Moving through pregnancy often raises some tricky questions. In fact, sometimes there just seem to be too many. There are often some common questions like - do you gain weight the first trimester of pregnancy and similar questions. What can I say - read on and we’ll try and help you with this one.

Recapping; Do you gain weight the first trimester of pregnancy? Is a common question among expecting mothers so we thought we could offer some insight on this.

When you are pregnant, you have to be careful with a lot of details if you want to have a healthy baby (and of course you want this!). One of this is the weight you have to gain during pregnancy. If you are an expecting mother, you probably know that an adult normal-weight woman must gain something between 25 and 35 pounds, by the ninth month. You must also know that you have to gain weight mainly in the second and in the third trimester, but many of you ask yourselves: do you gain weight the first trimester of pregnancy?

The first trimester is the beginning of this important journey that is pregnancy. Even if it won’t get obvious that you are carrying a baby from the outside, you will feel different and you will notice many changes in your body. These include breast changes, you will urinate more often, you may be much more tired than usual, and you may have nausea, heartburn, headaches. Besides these, some women reclaim feelings of depression, anxiety, fear and mood swings. You might also feel the weight gain (that will most probably occur from the first trimester) as one of the important changes in your body, especially if you’ve had constantly swinging weight gain over the past few years.

It is recommended to gain about 3 to 5 pounds in the first trimester of pregnancy. Sometimes it’s difficult to gain weight during pregnancy, even if you want to. You might even lose weight in the first trimester, because of the morning sickness, lack of appetite and tiredness. How risky might this be for your baby? On the other hand, it is possible to gain much more than the normal amount of weight in the first trimester. This is also not healthy for either of you. Let’s discuss these two situations separately.

Do you gain weight the first trimester of pregnancy if you eat barely anything? Perhaps not, but you don’t have to worry about this. During the nausea-prone first trimester, few women manage to eat “by the book”. That’s why it is important to enter pregnancy with enough nutritional reserves to provide for you and your baby.

If you didn’t manage to gain at least 2 pounds after the first trimester of pregnancy, or even lose some weight you don’t need to panic, this is not a reason for the baby not to develop normally, but you should consult a specialist in nutrition. If you didn’t have healthy-eating habits before, pregnancy is the time to develop these good habits. Even if you don’t have an appetite and you feel a little sick, make sure that what you eat , at least, is high-calorie but healthy food. You don’t have to exaggerate with eating junk food and having endless desserts, even if you didn’t manage to gain the proper weight in the first trimester. This may be harmful for the baby.

On the other hand, excessive weight gain can lead to health problems for the mother, such as diabetes, high blood pressure and varicose veins, and will increase the difficulty of delivery. Besides these, it might become difficult for you to manage your weight properly after delivery. You probably know that much of the extra weight goes to your baby (7-8 pounds), the extra blood and fluid volume (8 pounds), amniotic fluid (2 pounds), uterus, placenta, breast enlargement, and extra fat stores (7 pounds) in case of illness or “hard times.”

But in the first trimester of pregnancy the baby and her “housing” are still yet very small, and your pregnancy weight gain needs are covered with 5-6 pounds. The extra pounds you gain above these 5-6 are yours only. Don’t even consider compensating them with gaining less in the second or in the third trimester. Anyway, it gets physically improbable; even if you starve yourself you could gain weight.

The question “do you gain weight the first trimester of pregnancy?” is usually posed by mothers who are concerned about their baby’s health and proper development.

If your pregnancy symptoms are earlier and more pronounced than you’d normally expect, you may be carrying a twin pregnancy. However, only a health professional can tell for sure.

1. You just feel that you are carrying more than one baby. Some mothers of twins (or higher order multiples) say that they knew right from the start that they were carrying more than one baby.

2. You experience more nausea and/or morning sickness. If you are having more than one baby, you may have an elevated hCG level (hCG is a pregnancy related hormone). This hormone is the one associated with morning sickness.

3. Other typical pregnancy symptoms may be exaggerated. Many women — but not all — who are pregnant with twins have more intense pregnancy symptoms, probably related to the extra hormones circulating through their system. You may find that your breasts are extremely tender, you have to urinate frequently, you are hungry all the time and you are always very tired.

4. A higher than average weight gain in the first 16 weeks may be your first clue that you’re carrying more than one baby. Good weight gain in early twin pregnancy is associated with a favourable outcome.
With each additional fetus a woman carries, the range of weight gain will increase. For example, a woman who starts a pregnancy in a healthy weight range might expect her weight gain to be as follows:

One fetus, 11 kg (24 lb) to 16 kg (35 lb)
Twins, 16 kg (35 lb) to 20 kg (44 lb)
Triplets, 20 kg (44 lb) to 23 kg (51 lb)
Quads, 23 kg (51 lb) to 25 kg (55 lb)

5. Your uterus seems large for gestational age. If your last menstrual period indicates an eight-week gestation, your uterus may feel more like 10 to 12 weeks to your obstetrician. This may prompt a request for an ultrasound examination.

6. You are told that you have elevated levels of AFP. AFP is one of the chemicals tested to screen for Down’s syndrome and spina bifida abnormalities. AFP levels are higher in twin pregnancies.

7. Your health care provider hears two fetal heartbeats. Two separate heartbeats can be distinguishable with a Doppler in your care provider’s office from around 18 weeks. At around 28 weeks, it may be possible to differentiate two fetal heads and multiple small parts when doing an abdominal exam.

8. You have a positive ultrasound. If you believe you are pregnant with twins, an ultrasound can be performed quite early in pregnancy. With a skilled ultrasonographer, two gestational sacs, two embryos and two distinct fetal heartbeats can be seen six weeks after the first day of the last menstrual period. Many twins have been diagnosed as early as five weeks — when you’re just one week late for your menstrual period.

9. In later pregnancy, you may experience difficulty catching your breath, swelling (oedema) of the hands and legs, an unusual rate of weight gain and abdominal enlargement and excessive fetal movement. Anaemia or low iron (decreased haemoglobin) is also common with twin and multiple pregnancies.

10. There is considerable disagreement among medical professionals as to whether a woman carrying twins is more likely to feel movement earlier. But many mothers do claim that those early flutters and flips were their first clue that they might be having more than one.

So you think you might be pregnant? But when should you take that test or when to decide that its time to go to doctor? Well here are some symptoms on which you can decide to take pregnancy test:

Am I pregnant?

1) Cramp or a minor bleed

A tiny amount of bleeding or even spotting is observed in the stages prior to the pregnancy. This period is say at about ten to fourteen days after the fertilization. This bleeding is also well known as the implantation bleeding. Implantation bleeding occurs when the fertilized egg attaches itself to the inner lining of uterus. This kind of bleeding is observed in the early stages. The bleeding is light in color than that of the regular periods. The bleeding does not last for a long period. Also, the bleeding is spottier.

Pregnant women are also prone to experience a feeling of cramp at an early stage in pregnancy. During this time the uterus enlarges. Cramps similar to those of the menstrual ones are experienced.

2) Queasiness without or with vomiting

Morning sickness is one of the telltale signs of early pregnancy. Most women feel some sickness around four to eight weeks of pregnancy, but the queasiness can begin as early as two weeks after conception.

The very telltale sign of pregnancy is the sickness experienced in the mornings. In the first 4 to 8 weeks of the pregnancy some kind of weakness is observed. The nausea can start in the early two weeks of pregnancy. This is immediately after the conception itself.

Vomiting and Nausea which is called as the morning sickness can occur in the other parts of the day as well. This brings a feeling of the stomach to be empty. The basis for the vomiting and the nausea is the rapid increase in the estrogen levels, which are manufactured by the fetus and the placenta. Such abnormal levels in the flow of the estrogen levels contribute to the emptiness of the stomach very slowly. This could be the reason for the cause of the vomiting and nausea. There also exists an increase in the sensation of smell. This can include a variety of odors such as the cooking foods, cigarette smoke or perfume itself. Such sensations also can trigger vomiting and nausea.

The two main major factors leading to the conclusive signs of pregnancy have been discussed.