Week 13 of Pregnancy

Your baby will now be about 3 inches or 7.5cm long and weigh about 13 to 20 grams the size of half a banana. From now on the fetus can grow as much as an inch a week.

picture of scan at 13 weeks

You have now entered the second trimester and a lot of people believe that this is when you will feel your best during the pregnancy. By pregnancy week 13 the risk of miscarriage drops significantly.

The little one's intestines are moving from the umbilical cord into his or her abdomen. The liver begins to secrete bile and produces insulin. Insulin is a hormone that will help your baby to regulate his or her blood sugar levels as he grows and develops. At this stage his or her vocal cords are rapidly developing.

If the fetus is a girl, she now has approximately 2 million eggs in her ovaries. She will have only a million by the time she's born. These will continue to decrease as she gets older. At the age of seventeen the number of eggs will have dropped to around 200,000.

Hopefully as the weeks go on you will now find yourself with more energy. It is important to keep in mind that although you may feel you have more energy your body is working extremely hard so it is important you get enough rest.

You may find that your breasts are tender and have started to darken around the areola, frequent urination, constipation, heartburn or indigestion, headaches and stretch marks. These are all pregnancy symptoms that you may have already developed by now or they my still follow in the weeks to come.

It is important to watch your iron intake levels as pregnancy can deplete your iron levels and leave you feeling tired. Your midwife may recommend iron tablets if they feel your iron is low and this will be seen from the routine blood tests that are done.
In order to keep your iron levels up here are a few pointers:
Dark chocolate is high in iron.
Drink less tea, the tannin in tea reduces the amount of iron your body can absorb.
Eat meat or fish with other iron rich foods.
Eat or drink foods rich in Vitamin C as this helps your body to absorb the iron.

With my first baby I did not suffer morning sickness or many pregnancy side effects except the frequent urination. With my second pregnancy at around this time I was still feeling generally unwell in the evenings. I never suffered from morning sickness but had an evening sickness. I would be fine during the day but as it got close to evening I would just feel generally unwell, no real sickness feelings at all. I put a lot of it down to tiredness due to looking after our first child who is just 11 months old.

I am definitely looking forward to the weeks ahead as I am sure I will soon be embraced with a lot more energy and as the summer is here am looking forward to going on long walks and picnics in the park with Alex, Amélie and the dogs.

week 14
week 12
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