Week 13

Your Baby:

• Is about three inches long, the size of a jumbo shrimp, or a very small ramekin of tartar sauce.
• Has his or her own unique fingerprints already.
• Has intestines on the INSIDE of his or her body. (They start developing outside the body, in the umbilical cord, and then sort of…migrate up to their proper home around 13 weeks. I know. Biology is WEIRD, dude.)
• Will look less and less like a Big Giant Head and more and more proportionate as the next weeks tick by.

You:

• Are probably not puking anymore? But don’t freak out if you still are? I generally feel iffy until around week 16, although right now I’m only suffering from the occasional dry heave (on Tuesdays. Every damn Tuesday.) and have actual full days where I want to eat everything in sight because it’s all so gooooood.
• Are probably not as tired anymore? Unless you are me? I still can’t seem to get enough sleep or make it through the day without a catnap. Although maybe I am just very lazy.
• May start glowing soon, like everybody always talks about. The “glow” is actually just hormonal changes in your skin’s oil production, but it seems most people find it dewy and lovely instead of…ew, gross, oil.
• Your hair and nails might be changing as well — a lot of women stop shedding hair during their pregnancies, leading to very thick heads of hair that may also grow faster. Fingernails tend to get stronger and longer as well, which I can personally attest to BEING AWESOME.

Welcome to the second trimester! Well, the second trimester as defined by MOST pregnancy books and calendars, although I believe there may be one or two that count week 13 as part of the first trimester (cough cough BabyCenter Essential Guide to Pregnancy and Birth cough), but they can suck eggs, frankly. I would never do that to you. We are in the second trimester, baby. I promise it gets better.

I went and bought some serious maternity clothes this weekend — something I swore I wouldn’t have to do because hi! I’ve been pregnant before. I should already have buckets of maternity stuff. Except when I started digging through it all, I found that I didn’t have very much.

Since my last pregnancy was going to be my last and only pregnancy, I refused to spend money on maternity clothes. I bought everything on clearance, from the cheapest stores possible, and then borrowed the rest. So now I’m dealing with a three-fold problem:

1) I gave all the hand-me-downs back and have been unable to procure a new clothing source, because everybody else I know is either pregnant right now or was pregnant in the winter.

2) All the cheap stuff I bought barely made it through one pregnancy, and is practically disintegrating.

3) Also, wow, I wore THAT? THAT is ugly. I do not want to wear THAT again.

Add on to this a mysterious weight loss that I was not aware of — I appear to be about 10 pounds lighter and a full size smaller than I was when I started my first pregnancy — and even the few nice pieces that I splurged on last time are way, way too big. Oh! And! The stuff I own is more suited for a professional office. Which I do not go to anymore.

So I have about eight pairs of (way too big) khakis that require regular ironing (hah!), four pairs of cheapo black stretch pants with holes in the crotch, and ONE WHOLE PAIR OF JEANS. That are also way too big. And a lot of pink shirts. I…really dislike the pink shirts.

So I guess the lesson for all you first-time pregnant ladies out there is this: Don’t always go with the ultra-cheap stuff, because no matter what you think now, you may very well end up needing to wear it again, but also don’t always go with the ultra-expensive stuff, because no matter what you think now, there’s no guarantee that you’ll be able to wear it again.

Does that help? Glad I could clear that one up.

So fine, I snagged a 15% off coupon at my doctor’s office for a local fancy-like maternity boutique in the area and splurged on an amazing pair of jeans (Paige and Citizens make maternity versions of their jeans and really are a far cry from some of the droopy-butt stretch-pants some stores try to pass off as “denim”), a really cute dress, and two shirts that I love and have already worn like, seven times in the course of three days. I’ve filled out my maternity wardrobe with plenty of comfy clothes for around the house and quite a few non-maternity items from H&M and Old Navy and Target (seriously, I’m rejoicing over some of the baggy long tops and dresses I’ve gotten, but what non-pregnant girl would EVER want to wear stuff that will easily cover a six-month-old fetus?).

So basically: build your maternity wardrobe just like your regular one. Mix and match high-end with bargains, invest in the stuff you know you’ll wear to death (like jeans or dress pants or even a suit if you need it) and don’t cut corners to the extent that you end up cringing over photos of the ghastly stuff you wore. Remember you’ll wear maternity stuff after the baby is born too, and will probably want to wear something other than breastmilk-stained yoga pants occasionally. You know, if you’re ever feeling fancy.

(Oh, and if you’re still cringing over the thought of spending money on maternity clothing and are also coming up dry on the hand-me-downs, check around your area for a mother-and-baby consignment shop. These are great for scoring the higher-end stuff AND for getting some of your money back when you’re done with your own clothing.)

Oh Yeah, THIS: please let me make it through the night without waking up to pee soon. please let me make it through the night without waking up to pee soon. oh please, I cannot take the waking-up-to-pee thing much longer.

New This Time Around: I feel like I am kind of half-assing this pregnancy, especially when it comes to nutrition. I’m just…eek. Not caring at all. I’ve forgotten my prenatal vitamin more times that I’d like to admit, and have eaten some bonehead things out of sheer absent-mindedness. This weekend we went to a very nice dinner party at a friend’s house, and I was halfway through my scallop-and-beef tartare with a raw quail egg cracked on top before I finally stopped and looked at it and went, “OH. RIGHT. CRAP.” I’m definitely more relaxed about stuff like an occasional tuna fish sandwich or some nice cold cuts from a gourmet deli, but I have to admit that I sometimes do need to wake up and pay more attention to this stuff.

Related post: Pregnancy and COVID-19: What We Know (& a Few Things We Don’t)