pregnancy | week by week

The tip of a pen

Your Baby's Size =

Week 5: Your Baby’s Taking Shape

Your baby’s circulatory system starts to develop.

After weeks of rapid cell development, your baby’s taking on a more distinct form.

Here’s what’s happening inside:

• Your baby’s heart and circulatory system take shape -- a bulge indicates where his heart is developing. By the end of the fifth week of pregnancy, your baby’s earliest blood vessels form.
• Around the fifth week of pregnancy, your baby’s heart begins to beat and might be visible on an ultrasound.
• The umbilical cord replaces the yolk sac. The umbilical cord works with the placenta to bring nutrition and oxygen to your baby and remove waste.
• Your baby’s reproductive organs begin to develop internally at five weeks, though they likely won’t be visible until about week 14.
• At five weeks, your baby is the length of the tip of a pen, about 1/17 inch, and growing rapidly every day.

Get Grainy

Simple switches make for better health.

Focusing on whole grains is one easy way to boost nutrition during pregnancy.

A few easy ideas:

• Trade white bread for whole-grain bread. This simple switch adds more fiber to your diet and increases your intake of magnesium and chromium. Additionally, you’ll get more zinc, copper, vitamin E and vitamin B6.
• Trade sugary cereals for whole-grain cereals, white rice for brown rice, and traditional pasta for whole-wheat pasta. 
• Try wild rice or barley in soups, stews, casseroles and salads.
• Look for products that list whole grains (such as whole-wheat flour) first in the ingredients list