At a glance
Say hi to baby with pats, rubs, songs and sounds. He’ll hear you
Keep up those kegel exercises for your pelvic floor in preparation for ‘Labour Day’
Have you booked your ante-natal classes yet? It’s a great way to meet other parents-to-be
If you are what you eat, then so is baby. Keep munching on healthy fruit and veg
Baby's development at 19 weeks pregnant
Your baby at 19 weeks is the size of a mango, and a very active one. His arms and legs are moving and there’s a lot of kicking, pedalling, and wriggling going on. And because he’s still quite teeny there’s plenty of room to do acrobatics with somersaults and backflips becoming a regular occurrence. To change position, he can push his feet against the wall of your uterus - you might even see the little leg pushing and stretching your tummy!
This week he’ll start to be covered in a waxy coating called ‘vernix’ this is so that his skin is protected while he floats around in amniotic fluid. A good thing too – imagine how prune-y you’d get after 9 months in a bath!
You two aren’t necessarily on the same time clock so you might be woken up at night by some tummy acrobatics. It’s fun to pat back and say hello so he knows mummy is there for him. A few gentle strokes may also send him back to sleep – he sleeps around 20 hours at the moment.
Changes in you and your body at 19 weeks pregnant
Your 19 week-pregnancy bump will make you start to feel really pregnant. You’re carrying more weight and your kegel muscles are loosening, thanks again to Relaxin. With the extra weight of baby on your bladder you may find a laugh, a cough or a sneeze causes a small trickle.
It’s a great idea to start doing kegel exercises as soon as you become pregnant, as they’ll help you squeeze your baby out during labour and reduce your risk of experiencing incontinence after baby arrives. To find your kegel muscles imagine stopping the flow of urine when you go to the toilet or squeezing as though you’re gripping a tampon in your vagina.
When exercising, sit comfortably and squeeze 10 to 15 times in a row. Make sure you don’t hold your breath or tighten your stomach, buttocks, or thighs at the same time.
Once you get used to that, try holding each squeeze for a few seconds. As you get stronger, add more squeezes. Just be careful not to overdo it, and always have a rest between sets.
Nutrition at 19 weeks pregnant
Making a baby is hard, wonderful work, and you need to be well nourished by a healthy diet to keep you both in great shape. For baby, a healthy diet can increase the chances of a healthy birth weight and could create good eating habits in early life. For you, a healthy diet could help make some pregnancy symptoms like constipation, morning sickness and fatigue less severe. You need to eat a full range of all the food groups. Fruit and vegetables should make up at least a third of your diet. Simple things like opting for lower fat yoghurt, skimmed milk and fruit instead of sugary snacks can make a difference. You might be eating little and often these days so it’s good to think of healthy snack swaps. Here’s a few:
- Swap a blueberry muffin for a currant bun with low fat spread
- Swap cheese straws for rice cakes with low fat cream cheese
- Swap your morning latte for a coffee with semi-skimmed or skimmed milk
- Swap white toast, pasta and rice for brown or wholegrain versions
Getting help for the second half
You’re halfway through pregnancy, can you believe it? Like many mums-to-be, as time goes on more and more questions can pop up for you. What’s ok and not ok to eat? What are the signs of labour? Can I exercise when pregnant? It’s worth going to antenatal classes so you can discuss any questions or concerns. They’ll also be able to help you prepare for the birth, as well as teaching you how to look after and feed baby. Talking to other parents-to-be is always a real support too.
See our checklist web app for help with this and lots of other aspects of being a new parent.
