Pregnancy guide - first trimester

Month 3: pregnancy hormones

You: As pregnancy hormones flood your system, you may find your emotions are haywire and you could feel very tired. Go to bed early if you want to and don’t be afraid to whinge or cry.

For many women, this can be one of the hardest stages of pregnancy, no matter how overjoyed you may be at being pregnant. Tiredness can feel overwhelming, and if you have decided not to tell many people until after three months, it’s difficult to explain why you’re not quite yourself. If you usually have a few cups of coffee to perk you up at work, but you’ve limited your caffeine intake or cut it out completely, it’s that much harder to stay focused. The journey into work may feel more of a strain and you might find that you need a lot of early nights. So if you need to and you can, take time off work. If your body is telling you to take it easy, you really should listen to it. This tiredness will ease in your second trimester.

As you near the end of your first three months of pregnancy, your uterus is about the size of a grapefruit. You may have also started to develop a small but distinct bump, although for lots of women this doesn’t appear until later.

Your baby: Weighing around 28 grams (1 oz), your baby now has wiggling fingers and toes and even tiny fingerprints. From week 10, your baby will more than double in size, and he is now swallowing and kicking, too. All of his major organs are fully developed, even though by the end of week 12, although fully formed, he is still only the size of a Satsuma.

At your three-month stage, you and your baby will go for a first scan. It is here that the hospital will recommend you a midwife, if you haven’t got one already. Different hospitals offer different types of scan, but the most common is an ultrasound scan to check whether the foetus is alone or one of twins, triplets or more. You may be able to opt for a nuchal scan. This measures fluid at the back of your baby’s neck to help assess the risk of Down’s Syndrome or other chromosomal conditions. It is not a diagnostic test it simply estimates likelihood. Ask your GP or midwife for more details. Your next scan, at around the 20-week stage, will be more in depth and will check that your baby is developing normally. Remember, before your three-month scan is complete, ask for a first picture of your little one!