With your pregnancy confirmed by home pregnancy test, you’re probably noticing of every early sign and symptom that you might be feeling. While you don’t look pregnant yet, your body is rapidly working on everything it needs to do to host and grow your baby. And your baby is growing too. Here’s what to know about the fifth week of pregnancy.

Baby at five weeks pregnant

A beating heart: your baby’s got one! It’s a teeny tiny thing – the size of a poppy seed – and consisting of just two tiny channels called heart tubes, and it’s not pumping any blood yet, but it is going! Pretty amazing for an embryo the size of an orange seed and resembling a tadpole. Congrats to circulatory system for being the first up and running!

Your little’s plans for a neural tube are also underway and tagged to become the brain and spinal cord. This tube is currently open but will be closed by next week. Wondering what’s fueling all this growth? It’s the egg sac around the embryo, charged with providing nutrients and the beginnings of red blood cells.

Your body at five weeks pregnant

Although no one could suspect you are pregnant with a look at your still-flat belly, you might be starting to feel different. Your body has begun the intense work of supporting and growing another human. There’s increased blood flowing to your abdomen and your uterus has started its expansion; normally the size of a tennis ball, it will be more like a large grapefruit by the end of the second month. That combined with swelling breasts could make your clothes feel a little snug.

Five weeks pregnant ultrasound

At five weeks pregnant, it’s often possible to detect a gestational sac on a transvaginal ultrasound. The gestational sac houses the yolk sac, which provides nourishment to the growing embryo for much of the first trimester. An ultrasound might also show the movement of your baby’s beating heart, though it’s too early to hear it.

Five weeks is how many months pregnant? 

At this stage in your pregnancy, you're one month, one week (1m1w) pregnant.

Common symptoms at five weeks pregnant

You’re definitely pregnant, but you might not be feeling pregnant or experiencing many symptoms (yet!). For most women, the more notorious symptoms of the first trimester begin in earnest in the sixth week of pregnancy. Every woman experiences pregnancy differently, though. Here are some symptoms you might begin feeling now or very soon:

• Low energy or sleepiness
• Nausea
• Frequent urination
• Sore nipples and swollen breasts
• Enlarged and darkening areolas (the area around the nipple)
• Shortness of breath
• Headaches, lightheadedness, and dizziness
• Increased saliva
• Digestive issues including heartburn, gas, constipation, and bloating
• No symptoms other than a missed period
  
   

Pregnancy checklist at five weeks pregnant 

Now is a good time to start looking for prenatal care and determining which kind of practitioner you prefer. The options include medical doctors called obstetricians who specialize in pregnancy and childbirth and midwives, who don’t have medical degrees but are trained in all things pregnancy and birth. If you know who you want to see, now is a good time to get that first prenatal visit on the calendar. Depending on your insurance, your provider, and your medical history, you’ll probably be told to come in between weeks six to ten to confirm your pregnancy and establish care. 

As for sharing your news, that’s up to you. Some women feel comfortable telling everyone from their mom to their mail carrier as soon as they get a big fat plus sign. Others opt to wait until the first trimester is coming to a close and the risk of miscarriage has diminished. Do what is comfortable for you, there’s no right or wrong time to share your news!

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