Pregnancy Calendar Week 12

Week 12

What's Happening to My Body?

Still counting: 12 weeks down, 28 to go. Your baby is now 10 weeks old, measures about 2.5 inches (6 centimeters) and weighs about 0.4 ounces (11 grams). If she was a fruit, she'd be a small plum.

By the end of this week, her arms will be almost proportional to the rest of the body, but the legs are not as well developed. The Donald Duck effect of ealier weeks is pretty much gone: no more webbed toes, and toenails are coming in. The genitals are beginning to look male or female. Your practitioner will use a Doppler listening device to hear your baby's heartbeat.

Around this time, the baby starts to urinate in your amniotic fluid. She swallows this fluid for sustenance, but the much of her waste is transferred out of the placenta and into your bloodstream before this happens. Hey, Gandhi might have drunk his own pee, but there's no reason your baby has to.

Your morning sickness should finally be abating; but if you're still enjoying all the extra sympathy, feel free to milk it a little while longer. And if it hasn't tapered off yet, it probably will in the next few weeks.

Unless your morning sickness has been chronic, you've probably gained about 4 to 8 pounds. Most of the weight, however, comes in the final stages of pregnancy.

Your breasts are getting even bigger, Miss Pamela Anderson! And you may be showing a little now, especially if this isn't your first baby. Appreciate your new va-va-voom figure while it lasts because your belly will soon be the main attraction.