As week 17 starts, your baby starts get rounder and fatter. Your baby is roughly the size of a large pear, around 12 centimeters long and weighs nearly 150 grams. The baby's skeleton also continues to grow. While week 18 marks the development of your baby's sense of hearing and he or she can hear your heart beating. The brain also continues to develop cognitive skills and the nervous system continues to develop reflexes. The baby may recoil from a large noise.
Changes to Your Body
The main change you will notice is a fluttering in your belly. This is the baby kicking! You may also feel the occasional tap as if the baby is reminding you that he or she is still here!
By next week, your swelling belly may bring along some slightly uncomfortable symptoms, including heartburn. It's caused when stomach acid backs up into the esophagus, and causes burning sensation. Symptoms are most common during the second and third trimesters, because your growing uterus may compress your stomach and push its contents upward.
Lifestyle Considerations
Now's the time to sign up for childbirth classes with your partner! Ask your hospital about its programs or look on the Internet to find information about classes near you. To ease symptoms, you may need to eat five or six smaller meals instead of three large ones. Avoid fatty, fried foods, which take longer to break down, as well as things that are spicy, acidic or bubbly.
Good Advice
Make sure you are drinking your milk. Your baby's soft rubbery skeleton is hardening into bone and needs calcium to grow strong. You may wanted to start taking classes about baby care, a little next week and yet another to get experience with mothering first hand. Call up a relative or friend who has a baby and ask to spend the day with her so you can learn more about diapering and feeding a baby. EzineArticles.com