Pregnancy Week 5: Morning Sickness, Fatigue, and Fetal Heart and Neural Tube Development

Now that you have officially settled into the idea that you are pregnant, it is time to look at your baby's development and what mom is experiencing during the fifth week of pregnancy. Very important things are just beginning in the fetal development arena including primitive brain and heart development. Mom is busy going through both physical symptoms such as morning sickness and fatigue, and emotional changes that are perfectly normal during the early weeks of pregnancy.

Pregnancy Week 5: Baby's Development

Your baby is very tiny, only about 1.5 millimeters in length or .059 inches. Your baby now looks like two swollen cubes attached in the middle. One half will become the head and the other half will become the rest of the baby's body.

Your baby is starting to develop important structures such as his central nervous system and heart. The neural tube is developing. The neural tube will turn into your baby's brain and spinal cord. Right now, the neural tube is open at both ends but it will close. Folic acid is essential for the neural tube development and closure, so make sure you are taking your prenatal vitamins.

Fetal heart development is in its infancy. Your baby's heart is now only two parallel tubes that are joined together. These two tubes will split into the four chambers of the heart. The endoderm, the innermost layer, starts to form primitive blood cells that will circulate through his heart.

Pregnancy Week 5: What Mom is Experiencing Physically

You may be able to sense some changes going on with your body with some early signs of pregnancy. Your breasts may become tender. If you are like me, your breasts may become more than tender. At one point, I wore a sports bra twenty-four hours a day just to keep my breasts from moving. This severe pain only seemed to last about two weeks, so there is an end in sight.

Many pregnant women start to experience fatigue early on in their pregnancy. This can be due to periodic hypoglycemia, or low blood sugar, that occurs because glucose is transferred from the mother to the baby in order to provide energy for rapid growth and development.

If you haven't already started to experience nausea, or morning sickness, then it will probably start within the next week. The increase in the hCG hormone is most likely the culprit of morning sickness since the hormone levels are doubling every day. To combat morning sickness, try not to let your stomach become completely empty. Eat small meals or healthy snacks throughout the day to help prevent nausea and vomiting. It is also advised that prenatal vitamins be taken before bedtime to avoid stomach irritation, nausea, and vomiting.

Pregnancy Week 5: What Mom is Experiencing Emotionally

So are you feeling emotional? It may seem like a very bad case of PMS. Unfortunately, these erratic emotions will not completely go away until after your baby is born. I found myself both laughing and crying at the same time. I started crying over something silly and then started laughing when I realized how ridiculous it was that I was crying. Try to keep things into perspective when you start to feel emotional, it will help your sanity.

Mom should be just beginning to get used to the idea that she is pregnant. Your baby's development is taking care of itself so you need to focus on taking care of yourself. Make sure you take your prenatal vitamins and work toward staving off early pregnancy symptoms such as morning sickness and fatigue.

For more pregnancy weeks and fetal development you can read:
Conception and Calculating Baby's Due Date

Pregnancy Week 4

Click here to find more information on your pregnancy and baby's development.

Sources:

Fit Pregnancy (2009). Pregnancy Calendar. Retrieved: April 8, 9, 2009. Web Site: fitpregnancy.com/calendar/40251887.html

Myers-Gorrie, Trula, Slone-McKinney, Emily, & Smith-Murray, Sharon (1998). Foundations of Maternal-Newborn Nursing (2^nd ed.). Philadelphia, PA: W. B. Saunders Company.

What to Expect (2009). Weekly Pregnancy Calendar. Retrieved:April 8, 9, 2009. Web Site: whattoexpect.com/pregnancy/week-by-week/landing.aspx