16 weeks pregnant: what is happening this week

11.6 cm and avocado-sized, with a nervous system now developed enough to drive the arms and legs properly. Hands can make fists. The face pulls expressions - smiles, frowns - with no muscle control behind them and no feeling attached, which is a strange thing to picture and entirely ordinary. There is an appointment this week, and it is the first proper check since booking. A midwife takes blood pressure and a urine sample, may listen to the heartbeat, and goes through the results of the blood tests taken at booking. It is short and it is routine, and the useful part is that it is the first slot in the calendar designed for asking things. Bring the list. On the same page, the NHS notes that the whooping cough vaccination is offered from week 16 onwards, with around week 20 being typical and week 32 the outer edge of the window. Gums that bleed when brushed and the occasional nosebleed also turn up around here, both driven by the same increase in blood volume that has been building since the first trimester.