17 Weeks Pregnant - low lying placenta

It's been a funny week. After the scare last week with the spotting it's all been a little bit up and down. Firstly the spotting went away over the weekend, which was great and I didn't really have anything at the start of the week. I was called into the Hospital for a scan on Thursday, which I actually thought was quite unnecessary at first, given that the spotting had stopped, but I went anyway. The scan was pretty quick and much more "medical" than the 12 week one. I got the feeling I wasn't supposed to enjoy it. I'm really glad I went though because as soon as she saw that my placenta is low-lying she said that was most likely the cause of the spotting. Apparently that's not a great cause for concern at this stage, as 99% of placentas move away from the cervix as the uterus grows. It's only if it doesn't move that might mean this one has to come out the sunroof, but we're a long way from that yet. Apart from that, all the measurements of the baby show it's growing well.

I've almost certainly felt the baby move now too, which is wonderful, I just can't wait until it becomes more frequent now. I'm not putting on too much weight now either, so I'm feeling much more comfortable in my own skin.

So, this is me, 17 weeks pregnant.

According to BabyCentre, I may be gaining weight rapidly at this point, even if I'm not eating much (sorry, what?!). Experts say that the amount of weight you put on during pregnancy is dictated primarily by your genes, so don't necessarily blame yourself if the weight's accumulating faster than you'd like. My baby is now nearly 11cm long from crown to rump and weighs about 140g. His skeleton is mostly rubbery cartilage, but will start to harden as the weeks go by. A protective substance called myelin slowly begins to wrap around his spinal cord. Sweat glands are starting to develop all over his body. Just as he grows bigger, the umbilical cord, his lifeline to the placenta, is growing stronger and thicker, too.