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Follow the progress of what is happening in your body and with your baby throughout each month of your pregnancy.
What's Happening In My Body?
Month One
During the first month, you often don’t even know you’re
pregnant. It’s not until you miss your first period that you begin to
suspect. You may feel tired, your breasts may be tender, and you may urinate
more frequently.
Month Two
During the second month, your uterus will
begin to expand and, if this is your first pregnancy, it will be about as
big as a tennis ball. With subsequent pregnancies, your uterus will become
larger earlier in your pregnancy. Some women feel occasional nausea or morning
sickness during month two and you may respond with stronger emotions than usual.
Pregnancy hormones may cause mood swings. You may feel very tired this month
and next, but this will pass by the beginning of the second trimester.
Month Three
During the third month, you will begin
to settle into your pregnancy and later this month, you will begin to feel
less tired because your heart will be better adjusted to pumping more blood,
25 percent of which now goes to the baby. Your uterus will be about the
size of a grapefruit when you touch your abdomen. You will begin to gain
weight and your clothes may begin getting tight. By the end of the third
month, the risk of miscarriage and birth defects will be over because the
critical period of early organ development will be passed.
What’s Happening To My Baby?
Month One:
During
the first month, Your baby is a microscopic fertilized egg that is dividing
again and again, forming a ball of cells with separate layers that will grow
into your baby’s body. A yolk salk nourishes your
baby until all major organs have formed. At the end of one month, your baby
will be about the size of a small pea and will weigh less than one ounce.
Month
Two:
The central nervous system and all the body systems of your baby start
to form at five weeks but will take months to fully develop. From now until
the twelfth week the baby is susceptible to birth defects. The controlled
environment of the amniotic fluid surrounds the baby by six weeks. Your
baby’s face, eyes, ears and mouth are all forming during the second
month and brain cells are growing. By the end of the second month, the
placenta begins to grow. The baby, now officially called a fetus, is about
one inch long and still weighs less than an ounce.
Month Three:
The baby
now has teeth buds, and the soft cartilage of the skeleton has begun
to turn into bone. The nose, eyelids, eyebrows, eyelashes, nails, and skin
are formed. By the third month, the whole body of your baby is covered
by a downy hair called lanugo. Your baby can now roll over in the amniotic
fluid, open and close her mouth, swallow, make a fist, smile, and squint.
The heartbeat of your baby is growing stronger. By the end of the 12th
week, the external genital organs of your baby are formed and recognizable.
The baby has finally reached one ounce in weight and is now about the size
of a walnut.
What's Happening In My Body?
Month Four:
During the fourth month, your appetite will begin to increase
again, and you may find yourself craving certain foods. You may have to urinate
more frequently during the night. Despite these changes, you feel a new calmness
- you’re
becoming accustomed to pregnancy.
Month Five:
The risk of miscarriage is past. Morning
sickness subsides and your appetite continues to increase. You may even have
a decrease in your need to urinate as your body adapts to pregnancy.
Month
Six:
You will now feel distinct fetal movements, especially after you palpate
your abdomen, eat, drink a cold beverage, or walk for five minutes. You
may even feel some achiness in your lower abdomen. You will notice that your
skin pigmentation darkens to form a line between your belly button and
your pubic area. By the
sixth month, you finally look pregnant. Your skin may itch as it stretches.
You may feel sharp twinges on the sides of your belly as the ligaments
that supportyou’re your uterus expand. Surprisingly, you may also
take more pleasure in sex. Your breasts will begin to produce colostrum,
the baby’s first milk.
What’s Happening To My Baby?
Month Four:
Your baby weighs about five ounces and is between 2 and 3 inches
long, just about the size of the palm of your hand. The head is out of
proportion to the body. And, while it’s not possible to tell yet if
your baby is a boy or a girl, he or she does have ears and eyes now.
Month
Five:
The baby is about 4 inches long now. The growth of the baby’s
body is now catching up with the head. Fingers and toes are well defined.
This is the month you may feel the first fetal movements and will be
able to detect the baby’s heartbeat.
Month Six:
The baby is very active
now. He can turn head over heels and kick. He has periods of waking and
sleeping. He hiccups, and can suck his thumb. His eyes open, close, and
blink. Already, a baby girl’s
ovaries are completely formed and contain her lifetime supply of eggs.
Male sperm changes every 90 days,
but it’s not present until adolescence. Hair
has begun to grow on the baby’s head, and white eyelashes have
appeared. He is covered with a thick covering of vernix, a white, creamy
substance that protects your baby’s skin before
birth. At six months, your baby is about 8 to 10 inches long and weighs
between 1 and 1.5 pounds.
What's Happening In My Body?
Month Seven:
You feel good during this month. You have a hearty appetite,
and may feel less moody and more in the groove of your pregnancy. Your baby
will be moving around a lot, and you may notice that your belly itches. You
may also have breast tenderness and leg cramps while you sleep.
Month Eight:
During month eight, you may experience shortness of breath as your uterus
presses on your diaphragm or ribs. You may have heartburn and indigestion
as your uterus puts pressure on your stomach. As the baby grows larger, you
may have a hard time finding a comfortable position in which to sleep. Pressure
on your bladder may make urination more frequent.
Month Nine:
By month nine,
you’re wondering if your pregnancy will
ever be over. You may have a few Braxton-Hicks contractions, light contractions
in which the top of your uterus tightens and releases in preparation for
labor. These may happen more after you have been sitting for a while or
if you overdo it. You will be feeling the baby’s strong, regular
movements, but he may become quieter as the birth approaches. Your ankles
may swell due to the increased pressure within your abdomen, the decreased
blood return from your legs and feet, and the effect of the hormone progesterone,
which relaxes the walls of the blood vessels. Your lower back may ache
from the increased weight of your uterus. By this time, the top of your
uterus is right under your rib cage and presses against your lungs, while
the bottom of your uterus puts pressure on your cervix as the uterine muscle
begins to soften. Hormone production in the placenta prepares the uterus
for labor contractions and also ripens the cervix. During the last weeks
of pregnancy, there will be less amniotic fluid and the placenta will grow
less efficient in anticipation of the upcoming birth. At 35 weeks, the
baby fills all of the space in your uterus and has usually settled into
a head-down position. The baby will move down into your pelvis about
two weeks before birth. You may be able to breathe easier as there is less
pressure on your lungs and stomach, but there will be greater pressure
on your bladder. You’ll need to urinate very frequently, and sleeping
will be even more challenging. Your breasts increase their production
of colostrum, the early milk for the baby, and the connecting tissue
in your pelvis relaxes.
What’s Happening With My Baby?
Month Seven:
The baby is about 13 inches long and weighs 2 to 3 pounds.
The baby is covered with thin, translucent skin and has hands about one
inch long. She is adding body fat and is beginning to practice rudimentary
breathing movements in the uterus.
Month Eight:
Your baby weighs between 4
and 6 pounds and is about 16 to 18 inches long. Her skin now has fat stores
and her liver is storing iron. However, her lungs, digestive and heat control
systems have not yet matured. The bones of your baby’s head are soft
and flexible. She may respond to pain, light and sound.
Month Nine:
Your baby
is now about 18 inches long and 5 to 7 pounds, with hands about two inches
long. His sucking reflex is mature and his lungs and heart are almost ready
to function outside of the womb. Brain growth accelerates, and the baby
can see and hear. He has lost most of the lanugo, the downy hair covering his
body, and is now covered by a thick, creamy protective coating called vernix.
He is less active and is gaining immunities from the mother to protect him
after he’s born.
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