12 weeks pregnant

What to expect this week

 

What's happening in week 12

You are in the final week of your first trimester and your baby has changed beyond all recognition from week one!

Your baby at week 12

Your tiny baby is now a compact 6cm in length, and fully formed – the next stage of their development is to grow larger and practise sucking and breathing motions.. It’s likely you’ll see your baby for the first time this week at your dating scan, though it’s unlikely you will be able to get a reliable sexing just yet.

They are moving around a lot at this stage, but you still won't be able to feel this for a while as they still have a lot of space to bob about in. Their eyelids remain fused shut at week 12 (they will open at around week 27) and have moved to their final position on the front of the head (rather than the side), while their little wrists and elbows bend as they move around. 

At 12 weeks pregnant your baby’s skeleton is currently made of cartilage (like you’d find in your nose or ear), but over the coming weeks this will harden into bone. When your baby is born their skeleton is made up of over 300 parts of bone and cartilage, but they will only have 206 as an adult, as bones fuse together to form larger, stronger bones.

As well as a developing skeleton, your baby’s organs and intestines are changing this week. The kidneys are beginning to excrete urine into your baby’s bladder, while their intestines, which grow so fast at the beginning that they protrude into the umbilical cord, are moving back inside the abdominal cavity.

Finally, your baby is beginning to practice their reflexes this week; curling fingers and toes, clenching eye muscles and making sucking movements with their mouth. Though you can’t feel your baby moving yet, if you poke your stomach your baby will wriggle.

You at 12 weeks pregnant

You are now in the last week of your first trimester – doesn't time fly? You might be putting morning sickness and extreme exhaustion behind you a bit now, although all those hormones could still be leaving you somewhat emotional! You are probably having lots of fun leafing through baby catalogues and mulling over nursery colour schemes, so now could be a good time to think about any changes you need to make to your home – you probably won't want decorators in, or having to make big decisions (or even do some light DIY yourself) late in pregnancy.  You might also be finding it hard to resist a few sneaky purchases of unisex baby clothes now, too.
And if you've had your dating scan you are no doubt the very owner of a set of ultrasound images of your baby son or daughter!

What to think about in week 12

If you have an existing health condition you might be worrying about how you will manage it in pregnancy, even if it is something fairly common like asthma. Your GP and midwives will of course have given you advice on this from your earliest appointments, and checked that your medication was suitable for use in pregnancy, even so, do keep an eye on any changes at all in your health, and always flag any new or heightened symptoms up, no matter how small -  you might find that for some health issues, your meds need tweaking or monitoring as your pregnancy evolves.