Welcome, little bean
Here’s what happens during your first trimester of pregnancy.
You’re pregnant! Congrats – this is both an unbelievably special moment, and one that’s totally ordinary. It should come as a comfort to you that while this may be your first time pregnant, there are billions of women who have gone before you.
The first thing to remember about pregnancies is that each is unique – our founder Jane Anne had 14 children and tells us that none of her pregnancies were the same. There are, however, some things you can predict. Most women experience similar things at similar stages, and you can expect your baby to grow and develop at predictable periods.
The first trimester begins at the official date of conception, which oddly enough is counted from about two weeks before you actually conceive. That’s because doctors count from the date of your last period – you’ll have ovulated and conceived about two weeks after, but there’s no way of knowing exactly when.
What happens to your body?
During the first trimester, your baby’s development is at its most visibly startling, developing from a cluster of cells into something that looks pretty much human in a matter of weeks.
That takes a lot of effort – and hormones – on the part of your body. While most women won’t start to show until the second trimester (and a bit earlier if this isn’t your first pregnancy), many women feel very pregnant very quickly – bloat can look a lot like a pregnancy belly.
Some other symptoms you may experience are:
- Feeling really tired
- Sore and swollen breasts and nipples
- Morning sickness (that actually appears around the clock!)
- Food cravings or aversions
- Mood swings
- Constipation
- Needing to pee more
- Headaches
- Indigestion
- Weight gain or loss
Such glamour! But don’t worry – this is only a short-lived period in your pregnancy. It gets easier. The best way to manage it is to stay as healthy as possible. Eat and sleep well, and get as much gentle exercise as you can manage. That means you may need to go to bed earlier, cut out foods that make you queasy, eat smaller meals more frequently, and shift away from high-impact exercises to walking, swimming, and yoga. For many women, morning sickness peaks in weeks 8 and 9 and then will begin to taper off – along with their other symptoms – as they head into the second trimester (counted from 12 weeks).
What’s going on in there?
Your baby is getting busy! These early weeks are when your baby is building all the components of its body. By week 12, your baby will look like a person (just with odd proportions).
At four weeks, your baby is still called an embryo. At a teeny tiny 0.5cm long, your baby has already begun work on its brain, spinal cord, and heart. Four little buds have sprouted, which will eventually become legs and arms.
By week eight, your baby is 2.5cm and is now officially a fetus. All major organs are under development (hello, tiny lungs) and the heart has begun to beat. Little details are underway too – fingers and toes (with minuscule nails!) sex organs and facial features.
The end of the first trimester is marked by the beginning of week 12. At this point, your baby is about 7.5cm long, with nerves and muscles that work together (which is why some parents catch their little one sucking a thumb on scans!) Eyelids close and won’t open again until about week 28. If you could peer inside, you’d see that your baby looks quite a lot like… a baby! The head, however, is still a lot bigger in proportion to the body and the arms and legs are still quite short.
What happens next? Read about your second trimester here.
