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Week Nine
Published 03.18.2008 | Permanent Link | Comments (9)
Your Baby:
- Is about the size of a grape, or perhaps a cocktail olive, the kind that's marinated in vermouth and stuffed with blue cheese.
- (Is not marinated in vermouth or stuffed with blue cheese.)
- Has fingers and toes and eyelids and ears.
- External boy and girl-parts are present, but won't be really distinguishable for another couple weeks.
You:
- Have a uterus the size of a flipping grapefruit, lady.
- *BARF* Again. Still.
- With all the extra blood pumping through your system (about 50% more blood volume, actually), your body temperature may be a little jacked up -- if you're constantly complaining about being too hot or too cold, this is why.
You may have gained some weight already (that was me, two weeks ago), or you may have lost some weight (that's me, now). Here's how your weight gain should pan out over the next seven months or so, at least according to your average pregnancy book or website:
12 pounds: Maternal stores (fat, protein, Cheezits, etc.)
4 pounds: Increased fluid volume, aka water weight, aka blooooaaaat
2 pounds: IN YOUR BRA
2 pounds: Uterus
2 pounds: Amniotic fluid
1.5 pounds: Mmmmmplacenta
7.5 pounds: Baby! ("HA!" says the woman who birthed a 10-pounder.)
So that means the average pregnancy book thinks you should gain no more than 31 pounds total. Otherwise, you are a big fat fattie who ate her weight in Cheezits because she thought pregnancy gave her a free pass. YOU FAIL PREGNANCY!
The truth is, weight gain in pregnancy varies WILDLY from woman to woman, just like our "normal" weights and metabolisms vary. Some women can eat and eat and eat and still gain weight in line with the guide above, while others seem to balloon up no matter how healthy and reasonable their diets are. It's all about genetics (ask your mom how much she gained), your pre-pregnancy level of fitness and metabolism, and also just some random streaks of luck. Sometimes weight gain will vary for the same woman over different pregnancies.
Obviously, we all want to eat healthy and make sure our babies are getting all the right nutrients and none of us want to struggle with 20 extra pounds of "baby weight" for the next 20 years. It does feel nice to indulge in that entire pint of ice cream or box of cookies, but blah blah blah moderation.
You know what? Just do your best. It'll be enough, I promise.
Oh Yeah, THIS: The hair on my legs and other...ahem...areas is growing alarmingly fast. That is all.
New This Time Around: Ages and ages ago, before I ever had any babies, I was that girl who was always cold. Always! I took a sweater everywhere in case of air conditioning, and I'd get goose bumps from having the car windows down in 80-degree weather. And then I got pregnant and ACK! HOT! ALWAYS SO HOT! I couldn't sleep under the covers and was always sweaty and OF COURSE I was pregnant during some of the hottest temperatures Washington, DC had seen in years. I've bordered on being "too hot" ever since.
This time I am so freaking cold I cannot stand it. I need more blankets and flannel pyjamas and I can make grown men scream with the slightest poke of my corpse-like ice-cold feet. The temperature was in the high 60s the other day and I wandered around with my teeth chattering. Bah.
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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. New installments will be published on Wednesdays, with other pregnancy-related content and ramblings to be published whenever the columnist can stay awake long enough to type themzzzzzz.
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 is currently knocked up with her second child, due in October. Her first child is still currently wearing diapers. Amy is currently wondering what she has gotten herself into now.
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 (9):
Ida said:
I tend to be a cold pregnant person as well which was awful last time since I had my son in March. This time being due in October I can only think that it will be a plus.
Posted on March 19, 2008 12:40
sarawr said:
Don't forget that some weight gain comes from that extra blood volume -- at least, that's what my doctors and pregnancy books told me. That way, when I faced my 45-pound pregnancy gain I could wave it away with, "But a lot of that is just extra blood for THE BABY." Of course, it really only accounts for a couple of pounds, but ssshhh.
(Apologies if this goes through twice -- I posted it a couple of hours ago but don't see it now.)
Posted on March 19, 2008 12:50
WabiSabiLife said:
Oh. I guess all that extra blood explains the night sweats I've gotten 4 out of the last 7 nights. I hate waking up slick, throwing off the covers and being instantly frozen.
(I am officially five days ahead of this column--with my first--so this is fun readin'.)
Posted on March 19, 2008 13:05
Kate said:
I just wanted to say that for some people born in the 1970s, asking your mom for her weight gain may not be terribly accurate.
My mom, who was pretty much a stick in 1974, was told not to gain more than 20 lbs. Say WHAT?! Why, I don't know. What I DO know is that I was two weeks LATE and only weighed 6lbs 13oz. With my brother, who is 12 years younger than I am, she gained a much more realistic amount of weight (around 30 lbs) and he was born 3 days "early" at almost 8 lbs.
I had no such restrictions, gained in the low 30s. My 2 week overdue baby was 8 lbs 11oz.
My OB told me back in 2004 that the average US baby was weighing in at 8 lbs 2 oz, so more Cheezits for everyone!
Posted on March 20, 2008 13:41
psumommy said:
i'm a HUGE believer that the weight gain 'suggestion' is full of bull. And I completely subscribe to eating healthily, doing some mild exercise regularly, and just letting your body do what it needs to do. This is coming from someone who lost 5lbs in the first trimester with the first pregnancy, and now with the 4th has gained 13lbs and am just barely into my 2nd trimester. Sigh.
I'm absolutely freezing this time around, too. It's driving me insane! Too cold all day then too hot at night. Gotta love pregnancy.
Posted on March 20, 2008 15:22
Zoot said:
I gained 65lbs with kid #1, 50lbs with kid #2 and am on my way to 55lbs with kid #3 if my current trends are any indication. I spit on the "recommended" weight gain.
But, in the defense of the doctors that yell at me every visit, it's not healthy eating. It's anxiety eating.
Also - right now? I'm SWEATING MY ASS OFF and the thermostat says 60 degrees. So, um, yeah.
Posted on March 24, 2008 14:56
Amy Corbett Storch said:
Zoot, I totally had you in mind when I wrote this entry. You and the other pregnant mother at Noah's Kids At Play group, who gained 100 pounds with her daughter and is already up 35 pounds at four and a half months with her second. And I met her before this pregnancy, and she's the tiniest, most active (she's a swimmer) thing ever. This is just how her body does pregnancy, and obviously she can drop the weight afterwards.
In summary: stupid books and guidelines.
Posted on March 25, 2008 16:08
KlausHaus said:
I just want to make the comment that I love this zero to 40 side of things. I frequent another website which tracks the growth of the baby and it is just so uninspired, but THIS site is just spectacular. Each Wednesday morning, when I reach another week, I read aloud to my husband what you have here. It is so much fun, and not as scary.... Thank YOU for the weekly dose of inspiration. I also don't look ahead so that I'm surprised each week :)
Posted on May 15, 2008 18:35
alli said:
Please, please tell me when I can poop normally again! I NEVER had constipation when I was pregnant the first time. NEVER. And now, it is turning me into a witch with a capital B who is in pain that she is just not used to.
Posted on July 15, 2008 21:19