What to expect when you're expecting (46 page)

Avoid alfalfa and other sprouts, which are often contaminated with bacteria.

Stick to pasteurized dairy products, and make sure those that you use have been refrigerated continuously. Soft cheeses, such as imported feta, Brie, blue cheeses, and soft Mexican-style cheese made from unpasteurized milk, can be contaminated with listeria (see
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) and should be avoided by pregnant women, unless heated until bubbly. Domestic cheese is almost always pasteurized except for those made from “raw milk.”

Hot dogs, deli meats, and cold-smoked seafood can also be contaminated. As a precaution, even ready-cooked meats or smoked fish should be heated to steaming before eating (use them in casseroles).

Juice should be fully pasteurized, too. Avoid unpasteurized or flash pasteurized juice or cider, whether it’s bought at a health food store or a roadside stand. If you’re not sure whether a juice is pasteurized, don’t drink it.

When eating out, avoid establishments that seem to ignore basic sanitation rules. Some signs are pretty obvious: Perishable foods are kept at room temperature, the bathrooms are unclean, it’s open season for flies, and so on.

Drive yourself to the health food market, but don’t drive yourself crazy. Though it’s smart to try to avoid theoretical hazards in food, making your life stressful in the pursuit of a natural meal isn’t necessary. Do the best you can—and then sit back, eat well, and relax.

From Conception to Delivery

C
ONGRATULATIONS, AND WELCOME
to your pregnancy! Though you almost certainly don’t look pregnant yet, chances are you’re already starting to feel it. Whether it’s just tender breasts and a little fatigue you’re experiencing, or every early pregnancy symptom in the book (and then some), your body is gearing up for the months of baby making to come. As the weeks pass, you’ll notice changes in parts of your body you’d expect (like your belly), as well as places you wouldn’t expect (your feet and your eyes). You’ll also notice changes in the way you live—and look at—life. But try not to think (or read) too far ahead. For now, just sit back, relax, and enjoy the beginning of one of the most exciting and rewarding adventures of your life.

Week 1
The countdown to baby begins this week. Only thing is, there’s no baby in sight—or inside. So why call this week 1 of pregnancy if you’re not even pregnant? Here’s why. It’s extremely hard to pinpoint the precise moment when sperm meets egg (sperm from your partner can hang out in your body for several days before your egg comes out to greet it, and your egg can be kept waiting for a day for the sperm to make their appearance).

What isn’t hard to pinpoint, however, is the first day of your last menstrual period (LMP, which you’re having right now—so mark the calendar), allowing your practitioner to use that as the standard starting line for your 40-week pregnancy. The upshot of this dating system (besides a lot of potential for confusion)? You get to clock in two weeks of your 40 weeks of pregnancy before you even get pregnant (how’s that for a head start?).

Week 2
Nope, still no baby yet. But your body isn’t taking a break this week. In fact, it’s working hard gearing up for the big O—ovulation. The lining of your uterus is thickening (feathering its nest for the arrival of the fertilized egg) and your ovarian follicles are maturing—some faster than others—until one becomes the dominant one, destined for ovulation. And waiting in that dominant follicle is an anxious egg (or two, if you’re about to conceive fraternal twins) with your baby’s name on it—ready to burst out and begin its journey from single cell to bouncing boy or girl. But first it will have to make a journey down your fallopian tube in search of Mr. Right—the lucky sperm that will seal the deal.

Your Baby, Month 1

Week 3
Congratulations—you’ve conceived! Which means your soon-to-be baby has started its miraculous transformation from single cell to fully formed baby boy or girl ready for cuddles and kisses. Within hours after sperm meets egg, the fertilized cell (aka zygote) divides, and then continues to divide (and divide). Within days, your baby-to-be has turned into a microscopic ball of cells, around one fifth the size of the period at the end of this sentence. The blastocyst—as it is now known (though you’ll almost certainly come up with a cuter name soon)—begins its journey from your fallopian tube to your waiting uterus. Only 8½ more months—give or take—to go!

Week 4
It’s implantation time! That ball of cells that you’ll soon call baby—though it’s now called embryo—has reached your uterus and is snuggling into the uterine lining where it’ll stay connected to you until delivery. Once firmly in place, the ball of cells undergoes the great divide—splitting into two groups. Half will become your son or daughter, while the other half will become the placenta, your baby’s lifeline during his or her uterine stay. And even though it’s just a ball of cells right now (no bigger than a poppy seed, actually, but a lot sweeter), don’t underestimate your little embryo—he or she has already come a long way since those blastocyst days. The amniotic sac—otherwise known as the bag of waters—is forming, as is the yolk sac, which will later be incorporated into your baby’s developing digestive tract. Each layer of the embryo—it has three now—is beginning to grow into specialized parts of the body. The inner layer, known as the endoderm, will develop into your baby’s digestive system, liver, and lungs. The middle layer, called the mesoderm, will soon be your baby’s heart, sex organs, bones, kidneys, and muscles. The outer layer, or ectoderm, will eventually form your baby’s nervous system, hair, skin, and eyes.

Make the Pregnancy Connection

Log on to whattoexpect.com—your interactive pregnancy companion. Just fill in your due date, and you’ll get weekly reports on your baby’s growth and development, plus access to useful tools like the Pregnancy Planner and Baby Name Finder. Connect with other moms on the message boards, create your own blogs and profile pages, and make new friends!

Pregnancy Timetable

Though most women count their pregnancies in months, your doctor or midwife will do the calculations in weeks. And that’s where things can get a little tricky. The average pregnancy lasts 40 weeks, but because counting begins from the first day of your last menstrual period (LMP)—and ovulation and conception don’t take place until two weeks after that (if your periods are regular)—you actually become pregnant in week 3 of your pregnancy. In other words, you’ve already clocked two weeks by the time sperm meets egg. This may sound very confusing, but as your pregnancy progresses and you experience pregnancy milestones traditionally marked by weeks (baby’s heartbeat heard with Doppler around 10 weeks; the top of the uterus reaches your belly button at 20 weeks), you’ll start to make sense of the weekly calendar.