Your Pregnancy: Week 14

Welcome to the second trimester.

At week 14, baby is about 8cm long and weighs around 43 grams while your uterus is the size of your fist. Baby is starting to grow hair called ‘lanugo’ on his face and head. The placenta/whenua is fully functional too. Blood vessels are rapidly developing as the baby’s central nervous system starts operating.

You may have been able to find out the sex of your pēpi at your recent ultrasound – the genitals are fully developed now. However, sometimes they’re still hard to detect on a scan at this stage so you might have to wait until the next ultrasound appointment for confirmation on whether you have a male or a female. If you don’t want to find out the sex, be sure to let the ultrasound technician know that you want to keep it a surprise.

For some mums-to-be, a faint vertical line called a ‘linea nigra’ may start to appear down the centre of your abdomen from your pelvis to your naval and up to your ribs. It tends to get darker throughout pregnancy but often disappears after birth.