Use our pregnancy calendar to see what’s happening in your pregnancy each week.

It’s finally time to start rolling out the baby brain excuse! Here’s what you can expect from week twenty three of your pregnancy.

Your Baby:

Is the size of a big ol’ mango. Which is actually pretty sizeable when you look at one in Tesco.

Can feel you moving around

Is probably kicking the crap out of you daily. But it still feels cute right now so that’s okay…

You:

Can officially use the excuse of baby brain. Blame the progesterone levels!

May start suffering from an achey back, pelvis or hips from now on. Yay.

Week Twenty Three

It’s week twenty three of your pregnancy which means baby is just one week away from being classed as ‘viable’ should something happen. Baby is developing nicely and their transparent skin shows off their wonderfully developed organs before they start to put down fat stores.

You should be feeling your baby move around a fair amount now. Kicks and punches will become stronger over the next few weeks as they start to run out of room but for the time being there should be enough space in there for them to flip around nicely! Speaking of flipping… you may feel them startle if there’s a loud noise. Something I definitely noticed last time more (thanks anterior placenta for shielding that joy this time, sneezing is already stressful enough!)

Your body is producing plenty of hormones that help to relax the ligaments around your joints ready for getting a baby out. This, combined with your rapidly weight-gaining bump, may mean your posture’s changed, pulling your back, hips and pelvis into all sorts of odd positions. Try to be more aware of how you sit, stand and sleep if you can as well as think about investing in a bump support if things get uncomfortable. It’s around now I started to adopt sleeping with a pillow wedged between my knees… great for comfort, less great for intimacy in the bedroom. Although look where intimacy left us…

Other fun things this week: Baby brain is a saying I can’t stand, but I have to admit to it catching me this week. I unlocked the car, loaded in the toddler, the bags, the buggy and the rest of the world, got in and promptly forget which ‘safe’ place I’d put my key in whilst doing it. Twenty minutes, two lots of tears (both mine) and a lot of searching later, I finally unloaded us ready to admit defeat. Only to find the keys in the buggy. That I’d packed away. I’m blaming the baby…

Missed a week? Catch up on week twenty two

Fancy sneaking ahead? Here’s week twenty four