Invisible Changes During the First Trimester
There are so many amazing things that happen to the body when someone gets pregnant.
By 8 weeks gestation, your heart is working 20% harder than it was before, and will eventually reach an increased output of 40%. Your blood volume will also eventually increase by 50%, so your heart needs to work really hard pump all that blood around even though progesterone is actually working to relax your heart muscle. This keeps it all in balance and is why pregnant people don’t often high blood pressure, and in fact often feel dizzy or lightheaded because they more often will have low blood pressure.
People often begin peeing more frequently as well, and that’s connected to this rise in blood volume and the pregnancy hormone hCG. With the increase, the kidneys need to work process more extra fluid so you’ll pee more often.
Morning sickness, or all the time sickness, is often quite common in early pregnancy and although there isn’t a definitive reason why, it’s often connected to the increase in progesterone. To put it in reference to your menstrual cycle, progesterone is actually the main reason for PMS. The progesterone level increase occurs the 5 days before your period and peeks around 3 days before, and can make people feel crummy, hangry, sick and just yucky. And if you got constipated before your period, you can thank progesterone for that too, and you might also be experiencing some more constipation now.
We love progesterone, it stops our uterus lining from shedding so we can stay pregnant, but like I mentioned before it does relax all of our striated muscles like our heart, GI tract and even lunges. If you’re feeling out of breath or your breathing feels different, it’s another golden sign of your body doing exactly what it needs to do.
Also, don’t expect to have any bump until week 22, 24, 26 of your pregnancy. You might be able to see one poking out before then, but I usually try to set the expectation that you won’t really ‘look’ pregnant until your pregnancy is half over, around the middle of your second trimester. Enjoy all the belly-less sleep, sex and mobility while you can.
There are so many amazing things that happen to the body when someone gets pregnant.
By 8 weeks gestation, your heart is working 20% harder than it was before, and will eventually reach an increased output of 40%. Your blood volume will also eventually increase by 50%, so your heart needs to work really hard pump all that blood around even though progesterone is actually working to relax your heart muscle. This keeps it all in balance and is why pregnant people don’t often high blood pressure, and in fact often feel dizzy or lightheaded because they more often will have low blood pressure.
People often begin peeing more frequently as well, and that’s connected to this rise in blood volume and the pregnancy hormone hCG. With the increase, the kidneys need to work process more extra fluid so you’ll pee more often.
Morning sickness, or all the time sickness, is often quite common in early pregnancy and although there isn’t a definitive reason why, it’s often connected to the increase in progesterone. To put it in reference to your menstrual cycle, progesterone is actually the main reason for PMS. The progesterone level increase occurs the 5 days before your period and peeks around 3 days before, and can make people feel crummy, hangry, sick and just yucky. And if you got constipated before your period, you can thank progesterone for that too, and you might also be experiencing some more constipation now.
We love progesterone, it stops our uterus lining from shedding so we can stay pregnant, but like I mentioned before it does relax all of our striated muscles like our heart, GI tract and even lunges. If you’re feeling out of breath or your breathing feels different, it’s another golden sign of your body doing exactly what it needs to do.
Also, don’t expect to have any bump until week 22, 24, 26 of your pregnancy. You might be able to see one poking out before then, but I usually try to set the expectation that you won’t really ‘look’ pregnant until your pregnancy is half over, around the middle of your second trimester. Enjoy all the belly-less sleep, sex and mobility while you can.