Pregnancy Month by Month
Published : 31/05/2024
Last updated: 01/06/2024
Month 1
Baby development:
During the first month baby’s head, brain, spinal cord, lungs and heart begin to form and the placenta also starts to develop. By the end of the first month their heart begins to beat.
Pregnancy development:
Bloating, mood swings, mild cramping, tender or sore breasts. sensitive to smells.
Tips:
Make prenatal appointments, Calculate your due date and start taking prenatal supplements.
Month 2
Baby development:
Their organs, muscles, bones arms and legs begin to grow. Their face is also developing, but the head is usually larger than the body.
Pregnancy development:
You might start feeling exhausted or tired, you’ll start urinating more, morning sickness might kick in, a bit of constipation and emotional fatigue.
Tips:
Try to sneak in some naps whenever you can.
Month 3
Baby development:
During the third month their arms, hands, fingers, feet, toes and ears are almost fully formed. Their genitals have started to form but it’s still to early to decide the gender.
Checkout the gender prediction myths here.
Pregnancy development:
Your food cravings start to develop and by now you should be able to hear their heartbeat in ultrasound.
Tips:
Plan healthy diet and do regular exercise.
Month 4
Baby development:
Babies have their facial features fully developed by now and can make faces. Additionally reflexes such as sucking and swallowing are developing too. Their gender should be identifiable around this time.
Pregnancy development:
You might start to notice very tiny movements – slight fluttering. Your sex drive will start to return and your waist will begin to expand.
Tips:
Now is a good time to sign up for prenatal classes.
Month 5
Baby development:
By now babies have their own unique fingerprints and footprints, has fully formed eyebrows, eyelids and can even suck on their thumbs.
Pregnancy development:
You’ll start feeling heartburn and constipation and feel good amount of baby movements. Your belly button may pop out and you start forgetting things -pregnancy brain.
Month 6
Baby development:
Babies can hear and respond to your voice and music around this time. They can now open and close their eyes and can do hiccups.
Pregnancy development:
Backache, leg cramps, bleeding of gums, hemorrhoids and vaginal itching are additional developments that are observed from here onwards.
Tips:
Gestational diabetes becomes positive around this time, get tested for it.
Month 7
Baby development:
By now their movement becomes more frequent and can make responses to sound, pain and light. Their taste buds develops by now. Their skin is wrinkled, red and translucent.
Pregnancy development:
You may start noticing Braxton Hicks contractions. As the baby grows and your skin stretches you may notice stretch marks.
Tips:
Time to start planning for your maternity leave and check your health coverage.
Month 8
Baby development:
Fat reserves start to fill in the wrinkled spaces of your babies skin. Their lungs are still developing but most other vital organs are fully developed. Most babies settle in an upside down position, ready to say hi to mama in person!
Pregnancy development:
You may feel some discomfort as the baby pushes into your ribcage. Indigestion and heartburn can become more intense.
Tips:
Time to start planning for your maternity leave and check your health coverage.
Month 9
Baby development:
Your baby’s lungs are now fully developed and their reflexes are coordinated so they can blink, close their eyes turn their head grasp firmly and respond to sound, light and touch.
Pregnancy development:
Sleeping becomes quite difficult due to your size and the baby slows down on movement due to tight space. Keep an eye out for water-break, painful cramps.
Tips:
Plan ahead and have your hospital bags packed, treat yourself to manicure or massage and get plenty of rest.
Bonus tip:
Install the baby car seat. Learn more about bringing the newborn home
