Pregnancy Week by Week
Your baby grows from a poppy seed to a pumpkin in forty weeks. This timeline tracks every milestone — what your baby looks like, what is happening inside your body, and what to expect at each stage of your pregnancy.
Week by week
First Trimester (Weeks 1–12)
Second Trimester (Weeks 13–26)
Week 40 of Pregnancy: A Pumpkin, and Your Due Date
Week 40 is the classic due date — though it's genuinely just one point in a normal range, as our own earlier arrival made clear to us firsthand.
Week 39 of Pregnancy: A Mini Watermelon, and Officially Full Term
Week 39 is officially full term for most pregnancies — by this point, our own daughter was already a week and a half old, and we were adjusting to life at home.
Week 38 of Pregnancy: A Leek, and What's True If You're Still Waiting
Week 38 usually means the baby's organs are essentially ready for the world — for our own daughter, that moment had already come a week earlier.
Week 37 of Pregnancy: A Winter Melon, and the Week Our Daughter Arrived
Week 37 is considered early term for most pregnancies — for us, it was the actual week our daughter was born, sooner than we'd expected.
Week 36 of Pregnancy: A Romaine Lettuce, and Confirmation She Was Head-Down
Week 36 is often when the baby settles head-down into the pelvis — for us, a routine appointment confirmed exactly that, and all was well.
Week 35 of Pregnancy: A Honeydew Melon, and Managing Mild Swelling
Week 35 often brings swollen hands and feet — for me it was mild, and propping my legs up while sitting made a real difference.
Week 34 of Pregnancy: A Cantaloupe, and Manageable Back Pain
Week 34 often brings backache as a standard third-trimester symptom — for me, it stayed mild, and side-sleeping with pillows made the real difference.
Week 33 of Pregnancy: A Pineapple, and the Week the Itching Finally Eased
Week 33 is when the skull stays deliberately soft for birth — for me, it was also the week the itching genuinely started calming down.
Week 32 of Pregnancy: A Jicama, and the Week Medication Doubled
Week 32 is when Braxton Hicks practice contractions often start — for me, the bigger news was my ICP medication being doubled, and it helped.
Week 31 of Pregnancy: A Coconut, and a Genuinely Uncomfortable Week
Week 31 was the hardest week of the itching for me — scratched, sore, and waiting on another round of tests while the medication was adjusted.
Week 30 of Pregnancy: A Large Cabbage, and the Week We Got a Diagnosis
Week 30 is when my test results came back — elevated liver enzymes causing the itching, a pattern doctors call intrahepatic cholestasis of pregnancy.
Week 29 of Pregnancy: A Butternut Squash, and the Week I Mentioned the Itching
Week 29 brought the usual third-trimester tiredness, plus a decision that mattered more than it seemed at the time: mentioning worsening itching to my doctor.