Inside Your Body
By the end of week 5, your embryo will be the size of a sesame seed and will have 3 layers. All of your baby’s life systems and body parts will evolve from these layers and start developing:
1. Ectoderm (outer layer) will form all the skin lining, lens, mammary glands, sweat glands, nail enamels, hair and nervous tissue through the formation of neural tube, which is a tube that, after further development, forms your baby’s brain and spinal cord.
2. Mesoderm (middle layer) will create the skeleton, bones, muscles, cartilage, spleen, cardiovascular system, sex organs and kidneys.
3. Endoderm (inner layer) will constitute your baby’s gastrointestinal system, genital system and liver and pancreas.
You may be able to see your baby’s heart beat in an ultrasound, but it is likely to be noticeable only next week.
Your Signs And Symptoms
By the 5th week, most women would have noticed some clues of their pregnancy, and the signs and symptoms will begin to occur if not already. If you already had signs of it, unfortunately you will get more of it. Fatigue, light-headedness, dizziness, nausea, vomiting, increased frequency of urination, a tingling or soreness in your breast, and food aversions are some of the more pronounced symptoms. However, not all expectant mothers experience all of these symptoms, so don’t worry if you don’t experience them .. Just consider yourself lucky.
Your body won’t make you look pregnant so you can still keep your pregnancy a secret. The potential culprit would be your morning sickness or people noticing your abstinence from alcohol (if you were a drinker). So you better come up with some good responses if you want your pregnancy to remain a secret.
What Tests To Expect
If your pregnancy test showed up negative last week, the result should be positive this week if you are pregnant. So go out and buy a home pregnancy test. Good luck!
If you are pregnant and are visiting your gynaecologist this week, then you should know the typical tests that you will do on each visit: blood pressure, urinalysis, weight gain, ultrasound for fetal movement, fundal height measurement for size of uterus, and swelling of your feet and hands. The basic aim of urinalysis is to check if you have urinary tract infection, which may cause pre-mature labor pains if go un-checked, and to test for sugar and protein.
Doctors have different ways of scheduling visits. An example is a visit every 4 weeks until week 28, thereafter, the visits will be more frequent at every 2 weeks until week 36. As the due date comes closer, your visits will be on a weekly basis. There may be more visits required depending on each mother’s circumstances.
