Week 13
This is the last week of the first trimester. Your baby is about 5.4 cm (2.1 in) from crown to rump and weighs about 14 g (half an ounce), around the size of a lime. Babies vary. The face looks more human each day, the bones are starting to harden, and the vocal cords are forming. Your uterus is now rising above your pubic bone, and a care provider may be able to feel its top during an exam. For many people, nausea and exhaustion start to lift around now, though not for everyone.
This week covers diagnostic testing with CVS, what to do with a higher chance screening result, sex during pregnancy, and how your heart and circulation are adapting. It ends with a pause to mark how far you have come.
Day 85 · 12 weeks 0 days
Your baby's face is coming into focus
Over the past few weeks, your baby's eyes have moved from the sides of the head toward the front. The ears are shifting from low on the neck up to where they will sit for life. The result is a face with a recognizable profile: forehead, nose, lips and chin.
Inside the throat, the vocal cords are forming. Your baby will not make a sound until the first breath of air after birth, but the structures are being built now.
The skeleton, which began as soft cartilage, is starting to turn into bone. This process, called ossification, begins in the skull and the long bones of the arms and legs, and it will carry on well into childhood. It is one reason your baby needs calcium and vitamin D from your diet.
Tiny ridges are also beginning to form on the fingertips. Over the next couple of months they will become your baby's unique fingerprints, shaped partly by genes and partly by how your baby touches the walls of the uterus and the cord.
On a scan this week, you may see your baby stretch, kick or even seem to wave.
Try this: If you have a scan photo, look for the profile of the forehead and nose, and show it to someone you love.
Day 86 · 12 weeks 1 day
What happens during CVS
Chorionic villus sampling, or CVS, is a diagnostic test usually done between about 11 and 14 weeks. It takes a small sample of the placenta. Because the placenta grows from the same fertilized egg as your baby, its cells almost always carry the same chromosomes.
In most cases, a thin needle goes through your belly into the placenta, guided by ultrasound. Sometimes a thin tube is passed through the cervix instead. It takes a few minutes. Many people describe it as uncomfortable or crampy rather than painful.
Early results for the most common conditions can come back within a few days, with full results in about two weeks. CVS gives a near-certain answer. Rarely, the placenta's cells differ from the baby's, and an amniocentesis may be advised to check.
The added chance of miscarriage is small. It is often quoted as about 1 in 200 or lower, and recent studies suggest it may be lower still. If your blood type is Rh negative, you will likely be offered an anti-D injection after the procedure.
Rest for the remainder of the day. Mild cramping and light spotting are common.
Call your care provider if you have heavy bleeding, fluid leaking from the vagina, a fever, or cramping that gets worse instead of better. Try this: If CVS has been offered, ask who will perform it, how often they do it, and how you will receive the results.
Day 87 · 12 weeks 2 days
A higher chance result is the start of a conversation
Hearing that your screening result is "higher chance" can be frightening. It helps to remember what the result actually says: there is a greater chance than average, not a certainty. Many people with a higher chance result go on to have a baby without the condition.
You will usually be offered a meeting with your care provider, a genetic counsellor or a fetal medicine specialist. They can explain your specific numbers and walk you through options. These often include NIPT if you have not already had it, CVS now, or amniocentesis from 15 weeks. You can also choose no further testing.
There is no deadline that requires you to decide today. Take time to think, ask questions and talk with the people closest to you. Bring a list of questions and someone to take notes.
If a diagnosis is confirmed, you will have support to understand the condition, meet specialists and, if you wish, connect with families who live with it. Whatever you decide is your decision, made with information and care.
If you feel overwhelmed, say so. Counselling services exist for exactly this moment.
Try this: If you are waiting on results, plan something gentle for the day you expect them, like a walk or time with a friend.
Day 88 · 12 weeks 3 days
Your uterus is climbing out of your pelvis
Until now, your growing uterus has been hidden inside the bony bowl of your pelvis. Around now, it begins to rise above the pubic bone. At a visit, your care provider may be able to feel the top of it, called the fundus, just above the hairline.
This shift has some welcome effects. As the uterus moves up and forward, it presses less on your bladder, so the need to pee often eases for a while. It will return later in pregnancy as the baby grows.
Nausea often fades between now and about 16 weeks, as hCG levels peak and then fall. If yours is easing, enjoy the return of appetite, and build meals that include protein, whole grains, vegetables and fruit. If it is not, you are not doing anything wrong. For some people, nausea lasts longer, occasionally the whole pregnancy.
Whether you have a bump yet depends on your body shape, your muscle tone and whether you have been pregnant before. Some people show early, others not for weeks.
Call your care provider if you are still vomiting so much that you cannot keep fluids down, are losing weight, or feel dizzy and dry.
Try this: Notice which foods appeal to you again this week, and keep a few of them stocked.
Day 89 · 12 weeks 4 days
Sex is usually safe throughout pregnancy
For most people, sex is safe right through a healthy pregnancy. Your baby is well protected by the amniotic fluid, the strong muscle of the uterus and a thick plug of mucus in the cervix. Penetration and orgasm do not harm the baby.
Desire can change a lot. In the first trimester, tiredness, nausea and sore breasts often dampen it. In the second, increased blood flow and more energy bring some people a surprising boost. Others feel less interested throughout. Partners can have mixed feelings too. All of this is normal. Mild cramping after orgasm and a little spotting after sex can happen, because the cervix has more blood flowing through it. Try positions that keep weight off your belly and breasts, such as side-lying.
A few things to avoid: blowing air into the vagina during oral sex, and sex with a new or untested partner without a condom, since some infections can affect the baby.
Your care provider may advise avoiding sex if you have a low-lying placenta, unexplained bleeding, waters that have broken, or a higher risk of preterm labour.
Call your care provider if you have bleeding that is more than light spotting, fluid leaking, or pain that does not settle after sex. Try this: Talk with your partner about how your desire has changed, without any pressure to act on it.
Day 90 · 12 weeks 5 days
Your heart is working harder than ever
Your heart is now pumping much more blood than before pregnancy. Your blood volume is rising toward almost half again its usual amount, and your heart beats faster to move it, often 10 to 20 beats a minute more at rest. Each beat also pushes out more blood.
Much of the extra flow goes to the uterus and placenta, and some to your kidneys and skin. You may notice the effects. Many people feel warmer than everyone else in the room, sweat more, or notice their heartbeat when lying still. Stairs may leave you a little more out of breath than usual. Your blood pressure usually dips through the middle months, which is why you may still feel woozy when you stand up quickly or get too hot. The habits you read about in week 10 still help: get up slowly, eat often and keep water nearby.
These changes are normal, and they keep your baby well supplied. Dress in layers, pace yourself on hills and stairs, and rest when you need to. Get help right away if you have chest pain, faint, or feel breathless at rest or when lying down.
Call your care provider if you often feel your heart racing or pounding, or feel short of breath doing everyday things.
Try this: Check your resting pulse this evening while sitting quietly, so you know what is normal for you now.
Day 91 · 12 weeks 6 days
The last day of the first trimester
Today closes the first of three chapters. In the roughly 11 weeks since conception, a single cell has become a moving, kicking fetus with a beating heart, working kidneys and the beginnings of fingerprints. You have done a lot too. You may have managed weeks of nausea and tiredness, made decisions about tests, kept a secret or shared a big piece of news, and adjusted your habits, your food and your sleep. That counts, even if it did not always feel like much.
The chance of miscarriage is now much lower than it was in the early weeks. That does not make worry disappear, and some people feel anxious until they feel the baby move or hold their newborn. If you have been through loss before, this milestone may feel bittersweet. Every feeling has a place here.
The second trimester often brings more energy, a growing bump and a sense that the pregnancy is real. There will be new changes, like aches in your belly and darker patches of skin, but many people describe this stretch as the most comfortable.
Try this: Take a photo of yourself today, from the side, to start a record of how your body changes.