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Day 94 of 280 · 13 weeks + 3 days

Ten cups

Last reviewed · 3 min read · 11 sources · Plain-text version

Thirst often goes up around now. Today you count every cup for one day and find out how far you are from the ten the Institute of Medicine suggests.

Size this week
about the size of a peach
Length this week
around 7.4 cm from head to bottom
A woman in a loose shirt at an office desk by a window, refilling a glass from a big water bottle, pencil tally marks on a sticky note by the keyboard, bright noon light, the faintest hint of a bump.

Thirteen weeks and three days. Today's task is a tally. Not a target to hit, just a count of what you actually drink, so that "plenty of fluids" stops being a guess.

Your baby

One ripe peach on a plain pale wooden table, soft window light.

Around now your baby is around 7.4cm long, about the size of a peach (NHS). Fluid is their whole world. By next week the NHS describes the baby swallowing small amounts of amniotic fluid, which the kidneys pass out as urine (NHS). Drinking is practice for them too.

Your body

Thirst may increase around now, and the NHS's advice is to drink plenty of fluids (NHS). The Institute of Medicine's figure, as the Office on Women's Health gives it, is about 10 cups of fluids a day (OWH). The same fluids do double duty: MedlinePlus suggests 8 to 9 cups of water daily against constipation (MedlinePlus), and OWH gives eight to 10 glasses for both constipation and swelling (OWH).

The good news on the other end: needing to pee so often should stop around now, as the womb moves up and away from the bladder (NHS). Drinking more doesn't have to mean living in the bathroom.

Try today

  1. The ten-cup day

    Time: all day, a few seconds at a time

    1. Pick one cup or bottle and learn what it holds, so a tally mark means the same thing every time.

    2. Make a mark somewhere you'll see it, the fridge door or a note on your phone, every time you refill.

    3. Count tea and coffee, but keep them small: MedlinePlus says 1 or 2 small cups of caffeinated coffee or tea a day is fine in pregnancy, under 200 mg of caffeine (MedlinePlus).

    4. Front-load the day. MedlinePlus advises against lots of fluids within a few hours of bedtime, for the sake of your sleep (MedlinePlus).

    5. At bedtime, count the marks against the IOM's about 10 cups (OWH). Whatever the number, you now know it.

    Make it work:

    Water for sodas and fruit drinks is the swap MedlinePlus suggests (MedlinePlus); it counts the same on the tally and costs nothing.

Watch for

  • Normal

    feeling hot; it's on this week's list (NHS).

    Seek medical care immediately

    for symptoms of heat-related illness; pregnancy raises the risk of dehydration, which makes it harder for the body to cool itself (CDC).

  • Normal

    dizziness, also on the list (NHS).

    Call your provider

    for dizziness or fainting; it is on the CDC's urgent list (CDC).

  • Normal

    more discharge than before (NHS).

    Call your provider

    for fluid leaking from the vagina, at any point in pregnancy (CDC).

For you

The simplest version of today is a bottle that goes everywhere you go. Ten cups rarely happens at the kitchen tap; it happens on the commute, at the desk, in the car. If you're at work, routine bathroom breaks are on MedlinePlus's list of reasonable asks, and may lower the risk of a urinary infection (MedlinePlus). Drinking more and being allowed to pee go together.

If you're the partner: fill the bottle before she leaves, and don't count her cups for her. The tally is the whole exercise, and it's hers.

Sources

This guide is general education that summarizes published research and guidance from groups like the American Academy of Pediatrics, the CDC, and the WHO. It isn’t medical advice, and every child develops on their own timeline. Your pediatrician knows your child; if something feels wrong, call them. In an emergency, call 911.

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