Week-by-week Pregnancy Guide: Weeks 1-4

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By Lauren Ferranti-Ballem

Your Body

For the first few weeks of this month, you may have confused the early signs of pregnancy with PMS for the period that never came. Breast tenderness and fullness, bloating and cramping, moodiness, food cravings, fatigue and even spotting (harmless implantation bleeding that happens when the fertilized egg fuses to the uterine wall) are typical of the early days of pregnancy, as estrogen and progesterone soar to prep the body for the next nine months. Congratulations, you are pregnant! While there are no outward signs yet, your body is working very hard, so focus on treating yourself well: Relax and get as much sleep as possible, eat well and exercise, do things you enjoy and try to keep stress levels in check. Start your pregnancy countdown from the first day of your last menstrual period. Think of it as a head start – you’ve clocked two weeks of pregnancy before your egg and his sperm even met.

Your Baby

He’s smaller than a grain of rice, but your baby is developing rapidly. His heart, neural tube (brain and spinal cord), digestive tract and sensory organs are forming, while limb buds and spots for the eyes begin to emerge.

FYI

If you haven’t already, start taking a daily prenatal vitamin with folic acid. Weeks five through 10 are crucial to brain and spinal cord development, as is this B vitamin – 1mg of folic acid a day can help significantly reduce your baby’s chance of developing neural tube defects.