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I am pregnanty.
Welcome to Hallo Bump. We're making pregnancy less overwhelming and hopefully more manageable. I'm Grace Ruvey. I am pregnant for the first time, and although I haven't drunk any alcohol, I feel like I am hungover every day.
That's got great. I'm Yana Pittman. I'm a former Olympian, I'm a mother of six small humans, and I'm a pistetric and Guyani registrar, which basically means I have the privilege of helping you both your babies.
Each episode, Yana and I will be holding your hand week by week through the mysterious, perplexing and very new world that is the miracle of pregnant seed. Week five. So, Yana, how big is the baby at this point?
Well, your embro is now the size of an orange seed. Oh, I just went to oranges have seeds exactly what I do know, but they have seedless oranges these days. But a nail head.
It's all the heart button on Instagram? Okay, yes? Or an earings.
That's something. It's small, still small, it's only about a millimeter in size, but it's doubling. It's doubling quickly.
Yes, yes, when you start to put those things next to each other, you do see the increase ex exactly.
And I think it's important to say here when they do an ultrasand which I don't want you having, guys, yet's the way too early. They measure the size of the gestational sack. So I remember last week we said its two point five, but that's actually the sack size. The fetus is the little guy inside. It's now measurable, which
last week you wouldn't have seen it. So when we say a millimeter, which is different from our last episode, we're now actually seeing hopefully what we call a curl, which is a little crown to rump, so head to bum length of your baby that will eventually grow bigger.
And this is where they start to look like a dinosaur because their head is massive and they have a tail. But that's kind of it. So tell me what's going on in our bodies this week.
Well, it's a crucial level, crucial stage, I should say, because we're laying down the foundations for future organs, So it's important. But your baby's neural tube is now continuing to close. It actually wonn't close till day twenty eight of pregnancy, sometimes one, but usually around twenty eight days. It's when your baby's primitive heart is starting to form,
so it's not beating yet, very rarely. It doesn't beat to us about four ish millimeters three to four millimeters in sides, So a few more days to go, and little small limb buds are appearing, but you definitely can't see them yet.
Limb buds.
Limb buds so like little little pokey things that will eventually grow into their libing.
Yeah, and that's when those like we spoke about the flow app. The flow app showed, Yeah, it looks like a little dinosaur and I guess maybe that it's limb buds where it looks like little dinosaur nubbins and a tail, remember of it.
Its weird, like it does not look human.
It looks like a lizard. The dinosaur reference. It does look like a lizard. But more importantly, what's happening with me? What what's happening to me? What's going on in our bodies?
This week continued symptoms so Unfortunately, guys, you've got a rollercoaster for the next few weeks. That breast tenderness is getting worse, that nausea is increasing. Unfortunately, can't even see anything in your pregnant belly. It's as flat as a pancake, because it's the baby still well and truly sluggled in the uterus, which is not above your pure big bone. You might you're having more food aversions, you might be feeling unusual dreams and thoughts and feelings, lots of emotion.
So we're in for a bit of a roller coaster for most women over the next few weeks.
Yeah, this is where smell aversion kicked in for me in week five, which I thought was really I didn't expect it to happen this early, and I dry reached. I hadn't vomited yet. We'll get to that, but it was just a very intense sensory experience. That's right. A couple of things.
The first one is your hormones of pregnancy just change the way things happen. The next thing is the fact that you probably are starting to experience some nauseousness, so
you're just more triggered by smells. But why does that happen largely because you're already would you believe having an increase in your blood volume, so your body will buy the end of pregnancy almost double, So it's fifty percent more blood volume at this point you're already starting, which means you're getting more blood flowter than the olfactory, which is the medical way of saying that the nerves in your nose that all start sensing things. So there's lots happening.
And nausea is also a big part of it, because if you're feeling sick, you're just not going to enjoy food.
Is there anything that I should start doing? What's a to do list for this week?
Oh? My goodness. So we talked about it a little bit in first episode around ensuring your soroology is done. It's now getting more important because you're confidently pregnant. We need to make sure you know about that blood group because we don't want to miss the boat. If you need some anti d start again looking at booking that ultrasound some of the more. I'm sorry for those sonography places that don't specialize in women's health, but I always think if you can afford it now, not everyone can
go to one of the specialized women's centers. Okay, just because they are that's what they do for a living. They do it all day, every day, and so then it's time to book it in because they can book out quickly. So book your ultrasound for around the seven week mark, so we want to confidently be able to see a baby with a heartbeat. That's probably the highest one on your list this week is check you've done your blood tests and make sure that you're booked your ultrasound.
But at this point all of our care is pretty much through our GP, and there's not everything else.
And yes, through GP, but again plan because if you want that GRIP practice or or even some obstricians do book.
Out fairly early. Some people might be getting excited and wanting to purchase things. Is it too early to purchase things because we don't know if it's going to be a chemical pregnancy, a miscarriage, or any of these outcomes that are on fortunately quite common. What would you suggest when people say, is it too early to just buy something? I did.
I have to be honest, I went and bought a little little, you know, outfit, But I think for me it was because I wanted to make it real. The first time I was pregnant, I also bought one the time I had my first miscarriage as well, and that was hard, but it was also a lovely reminder in
the future of you know that baby did exist. They're part of that whole world and your whole life experience, which I think really touches on an important point that for generations it's been taboo to talk about pregnancy before twelve weeks. You know, you don't want to tell anyone because if you have a miscarriage, And I've always really challenged that because I think why this is the time
when you actually need the support most. You know, you may not want to tell your boss at work, perhaps because you.
Work, yeah, but maybe.
A close colleague at work, because if you have a miscarriage and you're a little bit down in the dumps at work, you need someone who's going to go. I can understand why she needs a tissue right now while she's running off to the bathroom for a break, rather than gosh.
She's in a bad mood.
So I know it's an individual conversation, but it's one that I want you to think about because I think in pregnancy is probably the time you need someone most to be able to hold your hand andrew that having done, I've had four miscarriages unfortunately, and having to walk through that space is hard. Doesn't matter what gestation you are, and so having that support is I think is really really important.
It does show you how like better we are at talking about things like grief. And I wonder if that's why it was don't talk about it but before twelve weeks, because the pain of it is that don't see, don't talk. That's what it was.
Yeah, that whole here's a couple of concrete. Suck it up, princess. It's part of life, and it is part of life. You know. We know that twenty to twenty five percent of pregnancies will lend a miscarriage.
But it hurts, Yeah, really hurts. So in terms of our toolkit for this week, my only advice for this talk, it is to have dry crackers on you. I like it. It is five weeks, it is early, but just to have something when if something is brought to you on a plate and potentially the makeup of it is a bit too complex for what you need right now, Yes, to just to have something. It's like strip you back to childhood basics of food, dry cracker perposta.
Can't beat that one.
Yeah, that's my advice. Do you have anything for the talk kit this week?
Start to be careful with comparisons, so just having that conversation around. You're going to have a different pregnancy everybody else, So you know, if you're starting to talk about mums and looking up things on internet, just be a little careful on who you decide to follow and who you look at because it is a different journey for everyone.
That's great advice. What about like pelvic floor physios or great or people like yourself, people who are obstitutions or training to be obstetricians. Should you start following them because the facts are going to be more medical.
Yes, And there's a couple of good books this Traian birth Stories have done a really good book and Professor Tong he's an MFM so MFM stands for Maternal Fetal Medicine Specialist, so he's an amazing male ofbstitution down in Melbourne. I love him and he's just written a birth book
as well, so you can look him up. Great resources to make sure your facts are accurate and give you some idea of what's going to come in the next couple of months, so one sort of a midw free led style actually wrote a forward one of those, and then Dr Tong's is really good because then you can compare what you're reading online and social things to what really is happening with your body.
Yeah, cut through the noise, Cut through the noise.
Love it.
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This episode was produced by Courtney Ammenhauser with audio production by Tom Lyon We'll catch you next time.
This episode of Hello Bump was made in partnership with Huggies. Bye Bye,