You are now five weeks pregnant
Week 5
Your developing body
If you can smell the perfume of someone on the other side of the office, or you suddenly go off your favourite chai tea latte it’s just one of many peculiar quirks of pregnancy. One of the first symptoms of pregnancy is a heightening of all your senses, especially smell. Many newly pregnant women report being able to smell their colleagues perfume (or worse) from the other side of the room and smells which they used to like now turn their stomachs. This is down to the increased amount of pregnancy hormones circulating around your body changing your reactions to smell and taste. You may also need to nip to the loo more frequently because your uterus is constantly enlarging (from plum-size before pregnancy to melon-sized at 40 weeks) and pressing on your bladder forcing you to make a midnight dash for the loo.
Your period was probably due around this week, so it's time to arm yourself with a home pregnancy test (or two) to discover if that funny taste in your mouth really does mean you are pregnant. Although you probably feel the urge to tell everybody you are pregnant (including unsuspecting strangers), most women wait until they reach three months and the chances of miscarrying dramatically decrease. Once your test confirms a positive result you can use our Due date calculator to work out when your baby is due – just make a note of the first day of your last period and how long your cycle usually lasts for.
Your developing baby
Your baby is about 2.5 cm long and has lost the little tail it had when it first developed. It now looks a lot more like a baby and even does jumpy movements from time to time. You won’t feel her moving for a while yet, but the physical changes your body is going through will remind you constantly that you are pregnant. If you could see the embryo at this stage you would notice a series of dark cells running down her back that will become her spinal cord. Make sure you keep taking those daily folic acid supplements to help prevent her from developing neural tube defects like Spina bifida as her spine forms. A bulge in the middle of the embryo is where the heart is beginning to form as well as other important organs such as the kidneys.
You are still in the early stages of pregnancy, but this is a crucial time of development for your baby. If you haven’t started taking Folic acid start today. It’s also best to steer clear of alcohol, caffeine and cigarette smoke.
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