Month3
How your baby has grown
Height: approx. 9cm / Weight: approx. 20g
The embryonic period ends and the prenatal period starts at 10 weeks into pregnancy.
Your baby’s fingers and toes can be differentiated, and the ears grow. Under the facial skin, the protuberant areas of the eyelids, lips, lower jaw and cheeks develop to show a basic facial structure. At the end of the 12th week into pregnancy, your baby starts to move the arms and legs, the tail is gone and the head, body and limbs become distinctive in their own way. Body hair in the hair follicle grows to create lanugo while every internal organ develops and the circulatory organs and internal organs start to move actively.
How your baby's body changes
- ① Your uterus grows to the size of a fist. Your uterus is still in your pelvis and your abdomen is yet to expand. However, you can certainly feel your enlarged uterus when touching the pubis. The growing uterus pressures the bladder and the rectum to make you urinate more often. You may feel your lower abdomen tighter or pain in your back.
- ② Discharges increase due to an increased metabolism. As your metabolism increases, the blood circulation within the pelvis quickens. Pale white discharges that smell sourish increase and the color of the external genitals changes significantly.
- ③ Morning sickness subdues and you start to feel comfortable. At 12 weeks into your pregnancy, the severity of the morning sickness subdues and you gain appetite again.
Health Checkpoint
To distinguish the difference between an urge to urinate more and cystitis, your ovary becomes larger to sustain your pregnancy and the enlarging uterus presses the bladder, narrowing the room. Thus, you feel an urge to urinate more often even when a little amount of urine fills up. As you urinate small amounts more frequently, you don’t feel refreshed enough and keep going back and forth from the restroom. You might become concerned about ‘cystitis,’ but if that is the case, it accompanies pain, fever and, even worse, hematuria. Cystitis is easily curable at an early stage.
What You Should Do
- ① Extra care is required as a miscarriage may occur. Long-distance trips should be avoided and, if inevitable, you should take a rest and stretch yourself once every 30 to 40 minutes. It is a rule of thumb that you don’t engage in physically demanding work or exercise, not to mention riding on a bicycle or motorcycle, holding heavy luggage, wiping while squatting and pressing your lower abdomen by bending forward.
- ② Take nutritionally-balanced meals. Nutrition is one of the most important parts during pregnancy. More importantly, you need to keep a nutritional balance in your diet. Develop a habit of regular bowel movements and eat food rich in fiber.
- ③ Sex life during pregnancy You don’t need to be too concerned about enjoying a sex life. Still, there are rules during pregnancy. Deep genital insertion should be avoided and you must stop it immediately and take a rest if you feel pain in your lower abdomen and see blood.