Congratulations! This is your last week in your first trimester. Next week, you'll be in the second trimester, often referred to as the "honeymoon" stage of pregnancy, and for good reason too. Many of the discomforts of the first 13 weeks of pregnancy will ease up, including your morning sickness, mood swings, and fatigue. This is because your pregnancy hormones tend to level off in the second trimester, as your placenta starts to take over.
Enjoy this middle part of pregnancy while it lasts. Like all "honeymoons," it will eventually end. All your pregnancy symptoms (such as mood swings and fatigue) ramp back up in the third trimester.
Now at 13 weeks, your risk of miscarriage is now significantly lower. In fact, 80 percent of all miscarriages occur within the first 12 weeks of pregnancy.
To improve your chances of a healthy baby, remember to keep eating healthy foods and to avoid certain lifestyle habits, such as smoking, drinking, and drug use. Smoking and alcohol use has been linked to increasing your chance of miscarriage.
Pregnancy Weight Gain
On average, your pregnancy weight gain at 13 weeks pregnant may be between three and five pounds. You will start to really pack on the pounds in your second and third trimester. In fact, you should expect to gain between one or two pounds a week as your pregnancy week by week continues.
If you are an average-sized woman, you should aim to gain between 25 and 35 pounds during pregnancy. This is your recommended pregnancy weight gain. You will want to gain more than this (between 25 and 40 pounds) if you were underweight before pregnancy, and you should gain less (only between 15 and 25 pounds during pregnancy) if you are an overweight woman.
Be Creative and Save Money on Maternity Clothes
By pregnancy week 13, you are by no means huge yet. You can still wear your regular clothes, though you may find that your pants and jeans are feeling a bit snugger than usual. If you are carrying twins or multiples, you may have gained up to 10 pounds by now, so maternity apparel may be a must-have in your near future.
If you want to save some money on a new maternity wardrobe, consider buying a maternity waistband extender. This ingenious invention lets you continue to wear your pre-pregnancy skirts, jeans, and pants throughout the length of your pregnancy.
The Belly Belt bridges the gap between the two buttons of your pants or jeans, and the colored panels that come with this waistband extender fill the separation in your pants. The Belly Belt is very inexpensive and popular with many pregnancy women who are not quite ready for pricey maternity clothes.
Round Ligament Pain During Pregnancy
At 13 weeks pregnant, you may start to experience abdominal discomfort or pain when you change positions too quickly. Called "round ligament pain," this is a normal pregnancy symptom that is more common in the second trimester, but some women do experience it sooner.
Round ligament pain can feel like cramps or sharp pain, or sometimes a dull ache, often on the right side of your abdomen (though some women do experience this pain on both sides). The pain or jab shouldn't last for more than a few seconds or a few minutes.
Though uncomfortable, round ligament pain is a physical reminder of your growing uterus. As you continue your pregnancy week by week, your uterus will continue to expand and the ligaments that support it will also stretch, pulling and tugging nearby nerve fibers. When your round ligaments hit those nerve fibers, you will feel sharp pain and discomfort.
How to Avoid Round LIgament Pain
To avoid round ligament pain, you should avoid changing positions too quickly. When you're sleeping, you may want to use a Snoozer Full Body Pregnancy Pillow. These pillows are created to wrap cozily around your entire body, providing you with support throughout your entire pregnancy.
If your round ligament pain seems to get worse, be sure to call your doctor. Sometimes round ligament pain can be mistaken for other medical conditions, such as appendicitis or ovarian cysts.
Call your doctor immediately if you have abdominal cramps or pain that is accompanied by severe cramping (with more than four contractions every hour), lower back pain, bleeding or spotting, vaginal discharge, fever, chills, nausea and vomiting, and paining when you urinate. These could all be signs of other conditions unrelated to round ligament pain.
Fetal Development at 13 Weeks Pregnant At 13 weeks pregnant your baby is growing up very fast! He or she is close to 3 inches long from crown to rump and weighs close to an ounce! Though your little one is still pretty small, he or she does look like a miniature human baby now. The baby's head is still huge, but the body is slowly catching up!
How are Baby's Arms and Legs Developing?
Your baby's arms and legs are getting longer during pregnancy week 13. His or her muscle control is developing. Your baby is kicking, flipping, and flopping this week, though he or she has little control over his muscles at this point.
Your baby's toes are now separate, and they're about the same length. During pregnancy week 13, the ankle joints have matured. Unfortunately, you won't feel any of your baby's acrobatics until the second trimester.
Amniotic Fluid is Increasing
At 13 weeks pregnant, your baby has lots of room to move around inside the amniotic fluid. This week, you may have up to 25 ml of amniotic fluid. As you continue your pregnancy week by week, this amount will steadily increase until pregnancy week 32. In the last few weeks of pregnancy, this amount will slowly decrease.
Baby's Skin is Still Transparent
If you were to peek inside your uterus right now, you'd see bones underneath your baby's transparent skin. Your baby doesn't have underlying body fat at pregnancy week 13, but this will soon change. In the second trimester, he or she will start packing on the pounds, and his or her skin will become less transparent.
Your baby's bones continue to harden (called "ossification") at 13 weeks pregnant.
Baby's Brain is Maturing
The right and left cerebral hemispheres of your baby's brain are starting to connect. Each hemisphere controls the opposite of the body, with the left hemisphere controlling your baby's right side and the right hemisphere controlling the left side of the body. As your baby's brain develops, your little one will have more and more control of his or her movements. The motor fibers in the brain will develop first, followed by sensory nerves later. Your baby's brain will be completely developed in about ten weeks!
Shortness of Breath at Pregnancy Week 13 As your pregnancy continues week to week, you may start to experience shortness of breath. While this can be worrisome, it is a very common pregnancy symptom and it should be mild in nature. An estimated 60 to 70 percent of women experience this symptom at some point during their pregnancy.
What Causes Shortness of Breath?
There are many reasons for shortness of breath during pregnancy. First, as your body adapts to support your developing baby, your heart and lungs have to work extra hard to supply your body with oxygen. In fact, did you know that your blood volume rises to 50 percent above its normal non-pregnant size? Your heart also beats 30 to 50 percent harder than it normally does. During pregnancy, you also need 20 percent more oxygen than normal. Some of this oxygen goes to the placenta and your baby, and the rest goes to your other organs.
To get this extra oxygen, you have to breathe faster and deeper, so you may feel short of breath, especially during exercise. (However, shortness of breath can occur even without exercise.)
Your pregnancy hormones also contribute to your shortness of breath. The increased levels of the progesterone in your body can also affect your lungs and the rate in which you breathe.
When to Expect Shortness of Breath
Some pregnant women experience shortness of breath early in the pregnancy, as early as 13 weeks pregnant. However, it is more common later in your pregnancy, as your growing uterus and shifted organs puts pressure on your diaphragm (the main muscle involved in helping us breathe). As you grow larger, you might feel that your breathing is becoming more labored. Luckily, this shortness of breath will disappear after you deliver your baby.
How to Relieve Shortness of Breath During Pregnancy
Shortness of breath is often worse when you are sitting down. To help you breathe easier, you may want to stand up straight. This may give your lungs more room to expand. You can also lift your arms over your head to take pressure off your rib cage.
If you are worried about your shortness of breath, talk to your doctor. Women with asthma may need to pay extra attention when they feel short of breath, especially if it's accompanied with wheezing.
When to Call Your Doctor About Shortness of Breath
Call your doctor or healthcare provider immediately if you experience chest pain when you breathe, heart palpitations, rapid breathing, a blue tinge around your lips, or a sense that you're not getting enough oxygen.
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