Pregnancy Week By Week – Week 7

As a first time to-be-mother, pregnancy was a completely new experience for me. I had a lot of questions and was fondling to understand the changes taking place in my body. I was equally worried about the growth of my baby inside my womb.

With this blog series, “Pregnancy Week by Week”, I hope to extend a helping hand to all expecting parents by telling you about my journey.

There might be some things that you would be able to relate to and would even give you solace to know that someone went through the exact same thing as you. Hope I’m able to help!

Disclaimer – This is entirely my personal experience. The intent of the blog is not to advice but only to share. Any medication, medical examinations, dietary intake or exercise, mentioned in this blog, were prescribed as per my pregnancy and my body. Please do not perform these without consulting your medical adviser.

Pregnancy Symptoms

I am now in my 7th week of pregnancy and my pregnancy symptoms have only intensified. Instead of passing gas flatulently, I have been vomiting air.

Though the intensity of nausea and puking varies from day to day and even throughout the day, for sure, both mornings and evenings are the worst. 

Towards the end of 7th week, morning sickness had become a routine. But it’s good in a way as it removes uneasiness for sometime and I was able to get on with my office work.

I have been taking shots of two hormonal injections – HUCOG 5000 IU and Proluton Depot 500 mg. These are intramuscular injections that are administered on the buttocks. Both these hormonal injections were given after my bleeding episode in the previous week to prevent loss of pregnancy.

Apart from these two hormonal injections, I was also taking an oral hormonal medicine called Duphaston, twice a day.

Proluton depot injection contains progesterone, a hormone which an expecting mother’s body should be producing on its own. Similarly, HUCOG contains hormones that support pregnancy. Duphaston, again has a female hormone that helps support pregnancy by thickening the lining of the uterus.

Since these medicines contain hormones, I feel these might also be adding to my pregnancy symptoms. I spoke to my OB-GYN about this and she said that these hormones are a drop in the ocean compared to what the body is already producing. Hence their contribution to pregnancy symptoms would have been minimal.

Another addition to nausea, fatigue and vomiting air, has been food and smell aversion. The moment I talk about food, I feel like puking. In fact, as I’m writing this blog I’m feeling nauseous, just discussing this topic.

To help reduce nausea, I would usually eat before or after others have had their meal. This would help lessen the intensity of smell at the dining table. I would also sit very often in my balcony, where I could breath fresh air and no random cooking fragrance.

Weight Loss In Pregnancy

Most women lose 1-2 kg in the first trimester. As of now, I’ve already lost over a kilo because of my nausea and food aversions.

I want to keep a tab on how much weight I’ve lost because shedding too many kilos at this time is not really preferred. 

However, I have been prescribed supplements by my OB-GYN to keep my body nourished with necessary nutrients. These supplements include calcium, folic acid and vitamin D.

Anticipation

Despite all these symptoms and weight loss, medically my pregnancy was still not confirmed.

As you would recall from the blog post of Week 6, I had a vaginal bleeding episode in week 6 of pregnancy. While the doctors had confirmed presence of a zygote in my uterus, pregnancy was not 100% confirmed as the baby’s heartbeat was yet to come. This is only heard in the later part of the third trimester.

This waiting period was very hard for me. It was adding mental stress to my already physically stressed body. It would only be in the next week that we would get to know if the pregnancy is confirmed.