What’s Happening With Mom?
Feeling puffy? All pregnant women retain extra fluid, giving many swollen ankles, and giving some the painful condition carpal tunnel syndrome.
In carpal tunnel syndrome, extra fluid compresses nerves in your wrists and can make your hands feel numb, tingly, or painful. It’s aggravating but the symptoms of carpal tunnel syndrome usually subside after birth.
Swollen feet and ankles don’t tend to cause as much pain, unless you count the heartache caused by cute shoes no longer fitting. Accept that comfortable, sensible footwear is on the agenda from now on.
Fatigue affects just about every pregnant woman. Your body is doing a lot right now, and the tiredness you feel is your body telling you that it needs to rest. Try to get as much rest and relaxation as you can – literally put your feet up to help with swelling and tiredness – and try to get your sleep.
What’s Happening With Baby?
(Picture supplied by 3D Sono Image)
Baby’s lungs, the last major organ to develop, start working this week, and baby practices breathing air by “breathing” the amniotic fluid. Surfactant, a lubricant to allow lungs to work in air and stops the insides sticking together, starts forming in baby’s lungs this week. If you were wondering where the oxygen baby needs is coming from, it’s actually in your blood that is pumping to your baby through the umbilical cord.
If your baby was born this week, it’s just about possible for your baby to survive outside the womb with a lot of help. It’s very risky for a baby to be born this early, and the best place for baby to stay is right where they are.
Tags: bloating, carpal tunnel syndrome, fatigue, footwear, lung development, premature delivery, Second Trimester, sleep, Surfactant, swollen ankles
