WOO HOO! You’ve reached the halfway mark with just 20 weeks left to go. You probably have a lot more energy and a higher libido. But alas, it’s not all plain sailing and you may be feeling the usual pregnancy aches and pains, which can include dizziness, leg cramps, heartburn and shortness of breath.
Your Baby
Your little cherub, now the size of a banana, should be weighing a healthy 285 grams and has a height of around 16.5cm (crown to rump). There’s still plenty more growing to be done, but for now your baby will enjoy the space available within the womb to kick and explore their surroundings. At this stage of development, your baby has working taste buds and will be drinking several milliliters of amniotic fluid each day. If you have decided to find out whether you having a girl of boy, an ultrasound would definitely be able to pick this up by now. If you’re carrying a girl, her uterus is fully formed. She also has primitive eggs in her tiny little ovaries, 7 million of them.
Your Body
Steady weight gain is now part and parcel of being pregnant. At this stage you should have gained around 5kg, and you can expect to gain another 500g every week until delivery date. It’s the one time in life you can actually enjoy watching the scale rise!
Sensible Tips
- If you’ve found out the sex of your baby, you can start buying clothes and decorating the nursery in all the colours you love.
- Start making a baby shower list of all the things you need and would love to include in the nursery.
- Take a photo of your growing bump so you can compare your growth from just four weeks back.
