Pregnancy week 18: heartbeat

An update at 18 weeks pregnant…what can you expect from this point in the second trimester and what pregnancy signs, symptoms and feelings will you be experiencing?

This week at 18 weeks pregnant I heard the baby’s heartbeat for the first time since the scan, which is always lovely, isn’t it?

What wasn’t so lovely was when the midwife couldn’t actually find the heartbeat. Proper heart-topping stuff. But it turned out she could hear the baby move all along, it’s just that they were moving too much for her to get a proper trace. A horrible half a minute, though.

All fine at 18 weeks pregnant, but turns out we are just (!) having another super-active baby, who is either slightly doppler-shy or pretty mischievous.

And apparently I have a ‘lovely and thick sounding placenta.’ Which is what every women wants, surely?

We don’t find out the sex out for a week or so, and only then will my husband finally talk baby names. But if the speed of the heart beat is anything to go by – an old wives tale, but it was true with Eliza and according to my friend’s midwife mum – then I know what we’re having. Although as I was convinced Eliza was a boy, I don’t really have the greatest of track records on these things.

This was my 18 weeks pregnant update…you can also read me series of pregnancy updates so far, read my pregnancy updates at week 17, week 16, week 15, week 14, and an update on what to expect from the first trimester