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You won’t believe what’s going on in your little Einstein’s brain this week. Also, why on earth you’d wanna eat your placenta(!).
What’s Baby Natural up to this week? Oh, not much. Just adding billions of neurons to that beautiful brain of hers.
What’s baby doing with all that brain power? Dreaming! Scientists measuring brain activity have noticed different activity at different stages of sleep—including REM sleep, which is when we dream.
Baby Natural is filling out that beautiful bod of his too. Right now, baby’s around 2.25 pounds, and almost 15 inches from head to toe. With any luck, baby is settling into the perfect position for birth now.
What other tricks does baby have up her sleeve this week? Batting those pretty little eyes of hers. Yes, baby is blinking now!
Swelling and fluid retention are responsible for so many wonderful changes in pregnancy. Cankles? Check. Moon face? Check. Rings that no longer fit on my sausage fingers? Check. Snoring? Check-o-rama.
I realized that my swelling had reached new heights when my husband gently suggested that I try using those anti-snore strips at night. You know, the ones that go around the bridge of your nose? I looked like a pro football player as I hit the sheets that night! (But, for what it’s worth, it did seem to help.)
So yeah, don’t be surprised if you get sinus congestion like I did. Other women report feeling like they are always congested, and others feel like they have water in their ears.
Here’s a list of some other wonderfully weird pregnancy side effects.
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Will you eat your placenta? During my first pregnancy, my answer was, “No thanks!”
But during my second pregnancy, things had changed. I’d seen way too many positive stories from moms in my community.
Low breastmilk production. GONE. Fatigue and soreness. NOPE. Weakness and slow recovery. NO MORE. I even heard stories of postpartum depression disappearing.
As a natural mama, I had to give it a whirl.
While placenta consumption sounds archaic and maybe even bloody, most consume it in the form of dried placenta powder in capsules—called encapsulation. Some prefer to put small chunks of it in their morning smoothies, while others make decadent chocolate truffles with this special ingredient. I decided on placenta encapsulation. See my doula Deb do the encapsulation from start to finish in this video.
The great thing about placenta encapsulation is that you can increase or decrease your dosage easily, or stop altogether. And this organ, which nearly all land mammals consume in the wild, can be a real life-saver if you have a history of hormonal imbalances, depression, and low breastmilk supply (for 2nd-time moms).
However, my experience with consuming my placenta was a little bit unusual. Read the full story here.
Dig deeper into these hot topics for your 28th week of pregnancy!