Welcome to your Guide to Pregnancy – Week 10.
10 weeks pregnant what to expect? This week your little one is close to 1 ½ inches long! Your baby is growing at an amazing rate. All of your baby's organs are present and will spend the next 7 ½ months growing and learning to function. Your little one's facial features are formed and its head is half of its body size. At the end of this week your baby will graduate from an embryo to a fetus! A first of many milestones to come! Your baby's fingers are no longer webbed and tiny little tooth buds are forming under the gums. Your baby has the ability to move its arms and legs.
Another milestone… up until this point your baby is surviving on with the help of a yolk sac. The yolk sac is removing itself for the placenta to take over. The placenta will be your baby's source of nutrition and is the baby's life-support system until birth. The placenta is the only disposable human organ. In other words, it is the only organ that the body develops for one purpose only and then will dispose of it when it has completed its job. The placenta is a flat shaped organ that attaches to the uterine wall and is connected to the baby via the umbilical cord. The placenta is responsible for carrying the mother's blood, nutrients and oxygen to the fetal blood without every mixing with one another. The placenta is expelled at birth. Another amazing pregnancy feat!
You may be in full force of pregnancy symptoms…or not. Every pregnancy and woman is different. You may experience some or all or none of these symptoms. You may be losing some symptoms while a whole new set may be coming on. If you don't have any symptoms yet, consider yourself lucky!!
Some of the symptoms you may be experiencing are:
- Frequent urination – day and night
- Heartburn
- Aversions to smells and food…or you may be craving foods that you never thought twice about
- White vaginal discharge
- Bloating and flatulence. Many women mistake this for "showing" but unfortunately it is more likely that you are bloated
- Breast changes – size, tenderness, tingling, veins, darkening of the areolas
- Excess saliva
- Nausea – with or without vomiting
- Fatigue and/or lack of motivation
- PMS-like symptoms such as weepiness, mood swings and irritability
- Disbelief that there is actually a baby growing in your body or a new found calmness surrounding your pregnancy
You may begin to notice a little belly pooch…although the rest of the world may be oblivious to it. Don't worry, it won't be long until that little pooch looks like you're hiding a basketball under your shirt!
Stretch Marks – Ahhh, the battle scars of pregnancy. There are hundreds of products on the market that will claim to prevent them. The good news, it won't hurt to apply the products and will make your skin baby bottom soft. The bad news, research shows that prevention of stretch marks is slim to none. Mostly due to your own genetics, if you are going to get them you will get them. Other good news is that they will diminish in appearance after birth becoming faint white marks rather than bright red or purple as they are in pregnancy. You may be able to minimize these badges of pregnancy but keeping your weight gain at a steady rate, good diet. You can ease your mind in that the majority of women will get stretch marks at some point in pregnancy. Stretch marks may appear on your abdomen, breast, hips, thighs and butt. Keep positive and know that this you're badge of mother hood, the first of many, and a small price to pay for such a big payoff – a baby!!