Your teeny tiny miracle pear

Fetal development in pregnancy week 3

Embryo in first month

Although your belly is still the same size and shape as it was pre-pregnancy, a plethora of amazing and dynamic changes are taking place despite this fact. Right now your little zygote is already 1.5 – 2.5mm in size. This is quite a change from the microscopic pack of cells you had just two weeks ago. Your microscopic little one is already composed of three complex “germ” layers: the ectoderm, endoderm and mesoderm. Although you could hardly see them at this point, these layers are the beginnings of your baby's nervous system and brain, stomach and inner organs, and skeleton and connective tissue. Your baby is also starting to take on recognizable physical dimensions somewhat comparable to a very tiny pear. The round part of the pear will eventually become the head and the pointy part will be the spine. Perhaps the best part of this week is that somewhere around the 21st day, your miraculous little pear will have a beating heart, although the heart chambers and valves will not be completely developed for another couple weeks.

And how's mom doing? You may be expressing many of the same symptoms as last week: fatigue, swollen breasts and frequent urination. This is to be expected and is nothing to worry about. Don’t panic if you gradually lose some of the symptoms, or trade one set of symptoms for another-- this is also totally normal. Many Calcium is an essential vitamin during the pregnancy as your body will strip calcium from your bones to build the bones of your baby if you don’t have enough supplemental calcium in your system doctors recommend starting a prenatal vitamin early on in the pregnancy. Yep, now is the perfect time to begin! For those of you with lactose intolerance, practicing vegans and vegetarians, as well as women with a history of substance abuse, chronic disease, or the minority who are expecting twins (or more!), you are in even higher need of a prenatal vitamin to supplement and fend off the all-too-easy nutrient deficiencies you're prone to experience in your pregnancy. Calcium is an essential vitamin during the pregnancy as your body will strip calcium from your bones to build the bones of your baby if you don’t have enough supplemental calcium in your system. This is also a critical reason older women are so much more prone to osteoporosis: they simply didn't get enough calcium during their child-bearing years. Contact your primarey health care giver or local health food store nutritionist to identify the correct vitamin(s) for you and your baby.