Pregnancy At Week 11

The first trimester is full of excitement, anticipation and most likely, research. Simply knowing more about the natural processes at work can make the whole experience a lot less stressful. Below is a detailed description of what to expect during week 11 of your pregnancy.

What’s happening with your baby?

During week 11 of pregnancy your baby is about 1 1/2 inch long – about the size of a lime! Your baby is almost fully formed now, and definitely has the distinct look of a human. What might have looked like a little jelly bean or tad pole, now stretches, kicks and rolls around like an synchronized swimmer.

Her hands will open soon and there are distinct individual fingers and toes present on your little one’s appendages. No more webbed frog feet! There are little teeth buds forming underneath her gums and her nail beds are beginning to develop. It’s too early at this point to determine whether your child is a boy or a girl, but in week 11 testes will be forming for boys and ovaries for girls.

What’s happening with you?

By pregnancy week 11 many women experience a slight reprieve from the tough early weeks of pregnancy. You might have some more energy as nausea may subside. Though just as the nausea wears off, it’s common to begin experiencing issues on the other end of things. Constipation is a normal symptom of pregnancy with all of the hormonal shifts that your body is undergoing. You also might be enduring heartburn. Again, this is a side effect of hormonal shifts in your body that are causing different areas of your body to relax and sometimes that can get uncomfortable.

During pregnancy at week 11 you may be able to see the beginnings of your slight baby bump. For some women the bump is clear, other women just look like they’re waddling out of a successful Sunday buffet experience and still other women are rocking washboard flat abs. Everyone shows differently and at different times.

Most women have gained between 2-5 pounds by this point in the pregnancy, but don’t stress if your numbers aren’t exactly within that range. Trying to eat food that is nutrient dense is all you should really be focused on. Don’t go crazy and “eat for two” because you’re body honestly only needs about 300 more calories a day than you did when you weren’t pregnant. That can be as much as a small snack. I’m talking an apple with peanut butter. I used my pregnancy as an excuse to eat two bagels with cream cheese and call it a snack. I would not advise this approach. It’s really not the best thing for you or the baby.

What to do this week!

Pregnancy is long, but it goes faster than you might think. This week should be a week to slow down and enjoy where you are in your pregnancy. It can be tempting to want to fast forward until you’re holding that sweet little baby, but it’s important to use the time you have to prepare yourself for all the changes ahead. This week take some time for yourself and reflect.

If you haven’t already, begin a pregnancy journal. You can simply use a blank journal where you record your thoughts, feeling, goals, and hopes. This can also be a good place to compile the never ending To-Do list that will begin forming in your mind. There are also plenty of prepared fill-in-the-blank pregnancy journals that will provide a more guided reflection time, if you are more interested in that.

There are countless changes in your life during pregnancy. Your body becomes a mysterious roller coaster ride that pretty much calls all the shots without any consideration of your routine or plans. Your hormones are shifting like the tides and one day you might feel on top of the world, and the next day it will seem like your life is in shambles. Plus, there are all of the physical things to prepare. A registry to compile, a nursery to decorate and endless articles and books to read about parenting, breast-feeding, labor and birth. It can be overwhelming to say the least.

So use pregnancy at week 11 to begin a practice of reflection and processing. Developing a practice of reflection every week will help you stay ahead of all the crazy changes. Without stopping to process the changes of your past week or to think about your plans for the next week, pregnancy can barrel over you and take control of your mind and emotions. So start this week, and begin a practice that will transform your pregnancy into a beautiful and transformative season of life.

Featured photo credit: Vanessa Porter via flickr.com

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