18 Weeks Pregnant

During pregnancy, progesterone increases the flow of blood to your baby, resulting in lower blood pressure and reduced blood flow to your brain — giving you that faint feeling all over.

To help stave off dizziness, always stand up from a sitting or lying position slowly.

Now’s a great time in your pregnancy to interview potential pediatricians. After all, there’s a good chance that the doctor will first see your baby within 24 hours of your little one’s birth.

So ask a lot of questions before you make your selection and broach topics like appointment availability, hospital affiliations, vaccines and circumcision.

Unfortunately, we don't mean "relaxing." During the second trimester, your body releases relaxin, a hormone that (as the name implies) loosens the ligaments that hold your bones together. The result: an achy pelvis and hips — and maybe even bigger feet!

You may be cursing this pregnancy hormone now, but when you're trying to push out your baby's big head, you’ll be thanking relaxin for doing its job.

Even red-meat eaters can have a hard time getting enough iron from their diets. If you're someone who sticks to plant-based foods, you'll have to double your efforts to pump up the iron — vegan and vegetarian moms-to-be have a higher risk for iron-deficiency anemia.

Foods like beans, soy products, oat bran, barley, pumpkin seeds, dried fruits, spinach, seaweed, Jerusalem artichokes and blackstrap molasses all have some iron in them, but you may also need to take an iron supplement to make sure you're meeting your daily quota. Ask your practitioner whether that’s the case.

Herbal supplements do make the most tempting of promises — especially when pregnancy leaves you with few self-medicating options. Would it really hurt to pop a couple of ginkgo biloba capsules to give your brain cells a fighting chance of remembering to pay this month's electric bill? After all, the bottles say "all natural"…and you did buy them at the health food store.

Actually, it could hurt — particularly now that you're sharing those pills with a little someone else. Herbs and herbal remedies are not tested or approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) prior to going on the market and are not required to undergo clinical trials, so their safety, or lack thereof, is unknown.

Even supplements that you've heard could be helpful could actually be harmful at different points during your pregnancy — by causing premature labor if taken too early, for instance.

And a number of herbs — such as basil oil, black or blue cohosh, clove oil, sassafras, wild yam and many others — can be downright dangerous if taken anytime during pregnancy. Be safe and check with your practitioner before you pop any pill.

Certain exercises may work great for the non-pregnant set, but now that you’re expecting, don't even think about trying them.

Just say no to upside-down "bicycles," shoulder stands, or flat-on-your-back positions after the fourth month.

Also off-limits: deep-knee bends, back bends, jumping and bouncing.

You'll probably notice baby's first little kicks anytime between weeks 18 and 22 — and sometimes as late as weeks 23 or 24 for first-time pregnancies.

Those tiny feet can be felt in many different ways: as the merest flutter, the most insistent slug or gas bubbles that aren't gas at all.

As for when and how you'll feel your baby move? Several factors come into play: a mom's size (the slimmer you are, the more likely you'll feel movements earlier); your muscle tone (the laxer the uterine muscles, the easier it is to feel those kicks — which is why second-timers generally feel them sooner); and the baby's position (it’s trickier to notice movement when your baby kicks facing in).

An incorrect due date can also throw off the recognition of those monumental first kicks. Don't worry: There's no mistaking the real thing once your baby gets the technique down — and gets big enough to pack a serious punch.