Your Pregnancy Week-by-Week - 7 Weeks Pregnant

7 Weeks Pregnant 

New brain cells form rapidly

Your baby is now about a quarter of an inch tall, about the size of a blueberry. Sounds pretty diminutive still? For a little insight, imagine this: Your infant is 10,000 times heavier today than she was a month earlier at conception.

 Much of the development is concentrated in the head at 7 weeks pregnant (the easier to store all those smarts) as new brain cells are formed at a rate of 100 per minute. For a young genius, how's that?

7 weeks pregnant is how many months?

If you're 7 weeks old, so you're in your second month of pregnancy. There are only 7 months left to go!. 

Baby's arms and legs start developing

And all about buds, this week your baby is going to go out on a limb. Her arm and leg buds start to sprout and grow longer and stronger, separating into leg, knee and foot segments and wrist, arm and shoulder segments, even though at this early stage the limb buds appear more like paddles than hands or feet.

Baby's got kidneys

The mouth and tongue of your baby are also growing this week. The kidneys are now in place and are poised to begin their critical waste treatment work. Your baby will begin to develop urine soon. Lucky for you, you don't need diapers yet. 

Your Body at Week 7

Know the signs

And if you don't tell someone that you're pregnant yet, your baby will probably tell you. Not in so many words, but so many signs of pregnancy. Like the nagging pregnancy sickness or all the extra saliva pooling in your mouth (am I drooling?) that follows you around day and night. 

Then you definitely can't ignore the other early pregnancy warning, particularly when you're struggling to button your blouse over your ever-growing breasts (are these mine?). 

Your swollen breasts

Your breasts look more like melons, even though your baby is the size of a blueberry. At 7 weeks pregnant, some women have developed a full cup size, which might be welcome news if those breasts weren't so uncomfortably tender, tingly and achy. The perpetrator? Once again, certain naughty-but-needed fertility hormones, estrogen and progesterone.

In the coming months, the areola, the dark region around the nipple, has now grown darker and larger and will begin to develop and intensify in colour. 

You'll find tiny goose-bump-like patches on the areola as well. These bumps are sebaceous glands that provide the areola with lubrication, called Montgomery's tubercles. 

And if you're curious why all these changes are occurring, here's your answer: they're all key to your newborn's vital breastfeeding mission in around 33 weeks! 

Coping with food aversions

You're in fine company if you look at a chicken breast sending you out the door these days, or if the scent of Swiss cheese makes your digestive tract yodel with agony. Not only are pregnancy food aversions very common, but they are also often very confusing, especially when unexpectedly your once-favourite food leaves you cold and feeling nauseous.

The best advice: By all means, appeal to your new tastes. Keep your meals plain and dull, find alternatives for things that you have an addiction to, dream about protein quinoa if you can't bear the sight or scent of beef. Crystallized ginger is a godsend if your nausea is quite bad and seasickness bands can really help if morning sickness has turned into all day sickness. If however you find yourself bed ridden with nausea and vomiting it is time to see a doctor as there are medications that can help with extreme morning sickness.