My Baby at 17 Weeks and 4 Days

Dizziness during pregnancy often kicks in at around week 17 in the second trimester. Arraign hormones, your growing uterus and a chop-chop expanding circulatory organisation.

Meanwhile, your picayune one is learning to suck and swallow, and is likewise starting to develop fingerprints.

Your Babe at Calendar week 17

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Hey Mom…It might be time for a high-5, because that's how big your baby is this week — the size of your open palm. At a less-than-whopping three and a half ounces, your footling one is starting to layer on some body fat, though she's got a long manner to go before she's anywhere approaching plump.

From hither on out your baby volition accumulate fatty until it makes up nigh i-3rd of her weight. That means past the time she makes her big debut, this skinny Minnie volition exist a relatively chubby cherub. But she's not all lightweight. This week marks the kickoff time your babe is bigger in size than the placenta that's nourishing her. At present that's something to brag about!

In other news, baby's feisty little ticker is going full speed ahead thanks to another development this calendar week. Until now, your wee one'southward heartbeat was spontaneous and irregular. Now, her brain is in the commuter's seat, regulating her center rate to 140 or 150 beats per infinitesimal. Take a listen — that steady sound will make your own heart sing.

Regularity is the name of the game these days as your precocious educatee is hard at work honing some key skills for her large debut. That includes making upwardly and down movements of the chest wall in preparation for breathing actual air when the time comes. Sucking and swallowing sessions besides make upwards a good part of her daily schedule now — and that'south a good thing. This way she won't miss a beat when it'due south time for that first delicious mom-made repast.

At a Glance

Getting set to feed

Your little one is practicing sucking and swallowing as he gets ready for the real matter: a breast or canteen!

Baby will presently be able to hear you lot!

Baby'southward sense of hearing is making big strides this week. His ears are close to beingness fully formed and he's starting to exist able to hear your voice.

Warming up

Fat stores are offset to develop under your baby's skin. This provides energy and will assistance go on your little 1 warm (and cute) after birth.

17 weeks pregnant is how many months?

If you're 17 weeks meaning, you're in calendar month 4 of your pregnancy. Only five months left to get! Still have questions? Hither's some more information on how weeks, months and trimesters are broken downward in pregnancy.

How big is my baby at 17 weeks?

My, how your baby has grown! Your niggling 1 weighs about 5 or more ounces and is the size of your palm, or around 5 inches long. Body fatty (baby's, that is) is starting time to form and will continue to accumulate through the end of your pregnancy — bring together the club, baby!

Baby's practicing sucking and swallowing

Since practise makes perfect, your baby is sharpening his sucking and swallowing skills in preparation for that starting time and second…and third suckle at your chest or the bottle.

In fact, most of the survival reflexes your baby will have at birth are being perfected in utero right now.

Fingerprints are forming

Here'due south some proof that your infant is truly one of a kind — equally if you needed whatever! Within the next calendar week or and then, the pads on your infant's fingertips and toes volition become adorned with completely individual swirls and creases, aka fingerprints.

Baby's heartbeat is more regular

Infant's heart is now regulated by the brain, so no more than random beats, and is churning out 140 to 150 beats per minute — about twice equally fast as yours.

Your Body at Week 17

Here come up the tummy touchers!

At present that you're starting to evidence, chances are that friends, coworkers and even strangers may feel the urge to reach out and affect your stomach. If yous don't listen, that's fine. But if you practise, speak upwardly kindly but firmly.

Your growing appetite

Remember when yous were and so queasy you could barely stomach ginger ale and a cracker? Happily, your toilet-hugging days and nights are probably over. And happily, these days it's more likely that you can't go plenty to eat.

For most women, the second trimester not only brings relief from morning sickness only also a hearty appetite. Don't be surprised if you suddenly feel hungry enough to polish off a sizable cutting of steak or a whole tray of baked ziti at 17 weeks significant.

What'southward behind your increase in appetite? Simple — you're taking signals from your infant, who'south getting bigger and hungrier. Not sure exactly how much weight you should gain during pregnancy? Talk to your practitioner, who will be able to help you maintain a healthy weight gain. Your doctor or midwife can also help you play weight gain catch-up if you didn't gain enough or lost weight during the first trimester.

Terminate snoring

One inexplicable pregnancy symptom? Snoring! Merely take middle: The stuffiness that often triggers globe-champion snoring is mutual — and temporary. That'south right, even your nose is affected by pregnancy hormones!

Try putting a humidifier in your chamber, using one of those nasal strips on your olfactory organ to open up your nasal passages, or sleeping on a couple of pillows to go on your head slightly elevated. And if your partner complains? Banish your sweetie to the sofa for the night — information technology's more important that you get a good dark's sleep.

Heightened symptoms

More new developments with your body may be on tap this calendar week: an increment in vaginal discharge (leukorrhea) and a greater sensitivity to allergens. Both are totally normal!

Pregnancy Symptoms Week 17

Increased ambition

Does your appetite seem insatiable these days? That's because your growing infant is enervating more nourishment. Heed to your hunger pangs and eat when you lot demand to; attempt to choose foods that fill you up and meet your food needs, like high-cobweb grains, produce and lean protein. Read More

Stretch marks

This badge of pregnancy is hereditary — so if you lot beginning finding some stretch marks on your body, it may exist because your mother had them likewise. But if y'all proceeds weight at a steady rate instead of in large spurts, this may go along the stretching gradual and, equally a upshot, less extreme. Read More

Occasional headaches

Whether hormones, fatigue, tension or some other culprit causes your headaches, it'southward usually okay to accept acetaminophen during pregnancy to alleviate the pain. But bank check with your practitioner offset. Read More

Faintness or dizziness

Dehydration tin can cause dizziness, and so make sure you stay hydrated by drinking at least eight spectacles of water a solar day — aim to beverage more than that if you've been exercising. Read More

Heartburn and indigestion

If y'all discover yourself feeling the burn after a big meal, avoid lying down after eating to keep gastric juices in the stomach where they belong. Read More

Backaches

Ease this common pregnancy symptom past making certain you have a supportive chair at work and a firm mattress at home. Otherwise, get a absorber for your chair to place behind your back so you lot tin keep your posture in line and place a board underneath your mattress to firm information technology upwards. Read More than

Tips for You This Week

Chest growth (and no chest growth) are both normal

Hormones and milk-producing glands are developing to prepare for nursing. All this activity, plus an increase in claret menstruation, can crusade your breasts to grow up to three cup sizes.

Of course, every significant woman'due south symptoms are unlike. While breast growth is common — and for some women quite a lot — you might non observe any changes at all in your breast size, peculiarly if you lot're busty to begin with. Even if you lot accept no chest growth, it's not cause for concern.

Stretch to preclude sciatica

The sciatic nervus, the largest in the body, starts in the lower back, runs down the buttocks, and branches downward the back of the legs to the ankles and feet.

In most cases, sciatica — sharp, shooting pain, tingling or numbness that starts in the dorsum or buttocks and radiates all the way down the legs — happens when this nerve gets compressed past jutting, slipped or ruptured discs.

Arthritis and a narrowing of the spinal canal, likewise chosen spinal stenosis, can also be culprits. Try a heating pad or dorsum stretches to ease the pain.

Time for the Tooth Fairy again?

Accept you noticed a mildly looser molar that suddenly makes you feel like you're back in unproblematic school?

Hormones can affect the gums, ligaments and bones in your oral cavity, which in turn can slightly loosen the teeth, especially if y'all have more serious untreated conditions like gingivitis or periodontis.

See the dentist as soon equally possible if you discover a very loose tooth or take other pregnant dental issues — don't put information technology off! And be sure to proceed up with twice-daily brushing, regular flossing and other important oral hygiene practices during pregnancy.

Ease round ligament pain

Your uterus is supported by thick bands (chosen ligaments) that run from the groin up the side of the abdomen.

As your uterus grows during pregnancy, these bands stretch out to accommodate your growing bump — which tin can cause precipitous pains and dull aches in the lower abdomen.

To relieve round ligament pain, make certain to spend time off your feet and decrease the intensity of your workouts. You can also consider wearing a belly band for a fiddling extra support.

Stay out of the sun

Seeing spots — on your face? A line downward your lower belly? Skin tags dotting your upper arms?

No need to dash to the dermatologist. These foreign pare symptoms, including darkening moles and heat rashes, are all normal and temporary. As usual, hormones are to blame, but the sun can exacerbate these changes in your complexion.

So stay shaded whenever you can — now's the time to invest in a wide-brimmed hat — and employ a broad spectrum sunscreen with an SPF of 30 or higher when you venture out in the daylight. Sunscreen is condom and smart to utilize when you lot're expecting. Enquire your doctor about anything you're concerned about.

Check your hands

Exercise the palms of your easily expect equally if you've touched a hot pan? You could take palmar erythema, a skin condition in which the palms of the hands or the soles of the feet appear redder or darker than normal.

The good news: It disappears after you give nativity. But definitely bank check in with your dr. just to make certain everything is normal.

Try not-dairy, calcium foods

If milk or other dairy products aren't your thing, you'll take to cash in on calcium a different way. Luckily, dairy products aren't the just sources of calcium — they're merely the most well-known.

Calcium-fortified orange juice and other fruit juices can offer near every bit much calcium every bit milk, cup for cup. For other non-dairy dietary sources of calcium, turn to leafy greenish vegetables, sesame seeds, almonds and calcium-fortified soy products similar tofu.

Still aren't getting enough? Enquire your practitioner near a calcium supplement for extra insurance.

From the What to Expect editorial team and Heidi Murkoff, author ofWhat to Expect When You're Expecting. What to Expect follows strict reporting guidelines and uses but credible sources, such as peer-reviewed studies, academic research institutions and highly respected health organizations. Learn how we keep our content accurate and upward-to-date past reading our medical review and editorial policy.

• What to Wait When You're Expecting, fifth edition, Heidi Murkoff.
• WhatToExpect.com, Snoring During Pregnancy, March 2021.
• WhatToExpect.com, What Sunscreen Is Rubber During Pregnancy?, May 2020.
• WhatToExpect.com, Palmar Erythema During Pregnancy, February 2021.
• WhatToExpect.com, How Much Calcium Do Yous Need During Pregnancy?, May 2020.
• WhatToExpect.com, Sciatica During Pregnancy, December 2020.
• WhatToExpect.com, Circular Ligament Pain During Pregnancy, December 2020.
• National Institutes of Health, National Library of Medicine, Fetal Development, June 2021.
• Mayo Clinic, Fetal Development: The 2d Trimester, June 2020.
• Johns Hopkins Medicine, The Second Trimester, 2021.
• National Institutes of Wellness, National Library of Medicine, Snoring, May 2021.
• National Institutes of Health, National Library of Medicine, Sciatica, April 2021.
• American Higher of Rheumatology, Spinal Stenosis, March 2019.
• Journal of the American Dental Association, Dental Care During Pregnancy, Nov 2018.
• National Institutes of Health, Office of Dietary Supplements, Calcium, March 2021.
• American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, Exercise During Pregnancy, July 2019.
• American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, Pare Conditions During Pregnancy, June 2020.
• American Academy of Dermatology, Sunscreen FAQs, 2021.

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Source: https://www.whattoexpect.com/pregnancy/week-by-week/week-17.aspx