Discover the Early Pregnancy Signs and Symptoms

At first it seemed like getting pregnant would be mission impossible, and then all of a sudden—boom!—you were pregnant. After you're done with difficulties of getting pregnant, you'll find that pregnancy is a time of wonderment and discovery. During the first trimester, you may suffer from morning sickness from time to time, but this is just a part of being pregnant and you tend to find being pregnant really thrilling!

But the first trimester, especially if it's your first pregnancy, can seem like a wilderness. What do you need to know about fetal development, pregnancy weight gain, and pregnancy diet, for instance?

"Cramps Pregnancy"

Of course, there's the old saying: GIYF—Google is your friend. You can try googling "cramps pregnancy" or "5 weeks pregnant" and see what comes up. Or, you can read all about early pregnancy right here on http://www.pregnancy-info.net/ without having to guess a lot of tricky search engine parameters.

So, let's start with fetal development. Here we outline the development of the fetus during the first two weeks of the first trimester. At this time, you may not even be aware you're pregnant, since you haven't yet missed a period:

Day 1: Sperm enters an egg to form just one cell that is smaller than a grain of salt. Each parent donates 23 chromosomes to create each detail of this new human's development: gender, hair texture and color, eye color, height, personality, skin color, emotional tendencies, and a host of other inherited characteristics.

Day 3-4: After being fertilized, the egg begins to divide at a rapid pace during the time it travels from the fallopian tube to the uterus. Prior to this event, the uterus spent two weeks readying the uterine lining for receiving a zygote.

Days 5-9: The process of implantation takes place and the zygote finds a home within the uterine lining (endometrium). The zygote implants in the lining and begins to draw nourishment from the endometrium.

Days 10-14, Week 2: The tiny one-celled creature now splits into two different sets of cells. One set of cells will become the placenta which is responsible for nourishing the fetus. The other set of cells becomes the fetus. Chemicals and hormones contained within the placenta prevent menstruation.

Five Fingers

That's just the first two weeks of conception. By the time you are five weeks pregnant your embryo will have grown from the size of a grain of salt to the size of a raspberry. He will now have five fingers and since pigment is now produced, his eyes will begin to darken. Nine months may seem like a long time, but the process is really quite rapid.

For this reason, you should already be following a pregnancy diet that will lead to a healthy pregnancy weight gain, even during your first trimester. Morning sickness can make it hard to gain weight during the first trimester but it's essential that you avoid losing weight now. You should gain at least some weight to maintain a healthy, safe pregnancy.

By the time you give birth, if you are of average size, you should expect to have gained 25-35 pounds. If you were on the heavy side when you conceived, the weight gain should be more conservative, somewhere in the range of 15-25 pounds. But if you were thin before pregnancy, you need to compensate and gain somewhere from 28-40 pounds.

But Rome wasn't built in a day and baby can't be, either. The pregnancy weight gain, while steady, will be a great deal less in the early days of your pregnancy compared to the final months. You may gain 3-5 pounds and unless you weigh yourself, you probably won't notice this small weight gain. You may notice your breasts have grown in size. Most of the first trimester weight gain is seen at your bust line.

If you have experienced cramps, it's normal that you might fear you were about to miscarry and understandable that you might race to your computer to find whatever you can on the subject of "cramps pregnancy." But it's quite normal to have cramps during early pregnancy. The cramps may feel much like period cramps. In fact, most women suspect they're getting their periods when they have early pregnancy cramps.

The cramping is due to a number of causes, such as implantation, the uterine lining preparing to receive the zygote, and hormone fluctuations. There may be spotting at this time which adds to the confusion. It really does seem like the start of your period. The difference is in the amount of blood (very light), its color (pinkish brown), and duration (no longer than 2-3 days). If you have these symptoms and you're late getting your period, it's a good idea to take a pregnancy test.