If you are like most women who are trying to conceive, you probably start to feel pregnant as soon as you ovulate. The sore boobs, the cramps, the mood swings...it can be enough to drive you crazy! And you still have two whole weeks of waiting before you’ll know whether or not you’re actually pregnant.

To help you pass the time during these two insanely long weeks, read this cheat-sheet of exactly what happens the first 14 days past ovulation, and what symptoms you can expect if you really are pregnant!

Day 1 - Ovulation: Your newly released egg will only survive 24 hours, but hopefully in that time, it will meet a sperm and be fertilized. Only about 300 sperm (out of millions) reach the right tube at about the right time, but only one is needed.

Day 2 – Your fertilized egg is busy dividing.

Day 3 – Vital cell divisions take place as the fertilized egg travels towards implantation.

Day 4 – The embryo is now at the 16 cell stage!

Day 5 – The embryo reaches the blastocyst stage, though it has still not implanted.

Day 6 – Finally, the blastocyst prepares to implant into your uterus lining. This is crucial. If it does not implant correctly, the fertilized egg will simply be flushed out with your next period. It is thought that as much as 50% of pregnancies miscarry before implantation even occurs.

Day 7 – It happened! Your fertilized egg has implanted. Congratulations, you are officially pregnant. A placenta will now begin to develop. This is the earliest that you may experience a small amount of implantation bleeding.

Day 8 – Your fertilized egg will signal its existence to your pituitary gland and switch of your menstrual cycle. Click. Just like that – no periods for the next nine months.

Day 9 – Pregnancy hormones are now being produced. (Though they may be difficult to detect at this point.) Your embryo is less that .5mm long.

Day 10 – More growth. More hormones. Now your breasts may start to hurt. You could have cramps or bloating. It is still very early to be feeling pregnancy symptoms, but some women are especially in tune with their bodies.

Day 11 – Progesterone surges in your body to help your lining thicken. Just to make things more fun, progesterone also plays all sorts of mind-tricks on you, driving you crazy and taunting you to analyze every twinge!

Day 12 – This is usually about the latest that you will experience any implantation bleeding. About 25 percent of women will experience some bleeding in early pregnancy.

Day 13 – The ball of cells is now firmly embedded in your uterus. Most pregnancy tests will pick up on the fact that you are pregnant by this point.

Day 14 – You might feel you have your usual PMS symptoms, but this time they’re actually pregnancy symptoms in full force. Complain about them to your partner with full impunity—you’ve earned it

-----

Join The Discussion

To find out more about Intro to Fertility, check out the group TTC - The dreaded two week wait. Join 3454 others in discussing this topic!

spotting or miscarry