Week 7: Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go

Hi Mama! So many beautiful changes are happening inside your body during this first trimester! Now that your baby is growing, your uterus is changing in size and shape to accommodate. Due to its shape and growing size, you may notice an increased need to urinate more often. The uterus is starting to take up the space your bladder typically does. This decreased bladder capacity may impact your sleep as you have to get up more often during the night. For those struggling to get a good night’s rest, this can be extra challenging. These frequent bathroom trips will lessen in the second trimester as your uterus again changes in shape and position in your abdomen. Pregnancy insomnia, however, may follow you throughout the pregnancy. Women experience insomnia in pregnancy for a variety of reasons: normal physiological changes from pregnancy, overwhelming anxiety, or general discomfort. Insomnia, coupled with the fatigue that affects the majority of women in the first trimester, makes it challenging to get through each day. It’s okay to have rough days and struggle, even in these initial weeks! It’s okay if you don’t see the beauty of pregnancy at this moment! Some days, weeks or months will be better than others. Keep looking forward to the journey.

Your baby is seven weeks and enters a unique phase this week. Depending on whether your baby is a boy or a girl, differentiating sex characteristics start to form inside. The beginnings of ovaries or testes develop. The external sex characteristics don’t form until later in the pregnancy. Still, your baby’s facial features do become more defined, with the beginnings of the eyes, nose and mouth forming. The arms and legs are also quite well identified now, and your baby’s fingers and toes are starting to grow. Webbing is present between all the digits but will diminish as your baby develops.