Chorevia

Day 124 of 280 · 17 weeks + 5 days

Half a kilo

Last reviewed · 3 min read · 7 sources · Plain-text version

Seventeen weeks and five days. The placenta grows with the baby and will weigh about 500 g by the end. Today you hold that weight in your hand.

Size this week
about the size of a pomegranate
Length this week
around 12 cm from head to bottom
A woman with a small bump in a loose t-shirt at a kitchen scale, pouring rice into a paper bag, a young child on a stool beside her watching, bright midday light.

Seventeen weeks and five days. Today is about the organ nobody photographs.

Your baby

A whole red pomegranate on a plain pale wooden board, soft window light.

Around 12cm from head to bottom, roughly the size of a pomegranate (NHS). The eyes move behind closed lids, the mouth opens and closes, and the fingernails are starting to grow (NHS).

Your body

"Week by week, your baby's getting bigger, and so is your placenta, which is feeding your baby and also removing waste," the NHS says; by the end of pregnancy it will weigh about 500g (NHS). It's the organ you grew on day 99's page: it supplies nutrients, oxygen and hormones, removes waste such as carbon dioxide, and connects to the baby through the umbilical cord, and your blood and the baby's don't mix (NHS).

The womb is changing shape too. Around now the waist begins to disappear as the womb rises out of the pelvis, which makes the pregnancy more obvious (NHS). Round ligament pains are on the list of common symptoms (NHS); MedlinePlus says this pain most often occurs between 18 and 24 weeks, that moving slowly or changing positions may help, and that a maternity girdle may be useful (MedlinePlus).

Try today

  1. The half-kilo bag

    Time: 5 minutes

    1. Weigh out 500 g of rice, flour, or dried beans into a bag. That's the placenta at the end of pregnancy (NHS).

    2. Hold it in one hand, then hold it against your lower belly.

    3. Say what it does, out loud, to whoever is in the kitchen: it feeds the baby and removes waste (NHS).

    4. Leave the bag on the counter for your partner to pick up.

    Make it work:

    If an older child is around, let them hold it. "This is the part that feeds the baby" is a sentence a four-year-old can carry.

Watch for

  • Normal

    a jab in the side of the bump, round ligament pain (NHS), which most often occurs between 18 and 24 weeks (MedlinePlus).

    Call your provider right away

    for constant, severe abdominal pain, possible contractions, or pain with bleeding or fever (MedlinePlus).

  • Normal

    numbness or tingling in the legs and toes from the growing uterus pressing on nerves, or hands that are numb on waking (MedlinePlus).

    Call your provider

    to check any persistent numbness, tingling, or weakness in an arm or leg (MedlinePlus).

  • Normal

    dizziness when you stand up quickly, because your blood pressure is probably lower now (NHS).

    Seek care immediately

    for fainting; dizziness or fainting is on the CDC's list of urgent maternal warning signs (CDC).

For you

The waist is going. The NHS says it's around now that the womb rises out of the pelvis and the pregnancy becomes obvious (NHS). The half-kilo is a good answer for the day a stranger notices: part of what's growing isn't the baby at all. It's a whole organ you built from nothing, and it leaves with the baby; MedlinePlus's phrase is "after the baby and placenta are delivered" (MedlinePlus).

If you're the partner: carry the bag to wherever bags go. She's carrying the real one, and from here on, when she stops to change position after a jab in the side, that's MedlinePlus's advice (MedlinePlus), not a delay.

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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