Week 12 of Pregnancy

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Your baby weighs 16 grams, similar to the weight of a toothbrush, and is already 6 centimeters long, like a house key. The growth only accelerates from here.

CHANGES IN YOUR BABY THIS WEEK

The baby’s head is already upright, his intestines have already started working and are training to expel the meconium after birth. He was already drinking amniotic fluid since week 9 and now he starts urinating in it. His kidneys are working!

If you could touch your baby’s skin, he or she would already respond to stimuli. In fact, when it rubs against the inside of the walls of the uterus, it kicks it.

Their blood is now able to clot and their bone marrow begins to make blood cells. The growth of neurons and the connections they form with each other is dizzyingly fast.

YOUR PHYSICAL AND EMOTIONAL CHANGES

Angiomas or spider veins may begin to appear, which are not the same as varicose veins. They are tiny red veins that show through the skin, usually on the face, neck, chest, and arms. Some will disappear after pregnancy, but others will remain.

As for symptoms, we can say that now the good things are beginning: little by little the nausea is part of the past. You no longer feel so tired and it seems that you don’t feel like going to the bathroom all the time.

Between the fact that you feel better and that your vagina is much more vascularized and more sensitive, the desire to have sexual intercourse and its enjoyment increase. Many women say that in the second trimester they are very active sexually.

Common symptoms at week 12 of pregnancy

Fluid vaginal discharge
Constipation
Orthostatic hypotension
Increased libido

TIPS FOR YOUR WELL-BEING

At this point in your pregnancy, the healthiest thing is that you have gained a single kilogram (2.2 pounds) of weight . From now on, although the gain will not be completely homogeneous, it is appropriate to gain between 400 and 450 grams/1 pound each week, that is, 1.6-1.8 kilos/4 pounds per month.

If you have overdone it, you can increase your physical activity but, above all, control your diet. It is not necessary to go on a diet, but it may be beneficial to substitute some foods:

Better to eat fish than a ribeye for protein
Also watch the way of preparing food, vegetables are very healthy, but if you always consume them in tempura, battered and fried, you are adding a large amount of extra calories.

Also remember to continue taking folic acid, since you must do so until this week.

MEDICAL EXAMS AND TESTS AT WEEK 12

The star test this week is the first ultrasound, where the nuchal translucency or nuchal fold is determined. This ultrasound is already done through the abdomen, since the pubic bone no longer hides your uterus behind it.

If you haven’t had another ultrasound done before, this one will tell you how many babies you’re going to have (you’re still in for a surprise until you know), locate the placenta and assess some structures such as the arms and legs, the spine, stomach…

In addition, they carry out measurements that serve to confirm the weeks of gestation and assess the risk of anomalies such as Down syndrome. These measures are:

The crown rump length (you will see it in the report specified as CRL): it is the length of the fetus from the head to the bottom, to the end of its spine, not counting the legs.
The nuchal translucency (in the report it will say NT): it is the measurement of the thickness of a small fold in the nape of the fetus. If there is any abnormality, it is usually increased.

Advice

Do not put moisturizer on your belly 24 hours before the ultrasound, because if you do, the image will look worse.

FREQUENT QUESTIONS

Will it be a boy or a girl?

It is one of the most asked questions during the first ultrasound- if the baby will be a boy or a girl . Although the genitals are formed, it is almost a lottery to identify them on ultrasound. Yes, a structure called the genital tubercle can be seen, in the ultrasound a kind of whiter stick is seen in the genital area. It seems that if it is perpendicular to the baby’s spine, it will be a boy; if this stick looks rather parallel to the spine, it is a girl.