Ready or Not: The First Trimester

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How you may be feeling. The emotional challenges of the first trimester. The top 10 worries of expectant parents. How your baby is growing

Ready or Not: The First Trimester

Perhaps you have known a Ms. Perfect Pregnancy—a friend or coworker who felt so well during her pregnancy that she never missed a single aerobics class, got grumpy with her partner, or bolted out of an important meeting because she couldn't stomach the smell of coffee. Although women like these do exist—and heaven knows they make their presence known to the rest of us—most pregnant women feel somewhat less than euphoric about the mind- and body-morphing that occurs during the first few weeks of pregnancy.

As you've no doubt discovered by now, pregnancy is one of life's greatest levelers. No matter how fit you are, how painstakingly you planned your pregnancy, or how much you want to be a mother, you could very well find yourself being sideswiped by the powerful hormonal cocktail your body needs in order to grow a baby.

That doesn't mean, however, that you have to be a slave to your pregnancy, abandoning your career aspirations or your relationship with your significant other in favor of sleep and soda crackers. In this chapter, we'll show you how to manage the smorgasbord of pregnancy symptoms that usually make their presence known just about the time your pregnancy test comes back positive, confirming in pink and white that you're on the road to motherhood, ready or not.

How you may be feeling

Although the symptoms of early pregnancy vary tremendously from woman to woman—and even from pregnancy to pregnancy—most women can expect to experience one or more of the signs of early pregnancy listed below.

Note: It's possible that you may be experiencing some aches and pains that are normally associated with the second or third trimester.

"All of the pregnancy books I read described the early signs of pregnancy as being much more prominent than mine were. I searched book after book to find one that said, 'Some people don't have any early symptoms.' As a result, I didn't really believe I was pregnant until I saw the first ultrasound of my baby.
—Susan, 29, pregnant with her first child"

Cessation of menstrual periods

A missed period is often the first sure sign of pregnancy for women with highly regular menstrual cycles. Although it's possible to miss a period for other reasons—in times of high stress, for example—the most common reason for a woman of childbearing age to miss a period is pregnancy.

Spotting

Spotting is common after an internal exam—a reason why many health-care practitioners are reluctant to perform internal examinations during the early weeks of pregnancy when the cervix is most prone to bleeding. It can also occur after intercourse if the penis happened to bump against the cervix, causing the tender cervix to bleed slightly.