Five Weeks Pregnant

By now, it is likely that you know that you are pregnant. If you do not know that you are five weeks pregnant, you will have an idea that you could be. This is the week after your missed period and when the majority of women realise that pregnancy is a strong possibility.

Your baby is still extremely tiny at this stage and is still called an embryo. It will be about 1mm in length at five weeks pregnant and will still be layers of cells that are developing into organs, your baby and the parts of the body. Your baby may show up on an internal scan at this stage but it is likely that the yolk sac will be seen more than anything else. The yolk sac is where all of the nutrients are currently being made and gained.

This is an extremely busy time for your future child. There is a lot of development happening as the nervous system develops, the placenta grows and the umbilical cord develops and grows for your baby to gain nutrients from you. At five weeks pregnant, the umbilical cord is short but it does grow longer as your baby grows bigger.

Symptoms at Pregnancy Week Five

There are some common symptoms that are noticed at pregnancy week five. The most common of those is the lack of period. For some women, they will not realise until they are five weeks pregnant or will not test until this time in case they do just have a late period.

Fatigue is common and probably one of the first things that you will notice. Your body is going through a lot right now and your baby is developing rapidly. You may find that it is easier to fall asleep at five weeks pregnant or that you struggle to stay alert or pay attention to anything.

On top of the fatigue, there is also the tenderness of the breasts. Due to the increase in hormones, your breasts will start to swell and may become uncomfortable or tender. Your nipples may also become painful to touch. This will likely subside at the end of the first trimester. You may also notice that the skin around your nipples – your areolas – become darker. This is something that happens at some stage during pregnancy and it is thought it happens to help guide the baby to your breasts for feeding; the baby’s eyesight will be extremely poor during the first year.

Frequent trips to the toilet are also to be expected, either to urinate or due to pregnancy sickness. As the amount of hormones in your body increases at five weeks pregnant, the amount of blood flowing around the body increases. This means that your kidneys do more work and you will need to urinate more often. The pregnancy sickness also occurs due to the increase in hormones but not all women suffer from this. Morning sickness tends to disappear after week 12 but some women suffer from it throughout the pregnancy. The good thing about pregnancy sickness, especially during the early weeks, is that you know everything is continuing to develop and it helps to subdue the thoughts of miscarriage.

Changes in You

You will still be small at five weeks pregnant and will not start showing. In fact, it will take many more weeks before you do start showing. Take this time to enjoy your smaller size as you will soon find that the weight of the baby stops you from enjoying events.