Pregnancy Week 2: Things You Need to Do to Prepare for Your Baby

During the second week of your pregnancy, your body is ovulating. Very soon, likely in the third week of your pregnancy, you will conceive.

But wait—if it’s the second week of your pregnancy, shouldn’t you already be pregnant?

There’s really no way to identify the exact moment when you conceived, so doctors calculate your due date using the first day of your last period. This means your first four weeks of pregnancy happen before you even know you’re pregnant—they are the four weeks between the last day of your last period and the first day of your first missed period.

So in the second week of your typical menstrual cycle, you’re probably not pregnant yet. However, your body is preparing itself in hopes of conception—your uterus is forming a special tissue lining in order to support conception, and your ovaries are producing eggs. By the end of the second week of your pregnancy, you will ovulate. In the third week of pregnancy, ovulation will be the catalyst for conception.

Even though it is extremely unlikely that you will know you’re pregnant in the second week of your pregnancy, if you’re trying to conceive, there are some things you can do now to prepare for your baby. If you followed our tips for week one of your pregnancy, you’ve already started exercising, you’ve given up coffee and cigarettes, and you’ve started taking a vitamin daily.

Here are some other things you can do now to start preparing for your pregnancy.

Start Researching ObGyns

While you’re pregnant, you will feel like your ObGyn is a new best friend you recently made and can’t stop hanging out with. You will spend a lot of time with your doctor—over the course of your pregnancy, you’ll likely have 15 or more appointments with your ObGyn. Because of this, you’ll want to do your research early. Find a doctor you trust: one that uses hospitals you trust, that uses methods you trust, and that has a proven track record of successful deliveries. But also make sure to find a doctor you get along with on a personal level.

Start Thinking About Baby Names

As soon as you start announcing to your friends and family that you’re pregnant, they’re going to ask if you have any names in mind. Everyone will have suggestions of their own, so it will save you from having to tell people you really dislike their suggestions if you already have names of your own in mind.

Prevent Stretch Marks

It may not seem like a serious concern at the moment because you’re not yet pregnant and are certainly not growing around the waist, but the sooner you start using a stretch mark prevention product, the less likely you’ll be to develop stretch marks during your pregnancy. Stretch mark prevention lotions will strengthen your skin and make it more flexible and less prone to tearing. Find a list of products here.