Pregnancy Week 8: Maternity Clothes, Weekly Pregnancy Journal, and Baby's Size and Development

Your baby is starting to look more human during the eighth week of pregnancy. His facial features are forming. As your baby is developing his unique traits, you are watching your hips expand and your pants shrink. Your goal is to be comfortable but sometimes that is difficult when you can't button your jeans.

Pregnancy Week 8: Baby's Development

Your baby is now a half an inch long or 13 millimeters. His eyelids and ears start to develop. The ears look like six small bumps on each side of the neck. Your baby's lungs are forming as well as his stomach, kidneys, and liver. Even tooth buds for your baby's primary teeth begin developing.

Most of your baby's bones are just cartilage at this point, but the cartilage that forms the skull is now starting to harden in order to form the protective bone. Your baby's fingers and toes are webbed at this point in his development.

Pregnancy Week 8: What Mom is Experiencing, Maternity Clothes or just Larger Sizes?

You may have a feeling of fullness or you may feel thicker. Your hips are expanding slightly so your clothes may not fit as well as they used to. If you can still fit into your normal size jeans, congratulations! By this point in my pregnancies I could not button any of my pre-pregnancy pants. I did not look pregnant, I just felt pregnant.

Luckily pregnant women have a few options at this early stage of pregnancy. Option number one is to wear elastic pants, such as sweatpants or workout pants. These pants are casually fashionable to wear out and about.

Option number two is to buy or borrow clothes that are a size or two larger than you normally wear. Only buy a few outfits because you won't be able to wear them for very long. There is one advantage to buying larger sized clothes; you can wear them after you deliver your baby. This will give you one more clothing option besides just wearing maternity clothes.

The last option is to break down and buy maternity clothes. If you buy maternity clothes that fit you well now, then you will be buying a larger size in a couple of months. Luckily, most maternity pants have a panel and elastic that may last to late stages of pregnancy.

Pregnancy Week 8: Weekly Pregnancy Journal

You may want to take this time to begin a weekly pregnancy calendar or journal. You can use just a notebook or you can turn it into a weekly scrapbook outlining your pregnancy experience. You can record everything you are feeling and how your body is changing. Make sure you write down how you felt in your early weeks of pregnancy.

For more pregnancy weeks and fetal development you can read:
Pregnancy Week 5

Pregnancy Week 6

Pregnancy Week 7

Pregnancy Week 9

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

Sources:

Personal Experience

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