Inside Your Body

Your baby measures about 9cm, or  the size of a lemon, and weighs about 42 g.His/her brain is now working and responding to simple impulses. His/her tiny face can react with different adorable facial expressions like frowning and squinting. His/her tiny hands and feet are becoming more functional and active, and are able to move now more independently. Your baby may be sucking thumb and you may catch him/her doing so on your scan if you are lucky.

By this week, his/her liver will be producing bile, which is a digestive juice. His/her spleen, another organ, will take part in making blood cells. Kidneys continue to produce urine which serves the same purpose as that of adulthood, i.e. getting rid of waste products from the body.

By the end of the 14th week, your baby’s entire body will be covered with very fine hair (called lanugo); his/her arms are getting longer and so are the rest of the body. Unlike the 1^st trimester, which was marked by the development of the head, making it disproportionate with the rest of the body, the 2^nd trimester marks the lengthening of the body to bring the body in proportion.  Your little one will look more and more like a baby.

Your Signs And Symptoms

Well, it is time for you to relax as your 1^st trimester symptoms gradually subside.  After persevering for the past 8 weeks or so, you will now have lesser food aversions, nausea/vomiting, frequency of urination and fatigue.  Your weight gain may not be noticeable to make your pregnancy evident as yet; however, your friends may feel you are getting a bit chubby and some may even be guessing or making bets that you are on the family way.

What Tests To Expect

You may be asked to go through a simple blood test for quad or triple screening anytime between now and week 22.  It measures the level of 4 substances (alpha-fetalprotein, estriol, hCG, inhibin-A) that are passed from your baby to your bloodstream and may indicate risks of your baby having birth defects.  However, the results are non-conclusive and only indicate potential risks and may not be accurate.

If you are older than 35 years and/or earlier tests showed some signs of potential birth defects in your baby and/or has a family history of genetic disorder, then you may be advised by your gynaecologist to perform amniocentesis, which is a test on your amniotic fluid and is 99% accurate in diagnosing birth defects.   You can do this test anytime between now and week 18.