Week Two Of Pregnancy

Week 2 Of Your Baby’s Development!

Unlike the first week when not much was actually happening with your baby (in fact, you were not actually yet pregnant), Week 2 is where things start to get interesting! This is when the egg is fertilized, thanks to one of the millions of sperm that swim from your vagina to your cervix and through to the fallopian tube. Once the sperm gets there, it merges with the egg. The nuclei in both the sperm and the egg combine and this will determine the gender of your baby. If the sperm comes with an X chromosome, you have a baby girl and if it has a Y chromosome, you have a boy.

The fertilized egg moves to your uterus and on the way, it divides into 16 cells. Once in the uterus, the zygote (that’s what the fertilized egg is called now) burrows into your uterus lining.

A quick note: Your baby is born 38 weeks after fertilization takes place but it is fairly impossible to say exactly when this happened. That’s why your delivery date is calculated by factoring in the first day of your last menstrual period, a date that you can be fairly sure of.

Week 2 Of Your Health, Mind & Body Changes!

By the time Week 2 of your pregnancy rolls by, there are many internal changes that are taking place, yet not much is showing physically. It’s not until further along (more commonly 4 weeks and onwards) that pregnancy starts to become obvious in your body. Some women coast along until they start ‘showing’ before they even feel pregnant or experience any bodily changes, while others begin to get a ‘feeling’ before they’ve even realised they missed their period!

Here is what you could expect in the coming weeks:

Tender breasts: Your body is busy gearing up for the new baby and it is producing a lot of progesterone and oestrogen. This makes your breasts feel tender and heavy, significantly more so than they are during your monthly cycle.

Implantation bleeding: while any sort of irregular bleeding would usually have most women concerned, light spotting may happen when the egg is implanted into the uterus lining shortly after fertilization. Mention this to your doctor when you go in for a check- up, although it is quite a common occurrence.

Frequent urination: On conception, extra blood rushes to your kidneys and this increases urine production.

Dislike of food: Your digestive system is working a bit slower than normal and that means your stomach may feel full all the time. This is why you develop an aversion for food.

Mood swings: The fluctuation in your hormones makes you feel super elated at times and really depressed minutes later. Mood swings can be dramatic indeed but they are quite normal in early pregnancy.

Week 2 Of Your Next Steps!

Even though it’s still  early days, now that you are ‘officially’ pregnant, you should start making the right choices to give yourself and your new baby the best care during pregnancy. Consult your doctor about any lifestyle changes that may be necessary especially if you are a heavy drinker or you are addicted to caffeine.

You may also want to chat to your doctor about your activity levels and your exercise regimen, especially if you travel a lot or you are a sports person. But remember, pregnancy is not an ailment and at this early stage you’ll probably find avoiding things that you do normally is just not necessary. In fact, it is in your baby’s best interest for you to maintain an active, healthy lifestyle during pregnancy. As a general rule, if you are fit, active and healthy you can continue to maintain many of your lifestyle activities, with some adaptation under your doctors advice.