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Week Three
Published 02.22.2008 | Permanent Link | Comments (3)
Your baby is:
- A rogue band of cells, a'huntin' and a'feudin' and rapidly dividin' while traveling the wilds of your fallopian tube, headed towards the uterine promised land.
- About the size of the head of a pin.
- Possibly already the cutest thing you've ever seen.
You are:
- Still pretty clueless.
Welcome to the two-week wait! This is the mind-numbingly annoying stretch of days between ovulation and peestick time.
Let's just get the nonsense out of the way: Exercising won't knock the baby loose. Drinking a margarita (or hell, plural margaritas) before you know you're pregnant won't make your baby's brain grow inside out. Sleeping on your side/back/stomach won't cause/prevent a miscarriage/ectopic pregnancy/a baby with flippers.
The human race? We are actually a fairly hardy bunch. We existed for many many years without early result pregnancy tests and six-week ultrasounds and Folic Acid supplements. Obviously, stuff happens -- and many times that stuff gets dealt with very early on in life in the form of a spontaneous miscarriage, but there's very little YOU can do at this point to sway the outcome. So pop a prenatal vitamin, take a swig of whatever beverage you damn well feel like swigging, cross your fingers and hope for the best.
And this goes for anyone who already knows they're pregnant and is now scouring through the earlier weeks in a panic because of "something" they did wrong before they knew. That hour in the hot tub...that fall on the icy sidewalk... the vodka shooters at your friend's bachelorette party. Did I hurt my baby?
I was right up there with the Best of the Neurotics during my first pregnancy. Every twinge and cramp meant hours of worry and fretting. I checked the toilet paper for blood every time I went to the bathroom. A fall down some stairs at a restaurant brought me to hysterical tears and sent me to bed for the rest of the day. And you know what? It didn't change anything, except that all my memories of early pregnancy are colored with a lot of stress and fear. I went on to give birth to an honest-to-God tank of a baby, and to wish that someone had just slapped me early on and told me to CHILL OUT.
So my goal for this pregnancy is to do just that: CHILL OUT. And to remember that not everything is within my control, that Every Bad Thing cannot be avoided by obsessing over fruits and vegetables and low-mercury fish alone, and that expecting the worst does not make The Worst hurt any less if it happens. So...deep breath...enjoy it, Self. (As much as you can enjoy something that makes you so gassy and tired and bloated.)
And for any pregnant woman joining me along the way over the next 30-odd weeks or so, hopefully I will be the written-word equivalent of that slap in the face. You chill out too! That's an order! Look at how chilled out I am! Eeeeeeeee!
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About this column
Zero to Forty is a week-by-week guide to the miracle of pregnancy and all the various indignities that come with it. The calendar follows the forty-week model and is complete for now, though the author plans to come back and add some more articles soon.
The follow-up to this column, Bounce Back, is about the postpartum experience -- the good, the bad and the gory. There Amalah is covering everything that happens to your body, mind and circadian rhythms after you have a baby, and (hopefully) help you make sense of the New Normal. You must go read that too!
The column is well-researched but not written by a health care professional. Consider it your internet BFF pregnancy guide. See our legal disclaimer below.
About the author
Amy Corbett Storch, aka Amalah, is a freelance writer and professional blogger from Washington, DC. She has since had this baby. His name is Ezra, he was born in October of 2008 and is delicious. Amy's first son Noah is in preschool and he's pretty edible too. NomNomNom.
Amy also writes Alpha Mom's Advice Smackdown.
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The Zero to Forty masthead and illustrations were created by the artist Brenda Ponnay aka Secret Agent Josephine. Brenda is very talented and these images are copyright-protected. You should hire her!
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Comments (3):
Anonymous said:
Thanks for the blog. This is really the first website that descibes how I feel. :) - Rachel
Posted on January 18, 2009 10:43
susie said:
Regarding the folks who just figured out they're pregnant at 5, 6, 7 or more weeks (i.e. me), think about it this way: If you just found out you're pregnant, then obviously all those bad things you did before you found out didn't cause a miscarriage or your pregnancy test wouldn't have been positive! Now I can't say that will prevent worry over fetal alcohol syndrome (although I'm not sure if it's called that if it's not a fetus yet) or flipper babies, but there's no use beating yourself up over something you did before you knew. All that will do is put you and your baby under unnecessary stress.
Posted on May 3, 2009 13:50
Melissa said:
Love this. I am trying now, had a glass and a half of wine last night and felt like a bad mother. Thank you, Amy!
Posted on September 1, 2009 10:47