How your baby is growing this week
Cherry size — 0.9 inches. Muscles forming and baby is making tiny movements you cannot see yet. Heart is fully formed with 4 chambers. Fingers and toes separating from webbed buds.
What your partner is going through
Progesterone slows the entire digestive tract. Bloating, gas, and constipation are daily battles. She may look 4 months pregnant from bloat alone. Exhaustion is crushing — growing a placenta takes massive energy.
What to focus on this week, dad
- 01Grocery Ops: stock high-fiber foods — prunes, whole grains, leafy greens, chia — and plenty of water. Progesterone slows digestion to a crawl, and constipation is a real quality-of-life issue right now.
- 02Protect her sleep. First-trimester fatigue is the deepest of the whole pregnancy, so take the early alarm, the dog walk, and the late-night chores and let her rest — sleep is the only real fix.
Connect with your partner
Tell her she is doing an incredible job growing a human. She cannot see the baby, her body feels terrible, and she has no visible proof to show for it. Verbal acknowledgment matters.
Source: ACOG
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