Pregnancy Week by Week

The magic transformation often starts with your breasts feeling sore. Then you find yourself needing to pee all the time. Weren’t you supposed to get your period a couple of days ago? Now you start to think. Could you…possibly…be…? A tingling feeling of expectation starts to arise. You can feel it in your spine. Now you almost burst with curiosity. You start googling for early pregnancy signs. Sore breasts, tick. Needing to pee, tick. No period, tick. You decide to wait. If you still haven’t got your period within a week, then you will buy yourself a pregnancy test.

Pregnancy Test

A week has gone by and then, suddenly you walk into a pharmacy. You stop, hesitate, and look a little lost. Then you start to wonder, which test is best? You can feel your heart beating. You quickly grab a digital test and hurry over to the cash register.

Should you do it now, or tomorrow? No chance in the world that you can wait. You pull apart the packaging, quickly browse through the instructions and then you pee on the stick. Then you sit there, with the stick in your hand, and don’t dare to open your eyes. After what seems like an eternity (a minute) you slowly open one eye. Then the other. The word PREGNANT hits you like a physical sensation. You can read the word, but not comprehend it. You read through the instructions again and compare your test with the illustrations. Slowly it starts to sink in. Bang! That’s the start of a completely new and groundbreaking journey.

What happens week by week during pregnancy?

About now, in the fifth week of pregnancy, the embryo is the size of a sesame seed. You may start to feel fatigued. This is a natural effect of changes in your hormone balance and you also become extra sensitive. No wonder! There is so much going on in your belly. The embryo’s lungs have already begun to develop, and the buds that will grow into your baby’s arms and legs begin to sprout. The spinal cord, which until now has been completely exposed, will now become sealed and the first blood cells and blood vessels are developing. The heart, so far just a small tube, is already hard at work. The embryo will, over the next few weeks develop into a fetus, your baby, with all basic cells to the organs, already in place.

Week ten! The little something in your belly is now officially a fetus in medical terms. This early in the pregnancy, before you’ve had an ultrasound or listened to the baby’s heart, it often feels surreal that a life is growing in your belly. In the eleventh week, the fetus is barely five centimeters long crown-to-rump, about the size of a prune.

At the end of the 13th week, the first trimester is behind you and you enter the second trimester. Generally speaking, this is when the biggest risks of pregnancy loss have passed. Tiny bones are beginning to form and he or she can move the arms and legs in a jerky fashion. Even fingerprints, which the baby will carry through his/her entire life, have already formed. The facial features have begun to appear, but the eyes are closed. It starts to look like a little human being.

From around week 14, the fetus can grab, move its eyebrows, and frown. He or she may even get the thumb into his or her mouth. Hearing develops in week 15 and the fetus becomes aware of his or her surroundings. One may think that life in the womb is just quiet and calm. Yes, of course, it's quiet, but it’s far from silent. The fetus can hear the flow of your blood and how your bowel is rumbling. He/she can also hear when you sneeze, cough, burp, or laugh. The baby becomes aware of your voice early on.

The 20th week comes around and half the pregnancy is completed, congratulations! The belly starts to bulge, and you may feel your baby moving. Your amazing belly secret finally starts to show – which means it’s not a secret anymore.