Now that you are pregnant you are going to want to keep track of your pregnancy. By starting a pregnancy calendar you will be able to keep track of your baby's development during your pregnancy and the changes that you are experiencing. When you visit the doctor for the first time, he will give you an expected delivery date.

This date is calculated from the first day of your last period and counted to 40 weeks. Remember that this is only an estimated due date, if you do give birth on this date, your baby will have been born at 38 weeks because the calculation is from the first day of your last period. Most babies are born between the 38th and 42nd week of pregnancy.

Trimesters

Your pregnancy will be divided into trimesters, the first trimester is week 1 thru week 12; the second trimester is week 13 thru week 26; and the third trimester is week 17th until you give birth. The first trimester you are hardly going to believe that changes that you and your baby are going to go through. By week 5 your baby's heart will almost be fully formed and you will be able to hear it beating. This is the time that the major organs develop like the nervous system and the brain.

Just one week later and your baby will have a head and a trunk. And the brain that started developing just the week before can now be recorded on an electroencephalogram. This week limb buds will begin to develop for the arms and the legs.

And let's don't forget the changes that are occurring in your body, there are the fun days of morning sickness, headaches, your breasts become sore, and you may even experience the ups and downs of your emotions caused by the hormone surges brought on by pregnancy.

By the 13th week, your morning sickness should be almost gone if not completely, and your baby can smile, his or her eyes will move closer together and the ears are moving out to their normal spots. The vital systems are developed now and your baby is going to be growing around an inch a week from here on out.

By the 16th week your baby will have fingernails and will be able to move his or her arms and legs. You will start feeling your baby kicking you and now you will be able to learn if you are carrying a boy or a girl if you have an ultrasound done.

These are all wonderful experience that you can record in your pregnancy calendar. Your calendar can be put in your baby's scrapbook to keep forever. A written memory to preserve this special time in your life and the life of your baby.

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