Your Pregnancy Week-by-Week - 8 Weeks Pregnant

8 Weeks Pregnant

Baby's growing fast

Your child is rising at an extraordinary pace. This week, how's she measuring up? Your little one has graduated from blueberry-sized to raspberry-sized at a range of around 1⁄2 to 3⁄4 of an inch right now.

How high a baby is, though, has become a little more difficult to guess. While growth takes place at about the rate of a millimetre a day, it is not generally just in height. In the arms, thighs, back and other areas of that tiny body, spurts will occur, suggesting that in the next few months, major changes are happening everywhere. 

8 weeks pregnant is how many months?

You're in month 2 of your pregnancy if you're 8 weeks pregnant. There are only 7 months left to go! 

Baby's got lips, a nose and eyelids

At 8 weeks pregnant, what else is changing? A close-up view of your tiny embryo will show that your infant looks much less reptilian and much more baby-like.

 Her teeny digits and toes are now beginning to discern and her tail is nearly gone, even though she has webbed hands and feet. You'd see the upper lip forming, the tip of the adorable button nose protruding, and the short, very thin eyelids developing.

Heartbeats and movements

All of this development is also fun for your kid. How are you going to know? Her heart beats between 150 to 170 times a minute at an unprecedented pace, roughly twice as rapid as yours. And even though you can't see it yet, as she twitches her tiny trunk and limb buds, she is making involuntary motions now. 

The digs of your baby are getting deeper, too. The amount of amniotic fluid rises and your abdomen grows to accommodate its rising occupant. 

Your Body at Week 8

8 Weeks Pregnant blog the pod collection

Morning sickness

Although your babe is still not necessarily forcing you to reveal, chances are your clothes are feeling around the tummy a little tight. That's because, by week 8 of pregnancy, the uterus, normally the size of a palm, has grown to the size of a big grapefruit.

That's still pretty thin, admittedly. But while you may not look pregnant from the outside, on the inside, you almost definitely feel pregnant, particularly when those insides threaten to come out for the whole day.

Yeah, it's the infamous pregnancy rite of passage: morning sickness, but undoubtedly a man who never witnessed it was the guy who gave it such an inaccurate name. You know all too well that it will occur in the morning if you are among the approximate 75 per cent of pregnant women who have morning sickness, but it can last all day and all night.

Nobody knows what triggers the queasy sensation for sure, and does it matter when you're about to vomit your cookies today for the third time?  It may be due to the elevated amount of hCG and estrogen circulating in your body or the relaxing of the digestive tract muscles, due to rising progesterone levels or the accelerated stretching of the uterine muscles, causing digestion to be less effective.

Take heart, whatever the reason, your baby looks just fine even as you hug the bowl. Try to feed regularly, but just a little at a time, which can also help the body fight another stubborn woe coming soon: heartburn in pregnancy.

If you're still dealing with morning sickness, say, you've lost at least 5 pounds or can't hold it down for longer than eight hours, ask the doctor if you should take an anti-nausea treatment like Zofran or Cariban

The good news, however, is that nausea and vomiting generally subside in weeks 12 to 14, so hang in there, before you get some relief, just four to six more weeks!

Eating fruit during pregnancy

Fruit is still your mate, the sweetest abundance in nature not only includes vital vitamins and other nutrients that are healthy for you and your infant, but it also plays a crucial role in keeping you normal, please pass the prunes! 

More sweet news: while pregnancy aversions and nausea may prevent you from bellying up to the salad bar, the right fruit may stand-in for just about any vegetable you shun. For starters, when you can't stomach broccoli, opt for dried apricots.

A decent rule when it comes to fruits and veggies: brighter colours spell better nutrition (particularly on the inside). Pick your commodity by its "inner" rainbow hue, and you will find nutrients in gold worth their weight.