6 Weeks

So I’m a little over 6 weeks now, don’t have time to update right this second but I will later…How your baby’s growing: The cells that will make up all of your baby’s body parts and systems are dividing furiously as her body begins to take shape. Right now she’s about the size of a small lentil bean (4 to 5 millimeters across). If you could see through your uterine wall, you’d find an overlarge head and dark spots where her eyes and nostrils are beginning to take shape. Shallow pits on the sides of her head mark her developing ears, and her arms and legs appear as protruding buds. Her hands and feet look like paddles, with thick webbing between the developing digits, but her fingers and toes will soon become more distinct. Below the opening that will later be your baby’s mouth, there are small folds where her neck and lower jaw will eventually develop. (Inside, her tongue and vocal cords are just beginning to form.)

Your baby’s heart (which is starting to divide into the right and left chambers) is beating about 100 to 130 beats per minute — almost twice as fast as yours — and blood is beginning to circulate through her body. Her intestines are developing and tiny breathing passages are beginning to appear where her lungs will be. She’s also starting to build muscle fibers and, halfway through this week, she’ll likely start moving her tiny limbs. Unfortunately, you’ll probably have to wait until you’re several weeks into your second trimester before you get to enjoy feeling your baby’s calisthenics.

Note: Every baby develops a little differently — even in the womb. Our information is designed to give you a general idea of your baby’s development.

How your life’s changing:

  If you haven’t already, you may soon find yourself riding pregnancy’s emotional roller coaster, feeling moody one day and joyful the next. Disturbing as this may be — especially if you pride yourself on being in control — what you’re going through is completely normal and will probably continue throughout your pregnancy. Up-and-down emotions are partly caused by fluctuating and (in many cases) very high levels of hormones. But hormones aside, your entire life is about to change — and who wouldn’t feel emotional about that?

Spotting (finding spots of blood on your underpants or toilet tissue after urinating) or bleeding is common in early pregnancy, but sometimes it can be the first sign of miscarriage. If you have any spotting or bleeding, call your doctor or midwife right away so she can determine whether your spotting indicates a potential problem.

Breakfast of champions "My prenatal vitamins made me sick, so my doctor gave me a prescription for fruit-flavored, chewable prenatal vitamins and suggested I take them with meals. They really helped." — Janice

Surprising Facts: Could it be twins?

Sure, twins run in families and you’re more likely to be carrying multiples if you’ve undergone fertility treatments, but any woman can become pregnant with more than one baby. Could you be one of them?

Your overall odds of carrying twins

• Your likelihood of having twins is about 1 in 32 (or about 3 percent) and your chances of triplets and higher multiple births is about 1 in 555. About 95 percent of all multiple births are twins.

• Identical twins happen by chance and aren’t influenced by family history or fertility treatments. Only about 12 percent of twins born in the U.S. are identical. Your likelihood of having identical, or monozygotic, twins (when one fertilized egg divides in half) is about 1 in 250.

Factors that influence fraternal twins

• Fraternal twins run in families, so if you’re related to twins, you’re more likely to have a set yourself. Your partner’s family history doesn’t appear to affect your odds of having twins.

• Fertility treatments dramatically increase your odds for multiples. On average, 20 to 25 percent of women who take fertility drugs or undergo in vitro fertilization and other reproductive techniques end up carrying more than one baby.

• The older you are, the greater your chances of having fraternal twins or higher multiples. This increase has nothing to do with infertility treatments. Researchers aren’t sure why but think it may have something to do with hormonal changes in older moms.

• Fraternal twins are more common in African Americans and less common in Hispanics and Asians.

• Being well nourished increases your chances of having twins and being malnourished decreases your chances.

• The more pregnancies you’ve had, the greater your chances of having twins. In fact, by your fourth or fifth pregnancy, your likelihood o

f having twins is four times higher than it was for your first pregnancy.

• Once you have a set of fraternal twins, you’re twice as likely to have another set in a future pregnancy.

Symptoms of a twin pregnancy
The most common symptom for women carrying twins is rapid weight gain early in pregnancy. Measuring large for your stage can be another giveaway. And many twin moms-to-be (but not all) suffer much more intense morning sickness and other pregnancy symptoms due to the increase in hormones caused by two babies.

If you have a hunch you’re carrying twins, ask your caregiver for an ultrasound. Ultrasound is almost foolproof at confirming twins.

• Some parents make a difficult choice: to "selectively reduce" the number of fetuses in a pregnancy with more than two. What would you do?

This Week’s Activity:
Set up a prenatal vitamin reminder system. Put your vitamins in a pillbox that has compartments for each day of the week. If you can’t remember whether you took your vitamin, check the appropriate compartment. Put the pillbox by your toothbrush so you’ll see and remember it each night when you brush your teeth.