If you’re pregnant or have a pregnant family member this thread is for you. It is a very very very long thread so bookmark it and grab a drink. This Week By Week Guide for you to understand what is happening inside you until the day your bundle of joy is delivered. Pregnancy is the period between when a woman conceives up till when the products of the conception comes out of her. The desire of every mother is for her pregnancy to reach the end and produce a healthy baby. It is thus imperative for you to know what to expect as it concerns your body and the baby in you. Every pregnancy is unique and you should know that the information provided is a guide that is based on estimates from studies.   Pregnancy is divided into 3 basic time frames medically called trimesters: • First trimester - week 0 - 12 • Second trimester - week 13 - 27 • Third trimester - week 28 - 42   FIRST TRIMESTER Week 0 - 4 The first 2 weeks of pregnancy is counted despite the fact that the baby has not yet formed. It is the period during which a woman prepares for getting pregnant. Week 1 starts from the first day of your last menses. The womb sheds its lining as it does every month but this time something magical will happen.   By the second week, your womb will start getting prepared to house a baby. Ovulation (release of egg) occurs at the end of the second week and this is the beginning of the window for which fertilisation occurs.   Fertilisation occurs in the third week. The "lucky" sperm fertilises your egg and genetic materials are mixed to form your baby. Your baby's gender is determined by the chromosomes in the father's sperm. So it is the man that decides the baby’s gender not the woman. Men out there that are punishing their wives for “giving them” only one gender, it is your fault if any. If 2 eggs are released and are fertilized by two separate sperm, fraternal twins (di-zygotic) have been conceived. Fraternal twins can be the same sex or different sex but will not look identical. If one egg is fertilized and later divides into two, identical twins will develop (or divides into three, identical triplets will develop, etc). Identical multiples have the same chromosomal make-up so will be the same gender, and have the same hair/eye colour, blood type, etc.   By the fourth week, a pregnancy test will show a positive result 💃🏽💃🏽💃🏽 or 🥲🥲🥲 depending on whether you want the pregnancy or not. You may start to feel bloated, crampy, tired, moody, experiencing sore breasts, nausea/vomiting and a frequent need to pee. However a good number of woman do not show any symptom at all. But if you are carrying twins or more, then your symptoms will be amplified. The common denominator if you pay attention to your body is that you will notice that your period has been delayed! This is the time you either get happy, anxious or panic As for your baby this is the period of implantation. Your baby is medically referred to as a blastocyst at this stage. It will look for a good spot in your womb and take its roots there. It will then form two groups of cells - one group forms the baby and the other group forms the placenta.   Physically, there is nothing yet that will show in a woman's body for her to know that she's pregnant within the first 4 weeks. It is important to state here that women intending to get pregnant should be on a daily dose of folic acid. Stop smoking, drinking of alcohol and use of drugs that are not prescribed by your doctor. Exercise more, eat more fruits and vegetables This is called pre-conception care and it can help reduce the risk of your child having birth defects. 1/5