Pregnancy Week 5

What’s happening to your baby?

Bring an orange seed to your imagination. Your baby is now the size of one! Yes, you might assume she is too small yet. But, the fact is her tiny form is into an enormous load of work now. Growing an entire human body with interconnected systems is indeed a lot of hard work!

At week 5, your baby is still an embryo. She is strongly implanted in your uterus by this time though it will take a few weeks before the placenta completes its development. If you take a peep inside your baby embryo now, you can find three distinct layers:

·         the ectoderm on the top,

·         the mesoderm at the middle, and

·         the endoderm making the inner most layer.

Sure, you are in no mood to decipher these terminologies! For a quicker understanding, visualize your 5-weeks-old baby as a hollow sphere; of the size of a pepper corn and having these three layers. The outer layer, ectoderm, makes the bedrock for her brain and spinal cord. It is from here that a neural tube is developing which will bloom into her nervous system and other body parts like nails, hair and skin in the coming months.

Much to your surprise, your baby’s heart is already forming its chambers this week. Even though they don’t look like chambers yet, her heart is almost ready to kick start to beat. It is the middle layer, mesoderm, from where this spectacular development sprouted out. Her muscular and skeletal systems too take their foundations from here.

Other internal organs - intestines, pancreas, lungs, liver - to name a few, are beginning to take shape from the inner layer, endoderm. So you see how busy she is into developing her entire major and minor body systems?!

 What’s happening to your body?

By week 5, you are certain to have missed your monthly period date. In fact, it must have been a few days or one week since you came past it. Now is a good time to do a home pregnancy test. hCG, the pregnancy hormone which gets detected in a pregnancy test has increased in its levels, thus increasing the accuracy of your test result. If you saw a negative result in a test done earlier, you can re-attempt the test now.

Your body begins to show some early pregnancy signs at week 5. Nausea, sore breasts and fatigue are the most common pregnancy signs around this time. Remember that along with your baby, your body too is striving hard to facilitate the massive growth sprouts of your tiny baby. And feeling exhausted shouldn’t make you worried. It is your body’s means to communicate to you that you need to rest a little more now.

The play of pregnancy hormones is sure not a pleasant one at all for most pregnant mothers. They nauseate you; they make you puke; they churn your tummy and bah! They may even unbind your relationship with food. And this is just their fond teaser. Beware! These mystery hormones are going to take your senses for a ride for the next few weeks.

Now that you are beginning to experience pregnancy symptoms, don’t be disappointed if you do not find a bump yet. It will take another few weeks but it is alright to track your shape on the mirror for that is how you will find your prestigious bump one day.

Tips and advice for Pregnancy Week 5 Take a Folic Acid Supplement

Folic acid prevents neural defects in your developing baby. As your baby’s neural tube is beginning to develop now, it is highly essential to start a daily dose of folic acid at this time even if you haven’t been taking it earlier.

Learn about Home Pregnancy Test

Your body is now geared up to show your pregnancy. You might want to know how the home pregnancy test works. Below are a few helpful pointers:

How does a pregnancy test work?

The home pregnancy test kit usually includes a test strip or a test card and each kit carries with it clear instructions of the test procedure. On placing a drop of your urine sample on the indicated space on the test strip, the test urine runs across the strip, over pre-coated lines of control and test.

How to interpret the test results?

For all results, both positive and negative, the control line gets highlighted (most often in pink color) while the test line can show up only for a positive pregnancy test.

How soon can you take a pregnancy test?

Ideally, 7 to 10 days after your missed period is a reasonable timeline to take your first pregnancy test. Remember that unless the pregnant mother is producing detectable levels of hCG, the test cannot pick up a positive result. That is why it is important to allow sufficient time before trying on a home pregnancy test.

When is the best time of the day to do a pregnancy test?

A positive pregnancy test is not sensitive to a particular time of the day although taking the test with the first urine in the morning is recommended. hCG in the urine gets accumulated over long hours and thus the first morning pee is more likely to show up a positive result.