What happens in the 2nd week of pregnancy?

You must be aware about the fact that you are not pregnant yet and of course there are no pregnancy symptoms. This is the time for you to have sexual intercourse without protection if you intend to become an expectant mother. This is your best possible time to make love every day to help maximize the chances of conception.

By the end of this week (or the beginning of third week), your egg is waiting in the fallopian tube for millions of sperms from your partner to travel from your vagina to meet it.

In this week, your body will start preparing itself for ovulation. Towards the end of the week, you may possibly be experiencing some cramping. This is a signal that you are ovulating.

The uterus is forming a blood rich lining that is known as the endometrium.

The levels of estrogen hormone increase and because of this the cervix starts to produce cervical mucus that assists the sperm in swimming up to the fallopian tubes so as to meet your egg after ovulation (or to wait for the egg just prior to ovulation).

By the end of this week, conception might have taken place.

Your Body

Your uterine lining, which nourishes the baby, is developing. Your body secretes follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH)-this is the hormone that stimulates an egg to mature. At the end of the second week, you will be at the middle of your menstrual cycle (if you have a regular 28-day cycle), and ovulation will occur (that is your ovary will release the egg into the fallopian tube).

This is when you're in all probability likely to conceive. If you have sexual intercourse without protection around the time that you are ovulating, you can become pregnant. After your partner ejaculates, millions of sperms travel through your vagina, and hundreds of them make it to the fallopian tube, where your egg is waiting. One sperm usually succeeds in penetrating the egg, and fertilization takes place. Once fertilization takes place, you will be pregnant-though you will not be feeling any major body changes as yet.

Your Baby's Development

This might sound a little strange, but you're actually still not pregnant! The fertilization of your egg by the sperm takes place near the end of this week.

You may be waiting to find out what color to paint the nursery (depending on whether it’s going to be a boy or a girl), but your baby's gender will be determined only at the moment of fertilization.

Out of the 46 chromosomes that make up a baby's genetic material, only 2-one from the egg and one from the sperm-determine the baby's sex. These are called sex chromosomes. Each egg has an X sex chromosome; while a sperm can have either an X or a Y sex chromosome. If the sperm that fertilizes the egg has an X chromosome, you'll be having a girl; if it has a Y chromosome, a bay boy will be born.