Make sure your husband or partner makes this month's prenatal appointment. You're both in for a treat as you begin to experience the sights and sounds of your growing child.

Tests This Month

Depending on your provider's policy on ultrasound exams and on your personal medical history, you may be seeing your baby this month. (For the complete story on ultrasound examinations, see Chapter 5.)

Your provider will also start estimating the size of your baby by taking a tape measure to your belly and counting the centimeters from your pubic bone to the tip of your fundus — the top of the uterus. Taking this measurement at each visit gives your practitioner a way to assess your baby's ongoing growth. Some practitioners do not take the fundal height until after week 12 or even week 20. It's important to remember that fundal height is used as a screening tool only; women who are overweight, carrying multiples, or have a fetus in the breech position may not measure accurately.

If the fundal height is too large or too small for gestational age, it could indicate problems such as gestational diabetes or intrauterine growth retardation. After twenty weeks of pregnancy, the length should be roughly equivalent to the baby's gestational age, give or take three centimeters.

You may be told about the alpha-fetoprotein/triple-/quad-test this month. This blood test is typically given at weeks 15 to 18 and screens for the possibility of neural tube defects and/or chromosomal abnormalities in the fetus. Since the test is optional, many providers give an informational sheet to patients the month before so they have time to consider whether they want to take it. (For more on the AFP/triple-/quad-test, see Chapter 5.)

Baby's Heartbeat

Hearing the steady woosh-woosh of your baby's heart for the first time is one of the most thrilling and emotional moments of pregnancy. Your chance at first contact happens this month as your provider checks for the fetal heartbeat, using a small ultrasound device called a Doppler or Doptone. If you have a retroverted uterus (also known as a tipped or tilted uterus), it's possible the Doppler won't detect the heartbeat just yet. Don't be alarmed; by your next prenatal appointment you will probably be able to hear it loud and clear.