This is the week of your period. You are not actually pregnant yet, however, your doctor will calculate your due date based on the first day of your last period. If you are actively trying to conceive, you need to be keeping track of your menstrual cycle anyway, to know when to expect your ovulation.

It is smart to start taking the standard pregnancy precautions such as: No cigarette smoking, no alcohol, minimize your caffeine consumption and you will want to talk to your regular doctor about any medication you are currently on. If you take a daily medication, you need to figure out if you will need to change your dosage and/or type of medication, both to get pregnant and to not affect your pregnancy once you become pregnant. Please remember that you should never just stop taking a prescribed medication for any reason unless your doctor has instructed you to.

You will not feel any different at this point and there is no need to change your behavior beyond staying healthy and active. There are many variables at work at this stage, most of which you have little control over, so the most important thing is to carry on as usual, and not let the possibility of pregnancy consume you at this point.

You do need to be thinking about the life you will be bringing a child into. It is important that this is a decision that both you and your spouse make together. You also want to think about the fact that adding a child to your family is a life-altering event. Not much will remain the same once you make this choice. This is in no way meant to scare you – as I speak from experience that having children is one of the single greatest parts of life. It is more meant to make things real. Continuing in that vein, you also want to consider keeping your discussion of your intended pregnancy to a minimal number of people. Though it is great to have that sort of support, it can turn into a burden, if, for whatever reasons, it takes longer than expected to conceive or you do not make it past the first trimester.

You may want to start to consider some of the choices that lay ahead of you as well, as they will take some time to consider. For example, will you choose a mid-wife or an OB/GYN, will you breast feed or bottle feed, will you circumcise or not, etc.

Word of the Week

menstation •noun the periodic discharge of blood and mucosal tissue from the uterus, occurring approximately monthly from puberty to menopause in nonpregnant women and females of other primate species. (www.dictionary.com)

Buying Guide

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