The First Trimester

The First Trimester ...

THE FIRST TRIMESTER:

Conception to 14 Weeks

MONTH 1
What's Going On:
Doctors date a pregnancy — which lasts an average of 40 weeks — beginning with the first day of your last period. In a typical 28-day cycle, it’s about day 14, or week three, by the time sperm even meets egg. The uterus has already formed a lush bed of tissue, and within hours of fertilization, gender, eye color, even the texture of your baby’s hair have been set. Your little zygote — the term used to describe a fertilized egg in the first four days — will divide into identical cells as it travels through the fallopian tube and into the uterus — home for the next 36 weeks or so. Implantation triggers the production of HCG, human chorionic gonadotropin, the hormone that turns your pregnancy test positive and your life upside down. The production of estrogen and progesterone is stepped up, and the uterus decides to hold on to its precious cargo. By the end of week four, you may miss your period or experience only some slight spotting.

MONTH 2
What's Going On:
You’re officially hooked up to your child. The placenta and the umbilical cord are fully functioning by week five, passing oxygen and nutrients between you and your baby. The fluid-filled amniotic sac (your ’water’) has formed around the new embryo, which is what your baby will be called until about 10 weeks’ gestation. Its poppy-seed-size heart is beating, and the other major organs are forming. Your cervix is tightly closed now, and your uterus is slowly enlarging to the size of a peach. You may even notice your waistline expanding a bit, but you can’t blame that on the baby yet. You’re bloated due to pregnancy hormones and the fact that your digestive organs are functioning slower than usual.

MONTH 3
What's Going On:
Your embryo is now a fetus, and its presence will be confirmed once again when your obstetrician begins to pick up its rapid heartbeat on a sound-wave stethoscope called a Doppler. Between weeks 12 and 14, your baby will grow to three or four inches in length, weigh a little more than an ounce, form bones, grow finger- and toenails, and sprout tiny buds in its gums. These will become those baby teeth that keep you up at night for the next few years.

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