Posts Tagged ‘pregnancy’
Pregnancy weight gain
Posted on: April 7, 2010
Pregnancy weight gain
The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists recommends that women gain somewhere between 25 and 35 pounds during pregnancy. Of course, this poundage depends on the woman’s starting weight. If she is overweight, then she should gain less and if she is underweight, then she should gain more.
Easy enough. Now, let’s assume that your gal starts her pregnancy at a healthy and sexy weight. What the heck will she look like with thirty more pounds? Don’t worry! It gets evenly distributed throughout her body and doesn’t all go to her ass. Here’s a general breakdown of where the weight goes……
* Baby : 7.5 pounds
* Placenta : 1.5 pounds
* Amniotic fluid : 2 pounds
* Increase in uterus : 2 pounds
* Larger boob size : 2 pounds
* More blood : 4 pounds
* Fluid retention : 4 pounds
* Maternal fat stores : 7 pounds
So, Total Average Gain is : 30 pounds
To help keep the weight gain on track, your partner should aim to gain 3-5 pounds during her first trimester, which averages out to 1-1.5 pounds per month. During her second trimester, she should gain about 0.5 pounds per week, and she should gain an average of 1 pound per week throughout her third trimester. Again, this is just a guideline, so don’t freak out (and don’t let her freak out) if she gains 2 pounds one week and nothing another. For the most part, her body is doing its own thing. Just relax and enjoy the ride.
Pregnancy Trimester
Posted on: April 4, 2010
Pregnancy First Trimester
The first Trimester of pregnancy is an exciting and yet scary time and is marked by an invisible, yet amazing transformation. Always remember that the symptoms you experience are generally normal, and most will go away as your pregnancy progresses. Some symptoms you may experience include nausea and vomiting, fatigue (the most pronounced symptoms), frequent urination, food aversion and breast swelling and tenderness.
Although, most pregnancy symptoms that you experience in the first Trimester are harmless and merely annoying, watch out for a few symptoms like bloody/watery vaginal discharge, swelling of hands/feet/face, recurring headaches, excessive vomiting, blurriness and decreased and burning with urination, which require medical attention.
Pregnancy Second Trimester
The second trimester, the middle part of pregnancy, is the most comfortable period and is a good time to prepare yourself for the arrival of your little one. As your pregnancy progresses, the nausea and fatigue begin to fade and you start developing the outward symptoms of pregnancy, namely, weight gain and growing belly. Do not be alarmed if you experience shortness of breath or dull aches and pains in your abdomen, groin, back and thighs as these are signs of your body adjusting to accommodate your growing baby.
Though the risk of Miscarriage decreases as your pregnancy progresses, the possibility of preterm labor begins. Recognizing the signs of preterm labor like contractions or cramping, sharp pains, increased vaginal discharge or bleeding, continuous diarrhea, etc., can help you and your doctor can save your pregnancy.
Pregnancy Third Trimester
The final stage of pregnancy, third trimester, ends with labor and the birth of your baby and is a period of excitement. Large size of your growing baby may bring in physical discomforts and you may experience heartburn, increased fatigue, hemorrhoids, swelling on the ankles and fingers and Braxton Hicks contractions (mild contractions) that last for about 30aE”60 s.
Do not hesitate to contact your doctor if you observe sudden swelling on your ankles and if you experience a rapid and sudden weight gain. Do continue to keep looking for signs of pre term labor like contractions accompanied by vaginal discharge, sever back pain and if you experience more than 8 contractions/h, occurring at regular intervals.
Getting Pregnant
Posted on: March 29, 2010
If you’re eager to get pregnant, read on! Find out how to prepare your body for being pregnant, chart your menstrual cycle, read your cervical mucus, and pinpoint ovulation, and learn ways to have sex that boost your chances of conception. Plus, read about pregnancy tests, dealing with fertility problems, and the top ten early pregnancy symptoms.
Top ten signs you might be pregnant Reviewed by the Baby Center Medical Adviser.
A positive home pregnancy test Could you be pregnant? Most likely you won’t notice any symptoms until about the time you’ve missed a period — or a week or two later. If you’re not keeping track of your menstrual cycle or if it varies widely from one month to the next, you may not be sure when to expect your period. But if you start to experience some of the symptoms below — not all women get them all — and you haven’t had a period for a while, you may very well be pregnant. Take a home pregnancy test to find out for sure….
10. Tender, swollen breasts one of the early signs of pregnancy insensitive, sore breasts caused by increasing levels of hormones. The soreness may feel like an exaggerated version of how your breasts feel before your period. Your discomfort should diminish significantly after the first trimester, as your body adjusts to the hormonal changes.
9. Fatigue Feeling tired all of a sudden? No, make that exhausted. No one knows for sure what causes early pregnancy fatigue, but it’s possible that rapidly increasing levels of the hormone progesterone are contributing to your sleepiness. You should start to feel more energetic once you hit your second trimester, although fatigue usually returns late in pregnancy when you’re carrying around a lot more weight and some of the common discomforts of pregnancy make it more difficult to get a good night’s sleep.
8. Implantation bleeding Some women have a small amount of vaginal bleeding around 11 or 12 days after conception (close to the time you might notice a missed period). The bleeding may be caused by the fertilized egg burrowing into the blood-rich lining of your uterus — a process that starts just six days after fertilization — but no one knows for sure. The bleeding is very light (appearing as red spotting or pink or reddish-brown staining) and lasts only a day or two. (Let your practitioner know if you notice any bleeding or spotting, particularly if it’s accompanied by pain, since this can be a sign of anectopicpregnancy.)
7. Nausea or vomiting If you’re like most women, morning sickness won’t hit until about a month after conception. (A lucky few escape it altogether.) But some women do start to feel queasy a bit earlier. And not just in the morning, either — pregnancy-related nausea and vomiting can be a problem morning, noon, or night. About half of women with nausea feel complete relief by the beginning of the second trimester. For most others it takes another month or so for the queasiness to ease up.
6. Increased sensitivity to odors If you’re newly pregnant, it’s not uncommon to feel repelled by the smell of a bologna sandwich or cup of coffee and for certain aromas to trigger your gag reflex. Though no one knows for sure, this may be a side effect of rapidly increasing amounts of estrogen in your system. You may also find that certain foods you used to enjoy are suddenly completely repulsive to you.
5. Abdominal bloating Hormonal changes in early pregnancy may leave you feeling bloated, similar to the feeling some women have just before their period arrives. That’s why your clothes may feel snugger than usual at the waistline, even early on when your uterus is still quite small.
4. Frequent urination shortly after you become pregnant, you may find yourself hurrying to the bathroom all the time. Why? Mostly because during pregnancy the amount of blood and other fluids in your body increases, which leads to extra fluid being processed by your kidneys and ending up in your bladder. This symptom may start as early as six weeks into your first trimester and continue or worsen as your pregnancy progresses and your growing baby exerts more pressure on your bladder.
3. A missed period If you’re usually pretty regular and your period doesn’t arrive on time, you’ll probably take a pregnancy test long before you notice any of the above symptoms. But if you’re not regular or you’re not keeping track of your cycle, nausea and breast tenderness and extra trips to the bathroom may signal pregnancy before you realize you didn’t get your period.
2. Your basal body temperature stays high If you’ve been charting your basal body temperature and you see that your temperature has stayed elevated for 18 days in a row, you’re probably pregnant. And finally….
1. The proof: A positive home pregnancy testing spite of what you might read on the box, many home pregnancy tests are not sensitive enough to detect most pregnancies until about a week after a missed period. So if you decide to take one earlier than that and get a negative result, try again in a few days. Once you’ve gotten a positive result, make an appointment with your practitioner.
Pre Pregnancy
Posted on: March 29, 2010
So… you and your partner are thinking about adding a new member to your home. Congratulations. Making and giving life is powerfuland wonderful. You may be wondering how the journey to parenthood is.
From the very start, your baby-to-be alters your body and the way you live your daily life. As the decision to get pregnant has already been made, you may be emotionally committed to parenthood. But is your body prepared for the task ahead?
All women thinking about getting pregnant want to have the healthiest pregnancies possible. By thinking ahead, you can make plans and healthy choices, even before you get pregnant, which will make a big difference to the health of your future children.
My Baby My World 