Week 8 of Your Pregnancy

November 2, 2009 by  
Filed under Week 8 of Pregnancy

What is Happening Inside Your Body?

Your uterus is growing and expanding. This can put pressure on your sciatic nerve, causing sciatic nerve pain. This feels like an occasional excruciating pain in the buttocks and down the back or side of the legs. This can occur at any time from now until the end of pregnancy, and is caused by pressure on the nerve from the expanding uterus.

8WeeksFetusWeb200You may also start to experience sharp pain on either side of your pelvis, especially from twisting related movements or when transitioning from sitting to standing up. Your growing uterus can cause strain on the round ligament, which are the muscles that support the uterus and hold it in place.

The volume of blood in your body has continued to increase. Your blood volume may have increased by as much as 40-50%, as your body pumps more blood to help feed your baby.

You may be experiencing gas, constipation, or diarrhea, as well as continued nausea. If you are going to have morning sickness, it will have likely developed by this point in your pregnancy.

Your breasts have probably begun to grow. They may be feeling tender or sensitive. This is normal as your body gets ready to produce milk. Many women’s breasts will increase a cup size or more during the course of their pregnancy. It is not unusual for a large portion of this growth to occur during the first trimester.

How Big is Your Baby?

Foetus8WeeksWeb203Your baby is a little more than ½ inch long, about the size of a kidney bean. It has been 6 weeks since conception.

What Does a Fetus Look Like at 8 weeks?  -  Video

If you are looking for What does a fetus look like at 8 weeks?
Click here to watch a video 6 weeks since conception.

Here is another great video of an a baby at 8 weeks gestation.
Click here to watch video 6 weeks since conception.

The babies wrist and hand is forming at 5 weeks 6 days.
Click here to see.

How is Your Baby Developing?

Your baby’s arms and legs are continuing to develop. The eyes and ears are beginning to grow. The nose and mouth are recognizable and the outside ears are beginning to grow.

The liver is now beginning to manufacture blood cells and the kidneys have developed but are not yet functioning.

Embryos in their sixth week of development begin to have spontaneous movements and reflexes such as twitching in the body and limbs in response to touch. The body at this point reacts equally to any and every type of stimulus.

Your baby’s heart is pumping at about 150 beats per minute, about two times the rate of an adult.

Tips for a Healthy Pregnancy

It is never to early to start practicing Kegel exercises. This exercise strengthens the urogenital muscles which support the pelvic floor. Good tone in these muscles will help you to recover your muscle tone after childbirth and help prevent problems with incontinence.

To practice Kegel exercises, tighten up the same muscles you would use to stop the flow of urine. At first you can practice on the toilet. Then they can be done any time. Contract the muscle as many times in a row as you can as tightly as possible with as many repetitions as possible. It will be very helpful later in pregnancy and after childbirth if you begin these exercises now.