Experiencing your baby grow inside your womb is an experience that a mother always cherishes. Are you also excited to know about your baby’s kicks, when the fingers started growing and hair and nails start forming? Worried for your first ultrasound and waiting eagerly for your sonography results? Here’s Mamanbaba bringing for you a detailed account on what happens to you and your baby while you are giving life to another human. Swipe down for a detailed week-by-week explanation of all stages of pregnancy. Each stage brings new milestones and newer experiences for you to cherish and remember for the rest of your life. With your developing pregnancy, your baby is growing, becoming stronger and better while your body is busy keeping pace for the new life growing inside of you.
We present to you a calendar guide that helps you in keeping track of your pregnancy week-wise. This is the perfect place to find out what is going inside your body and why and how your baby is taking tiny steps of growth. So let’s dive into the knowledge of all the stages of pregnancy and get you familiar with all the experiences you are going to have during your duration of pregnancy.
First Trimester (0 weeks – 12 weeks)
During the first trimester, your body is in the initial stages of pregnancy and is preparing itself for what’s going to come in the next nine months. You might experience the early symptoms of pregnancy during this time – missed period, cramping, morning sickness etc. Your body might feel tired, and sleeplessness or oversleeping might become a habit. During the first trimester, your body goes through a rollercoaster of hormonal changes, and it might seem difficult to deal with them at first, but eventually, as you proceed further into your pregnancy these symptoms will ease-out, and your body will get used to them.
The first trimester or the initial 12 weeks of pregnancy are really crucial for the growth of your baby. During conception, the egg from the mother will combine with the sperm of the father to form a zygote that will eventually implant itself to the uterine lining. As cells begin to divide and grow, the zygote transforms into an embryo. This is the time that all of the major functioning organs of your baby begin to take form. By the end of the first trimester, the embryo grows upto 3 inches long and starts to look a lot like a human baby.
Second Trimester (13 weeks – 26 weeks)
During the second trimester, your body gets used to the early hormonal changes and makes its way around it. You are likely to get used to heightened nausea, morning sickness, constipation, frequent urination and other symptoms like stress and tiredness. At this stage of pregnancy, you might also start to develop round ligament pains. This usually happens as a result of the baby growing in size that creates pressure on the mother’s body. Your nipples might incur some changes and become sore, tender and sensitive. You might also encounter some stretch marks growing on your body while you feel your baby make the tiny movements inside your womb.
During this time, the baby goes through a lot of changes and grows about 12 inches long in size. The weight of the fetus goes from about 3 ounces to a pound or even more. Apart from the skeleton and major organs of the body, other parts will also develop like toenails, fingernails, eyelashes, hair, skin, eyebrows, taste buds and muscle tissue. The fetus now has a scheduled sleeping and waking up pattern. It can also hear the voices from outside the womb and starts practising swallowing.
Third trimester (27 weeks – 40 weeks until birth)
During the third trimester of your pregnancy, you will begin to feel the kicks from your baby. You might also get swollen feet. This is a result of the growing weight of the baby inside your womb that creates pressure on your feet as you walk. As the baby grows in size, it creates pressure on the bladder, which might result in a feeling of frequent urination. You might also start to experience the leaking of milk from your breasts. You might also incur heartburn, insomnia, mood swings and anxiety about the delivery, baby’s health and upcoming life of parenthood.
During this trimester of your pregnancy, the baby grows about 18-20 inches long and weighs approximately 7-8 pounds. Most of the organs of your baby’s body have been completely formed by now. The lungs are not fully developed during the start of the third trimester by they grow by the delivery. During this time, the baby usually takes a head-down position in order to prepare for birth.
