthy fetus and continuing to have the best pregnancy possible. Your body is working hard to make what it needs so be sure to give it the nutrition it needs to grow all of these new additions. Give yourself a bear hug!
- Baby’s nose is more prominent now alongside, features like the eyes, ears, and limbs as they have all grown a lot since last week. Your baby will increase in size dramatically in the coming weeks.
Pregnancy Superfood of Week Six
Eating a healthy pregnancy diet, means consuming a variety of foods that give you enough nutrients to grow your baby while sustaining your own body too.
Starchy Foods: This includes potatoes, yams, brown rice, quinoa, plantains, and all starchy type root vegetables. Crackers, bread, pasta, whole grain cereals are all an option for this category.p
Fruits and Vegetables: The goal is to eat between 5 and 7 servings of fruits and veggies a day. With your vegetable intake being a bit higher than fruit. Dried, canned, and frozen fruits are sufficient sources of intake. Make a few smoothies a day to drink some down if needed. Always try and brush your teeth after drinking a lot of fruits to keep the sugar from sticking to your teeth. If you opt for canned fruits then, the ones without added sugar are best for you.
Foods Rich in Protein: Included in this section of a well-rounded diet is: Lentils, beans, quinoa, chicken, eggs, lean meats, aim to eat two full servings in this area each week.
Fermented and Dairy Foods: This includes sauerkraut, kombucha, kefir liquids, pickles and other fermented foods. Ever wonder why pregnant women “crave pickles” well, this is due to the high concentration of probiotics found in fermented pickles. Probiotics help balance the gut flora, reducing nausea caused by an imbalanced gut. Here, we will also see milk, cheese, and eggs as they will assist with iodine intake and calcium consumption. Many women are low in iodine throughout pregnancy which; assists in the development of babies brain.
Nuts and Seeds: Aim to get a few servings of flax seeds in addition to other nut and seed varieties in your diet like; sesame seeds, sunflower seeds, pine nuts, almonds, macadamia nuts. A cup or more is great if you can get it in each day, this will sustain our energy longer term.
Coconut milk Pregnancy Smoothies:
- ¾ – 2 cup organic coconut milk or as needed to blend until creamy
- ½ cup frozen organic mango
- ¾ cup frozen organic cherries
- 4 tbsp chia seeds
- 2 tbsp flax seed
- 2 tbsp of crunchy peanut butter
High in Vitamin: In this smoothie; the chia seeds offer plant based protein and your omegas, the mango offers vitamin C, the cherries offer vit A and potassium, the flax seed offer protein as well as magnesium, and peanut butter has your vitamin D for your stretching belly.
Top Tip for Week Six
At this point it’s a good idea to schedule your prenatal appointment for 8 – 9 weeks out if you haven’t already.
Inspirational Message of the Week from Already Moms
“ To be pregnant is to be vitally alive, thoroughly woman, and distressingly inhabited. Soul and spirit are stretched — along with body — making pregnancy a time of transition, growth, and profound beginnings.”
— Anne Christian Buchanan
Big Efforts from your Co Creator
While she’s growing baby read a few good pregnancy books, it’s nice to start with a general primer like ‘What to Expect When You’re Expecting”. Many websites offer a week-by-week pregnancy email. Or subscribe to our weekly blog for updates in all areas of parenting.
This Art of Allowing
If you cannot completely wipe out caffeine intake during pregnancy. Try and cut back to less than two cups a day. Alongside, drinking plenty of water; did you know that cocoa beans and chocolate have caffeine in them. So that’s a good option too during pregnancy. Ensure that your cacao is organic and your chocolate bars don’t have extra additives that aren’t good for the body.
Pregnancy Symptoms
Your body is making plenty of hormones by now and, what is a hormone anyway? They are the messages your endocrine system sends out to your body.Pregnant or not, they are what controls sleep, appetite, your sex drive plus just about everything else.
With the many changes going on inside your body, what are the ones that change during pregnancy?
Estrogen kickstarts fetal development during pregnancy. There are three major estrogens in the female body: estriol, estradiol, and, estrogen. Mediated by the ‘estrogen receptor’ are the actions of estrogen itself. Basically, estrogen is the gene distributor of pregnancy.
The breasts are another one of estrogens sole duties to look out for, in pregnancy, they ensure mature breasts to prepare for breastfeeding.
Human Chorionic Gonadotropin (HCG) the hormone responsible for giving you a positive home pregnancy test, while informing your body it’s pregnant.
We’re always told to be careful in our exercise routine when it comes to being pregnant. This is because the relaxin softens the ligaments in the body; more specifically the ligaments and joints of the pelvic muscles during childbirth. It keeps the uterus nice and soft during the first trimester when rapid growth is happening in the body.
Prolactin in the simplest way, helps the body create milk. Pro is ‘for’ and lactin means ‘milk’. It’s an important protein that secretes from the pituitary gland in over 300 mammals including humans. It is also what causes your mammary glands to swell over the course of pregnancy. Though, this process, where the milk ducts swell often happens after delivery and the baby stimulates milk production during breastfeeding.
Oxytocin otherwise known as the love hormone; this is the hormone that gives you butterflies in your tummy. It floods the body during breastfeeding, childbirth, and intercourse.
Progesterone is another big player in the preparation for making breast milk. Alongside making you feel bloated and tired often throughout pregnancy.
These are the hormonal changes taking place in your body, though, there are also some other symptoms you might be experiencing such as;
- Fatigue
- Nausea
- Sore breasts
- Frequent urination
- Gas and bloating
- Mood swings
- Cramping and spotting
Your Body will Change and It’s Necessary
Can you believe that just a few weeks ago you had been wondering if you were pregnant at all? By now your body is probably letting you know loud and clear how pregnant you really are. Between the bloating, nausea, and possible vomiting. The first trimester may not seem as delightful as one would expect.
Rest assured that you are doing some complex work in there growing your little baby. All of the hormonal shifts and literal growth your body is doing it’s no wonder that you’re constantly tired and picky about what you want to put into your body. Find out what works for you through these changes, crackers anyone? Oftentimes other women have likely gone through what you are experiencing try and see if there is a mothers or parents group online or locally that you can join to find different methods for your specific pregnancy.
Our Recommended Remedy for Week 6
At this point you may be feeling like you need to pee frequently. Don’t expect this to go away throughout pregnancy, as your growing uterus only gives way to more pressure on the bladder. The heaviness and size of your uterus make a very short time span between needing to urinate. Road trips aren’t the easiest later on in pregnancy. You have to go when you have to go!
Ever wondered why you have to pee more during pregnancy and how to soothe it, if at all? A few ins and outs on frequent urination during pregnancy.
Why do pregnant woman all of a sudden have to go pee more often when they fall pregnant?
- Shortly after you become pregnant your blood volume increases significantly. Which means, more fluids are processed and being broke down in your kidneys.
- You may notice how you have to go throughout the night more than the daytime if you have swollen legs and ankles. The extra fluid will pan out once you lie down and it doesn’t have to fight off gravity to make it to your kidneys.
- At some point throughout pregnancy: your uterus may begin to push upward on your bladder causing you to have even more urges to urinate!
- Don’t expect this to diminish either, the larger your uterus grows the more your bladder will be squished until delivery.
Soothing The Uncomfortable
Your sore breasts might be making it uncomfortable to sleep well at night. Not a better time to start training yourself to sleep on your left or right side than right now. If you’re used to sleeping on your stomach you are really in for it. But truth is, sleeping on your left or right side has big benefits for a pregnant person.
Probably the most comfortable way to sleep is rotating between both of your sides. This will allow better circulation. If you are experiencing some degree of heartburn you can prop yourself up with a pillow between your legs and behind your back.
Eventually, you won’t be able to lay flat on your back because the weight of your uterus is going to be too dense for your back muscles, spine, and major arteries that carry blood flow to your uterus and throughout your body.
- Alongside circulation problems, laying flat on your back in pregnancy can cause discomforts such as;
- hemorrhoids, swelling, aches, and pains
- A drop or rise in blood pressure depending who you are.
- Sudden rise in blood pressure can make you dizzy upon standing. Snoring and sleep apnea
One thing you can do is invest in a pregnancy sleep pillow. These can be found anywhere from Target to Amazon. There are a variety of types and sizes to accommodate a good night’s rest throughout pregnancy. Generally, these pillows have extra support between the legs and ankles, support in the belly region and wrap around towards the head. So, it really is the only pillow that you need throughout your entire pregnancy to sleep well.
Get a pregnancy pillow!
Preparation for Motherhood Checklist
- There is absolutely no reason to stay with a provider who makes you feel uncomfortable or you ‘aren’t happy with’ now is the time to choose if you want to stay or leave who you’ve been in contact with for your pregnancy care.
- Making a compliments file could be petty neat; every time someone or yourself gives you a compliment write it down — reflect on it later.
- Take a nap at anytime, you deserve it!
How Life’s Shifting
Can you believe that your uterus is expanding up to 500 times its normal size, can you even imagine that! We can’t it’s an amazing journey too!
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