Hi, everybody.
I'm Melissa, and welcome back to Cloudmom.
Let's take a quick look at what's going on right now in my body.
In your body, if you're also at Week 4.
The fertilized egg is called a zygote.
It's a ball of 32 cells
and it's about the size of a poppy seed.
The length of your baby is about .4
inches - teeny teeny tiny.
I'm not noticing much of a bump.
I don't feel much of a change.
I'm going to show you guys what I'm seeing.
My stomach is pretty much the same.
I'm exercising the way I normally do.
I do it at home.
Bar classes, yoga classes, trying to walk
as much as I can, all the regular stuff.
And I'm feeling good. But I will tell you that I am super tired around 4 p.m.
every day.
I feel like I can't stay awake and I usually try to nap for 20 minutes or so.
And once dinner is done and cleaned up at around 9 p.m., I'm ready for bed.
This fatigue is coming from all the changes
that are going on in my body and that are going on in your body.
If you're also 4 weeks, your body is producing a lot more blood
to send to the baby so that the baby can start to grow.
And your heart is working really hard
to pump all this blood to the different parts of the body.
So this can cause a lot of fatigue.
You might notice some breast changes at this point.
You might notice that your breasts are like tender feeling swollen,
or that the aureola the area around the nipple is getting darker.
I haven't noticed any of these things, but they're totally normal
in terms of doctor's appointments.
You might want to schedule a doctor's appointment to confirm your pregnancy test
and talk to your doctor about when he or she advises
that you have your first ultrasound visit to check for the fetal heartbeat.
I'll probably have mine at around 8 weeks, which is standard.
Some doctors are willing
to do these earlier than 8 weeks, and some prefer to do them
later, waiting until like 11 weeks or as long as that.
But check with your doctor and see what he or she says.
The other thing you should do is immediately get on a prenatal vitamin,
which is going to give you a lot of the important nutrients
that you're going to need while you're pregnant.
You'll stay on that prenatal vitamin for your entire pregnancy and afterwards,
for some period of time, especially early if you plan to breastfeed.
In terms of diet, there are some standard guidelines
that will endure for the length of your pregnancy.
You really want to learn about these and stick to the right foods
and it might be disappointing, but what you want to avoid includes,
of course, alcohol, sorry, raw fish.
So no sushi.
And you want to eat a diet that's rich in and I'm going to read
the litany of nutrients here, omega 3's, folic acid is really important.
You could find that in leafy salads and you want to try to eat a lot of those
calcium iodide protein and vitamin D and B12,
those are all really important vitamins and nutrients for you to be getting.
Here are some ideas for foods and I'm going to have a lot of others
as here are some ideas for foods
and I'm going to have a lot of others as the weeks go by
Eggs, lentils, oatmeal is great.
Raw nuts, yogurt, ground,
flax seeds, greens, blueberries,
olive oil, avocados, beans and tofu meats and chicken are also fine.
Whole grains like rice, healthy foods - try to stay away from the saturated fats.
Try to keep your sugar low and try to drink tons and tons and tons of fluids.
Here's a quick checklist.
I'm going to have another one on my site.
Make sure you're taking a prenatal vitamin.
Consider calling your doctor and having a pregnancy
test in your doctor's office just to make sure.
Discuss with your doctor when you'll have your first ultrasound
appointment and when he or she could check for a fetal heartbeat.
Keep exercising,
learn about
what you can eat and not eat and stick to those foods.
Try to take a nap to get to bed early,
drink tons and tons of water and good fluids like herbal teas, things like that.
And more than anything, stay happy and stay relaxed.
I hope you're feeling super healthy and happy and I will see you next week.