Soon after a few more months, you will finally be able to hold your little munchkin in your embracing arms and see it with your naked eyes. The journey until now has been one hell of a ride in reverse for sure. At 17 weeks pregnant, you are solidly into the second trimester of your pregnancy. Things must have started to ease a little bit by now. Your baby is growing rapidly and preparing itself for the real world.
It is said that you do not understand life until it is creating inside you. You are at a stage where you could resonate the most with this famous saying. At this point, being heavily pregnant with a 17-week baby bump, you must go through a lot of things and may develop a new perspective about life altogether.
Anyhow, the good news is that you are only 23 weeks away from welcoming your baby on the earth-side.
Pregnancy Week: 17
At 17 weeks pregnant, your baby has grown about 19.6 centimeters and weighs 179 grams. This is the baby’s crown to heel length i.e., from head to toe. It is almost as big as an onion. This week your baby will show tremendous growth. The ears that have been under development for a while, will now start functioning. Very soon, your baby will be able to hear you!
It will start making fat tissues that are scientifically known as adipose. It will first develop in the areas of the face, neck, breast, and stomach wall. Following them, the fat cells will gradually grow on the back, shoulders, arms, legs, and chest. It will help fill in the features of the baby. Those cute chubby cheeks will be formed as well.
This development of fat cells will ensure that the organs are protected and cushioned. Additionally, your baby’s bones and muscles have become more ossified and are still developing by each passing day.
Besides, your baby can now suck and drink amniotic fluid. It will soon develop good skills in sucking. However, both these actions are not coordinated as yet. It is taking baby steps and would be able to coordinate these actions by the time you are 32 to 34 weeks pregnant. Also, the sucking reflex would mature only after you are 36 weeks pregnant.
As the baby is growing bigger, the nourishment requires also grows. To provide the needed amount of nourishment, the placenta and umbilical cord are growing to encourage and make your 17 weeks pregnant womb more hospitable for your growing baby. The umbilical cord will start becoming thicker and longer, meanwhile, the placenta will also expand. These developments will make your 17 week baby bump look bigger than before.
17 Weeks Pregnant Symptoms
This week you may develop a few new symptoms of pregnancy. If you are one of the lucky ones and have been feeling energetic and free from those annoying first trimester symptoms, then these new pregnancy symptoms won’t really bother you. However, every pregnancy is different and so is the magnitude or intensity of all these pregnancy symptoms.
1. Nasal congestion
Your pregnancy might just get right up your nose this week, quite literally. You may find yourself being turned into an unethical sleeper who snores. Almost 39% of pregnant women experience snoring as a pregnancy symptom. It is at its peak especially during week 13 and week 21. Scientifically, this pregnancy symptom is called pregnancy rhinitis.
The reason behind this symptom is suspected to be the hormones and increased blood circulation. These factors can cause the mucous gland to swell its production and make your nose feel stuffy consequentially. It may also lead to consequent sneezing.
2. Lower back and pelvic pain
The growing uterus, stretching muscles, and surging hormones affect your ligaments and joints. Along with that, they also get on your back and pelvic areas. These heavy and rampant changes can burden your body and resultantly cause all these aches and pain. In fact, according to research, almost every 2 out of 3 pregnant women experience low back pain. While 1 out of 5 suffers pelvic pain. Both these aches are very common pregnancy symptoms that many women complain about.
17 Weeks Pregnant Ultrasound
Your baby’s genitalia is visible and the sex of your baby can be determined now. However, the technician won’t reveal the gender of the baby as it is banned in India. Other than that, the baby’s ears, eyes, and other physical features are more prominent and developed by now. The new growth of fat cells will make your baby’s body look a little more plump and round.
Pregnancy Week 17You can also notice your baby moving around in the ultrasound scan. Also, the head of the baby becomes more proportionate to its body by the time you are 17 weeks pregnant. This proportion can be seen in the ultrasound scan. This scan will make sure that there are no complications in your pregnancy and both you and your baby are healthy.
Some Self-Care Tips for Pregnancy
Dealing with nasal congestion- During pregnancy, the sleep cycle anyway becomes very erratic. Facing new problems like nasal congestion would only make the matters worse. Thus, it becomes imperative to treat this problem as soon as possible.
There are lots of home remedies you can try. You can get saline spray or drops, neti pot, nasal strips, etc. Also, you can add one more pillow beneath your head to keep it elevated while sleeping. Another possible reason could be environmental factors like dust mites, smoke, pollen, or chemical fumes. In such a case, get a humidifier.
Prenatal exercise- Exercising can help ease all the backaches and pelvic ache. It will help your body stretch and become a little flexible. Other than this, there are many other reasons prenatal exercise is beneficial and advised. Hence, enroll yourself in some light training like walking, swimming, dancing, etc. Ask your doctor and get going.
We know that some of the days can be really tiresome and exhausting for you. You’d wish to get over with this soon. But trust us, this is as close to magic as you could ever come. The day you hold your baby, you will find all these exhausting days worth nothing in front of your adorable baby.
