Your Changing Body

  • Your uterus will be about 8cm above your bellybutton, and you may feel like you got "huge" overnight!
  • As your uterus grows to unimaginable size, most of the pains you are feeling can be related to the growth; including:
  • Back Pain
  • Leg cramps
  • Swelling
  • Varicose veins
  • Heartburn
  • Hemorrhoids
  • Itchy skin (due to stretching)
  • Hot Flashes:  Now you may be  freezing everyone out of the house by keeping the heat low or the air conditioning high!  This is related to the 20% increase in your metabolic rate, you are constantly feeling hot!
  •  Your uterus is putting pressure on your bladder once again, and you mat be waking up several times a night to go pee!  (I think this is nature's way of preparing you for those sleepless nights!
  • You may be having lower back pain and leg pain, you may be putting pressure on your sciatic nerve. Rest and a heating pad applied locally may help with this. If not, see a physical therapist. He should be able to help you with some exercises and ways of moving that will help cure this pain.                 

Between 18 to 20 weeks your doctor/midwife will schedule you for a "routine ultrasound".  This scan is done mainly to look for congenital malformations, adequate fetal growth, and placental position.  Gender can often be determined during this scan for those who are eager to know if they should start buying pink or blue! However, sometimes babies don't like to "play nice" and may not be in the right position to see the genitals.  For those of you who are eager to learn the sex of your baby this can be very disappointing!  You may be able to talk your practitioner into a "quick scan" on another day, some offices even offer scans just for the purpose of determining the sex of your baby; they generally charge $50-75.00 for this. 

This is a great website to learn all there is to know about ultrasounds: http://www.ob-ultrasound.net/

                                                             
                

 

 

 

 

 

 

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