Week 14 of Pregnancy: Making Faces
Week 14 opens the second trimester, the stretch most people call the golden one. Energy and appetite commonly return, the baby is about the size of a juggling ball and pulling actual facial expressions, and the whole thing gets easier for a while. Use it, because the third trimester will not lend you any time back.
- Do the hard conversations now: money, names, night shifts and the visitor policy.
- Keep every chore you absorbed during the sickness, even though she seems fine again.
- Go on the maternity clothes trip with a budget agreed in advance.
- If sickness has not eased, or either of you has questions about intimacy, ask the midwife or doctor.
▸Second trimester, week one
At 14 weeks pregnant the baby is around nine centimetres. The facial muscles now work well enough to squint, frown and grimace, none of it meaning anything yet. A fine covering of soft hair begins to develop, the neck is lengthening so the head no longer rests on the chest, and the kidneys are producing urine into the amniotic fluid.
Movement is stronger and more coordinated, though a first-time mother typically will not feel recognisable movement for several more weeks. If she thinks she felt something, take it seriously and do not correct her.
▸Why they call it the golden trimester
For many people the second trimester brings back energy, appetite and the ability to stand in a kitchen without leaving it. Nausea commonly eases, sleep is not yet wrecked by size, and she is not yet carrying enough weight to be uncomfortable all day. It is genuinely the easiest phase of the three.
For many, not all. Plenty of people carry sickness well past the first trimester. If hers has not lifted, that is worth raising with the midwife or doctor rather than waiting it out on the assumption that week 14 is supposed to fix it. It is a pattern, not a schedule.
There is a subtler thing to watch for. Once the visible crisis passes, it is easy to quietly stand down and stop doing the jobs you took over in week 8. Do not. The chores you absorbed during the sickness stay absorbed.
▸Spend the good weeks deliberately
Everything hard is easiest right now: the trip, the classes, the research on the pram and car seat and cot, and the conversations that need both of you awake and civil. Money. Names. How you will split the nights. What the visitor policy is in the first fortnight, and whose parents are told what about it. That last set is the one couples avoid and then have to conduct at week 38, exhausted and mildly frightened.
Intimacy often returns in the second trimester too, and it is common for it to be complicated in either direction. One thing worth clearing up rather than avoiding: if either of you is quietly worried that sex could harm the baby, ask the midwife or doctor. In most uncomplicated pregnancies clinicians do not restrict it, but there are specific situations where they advise otherwise, which is exactly why it is a question for them rather than a forum.
▸Maternity clothes and the body conversation
Her clothes stop fitting well before there is a bump worth showing off, which is its own peculiar limbo: nothing fits, nothing looks intentional, and there is no visible reason to explain it. That gap is unsettling in a way nobody warns people about.
Go with her. Set the budget before you walk in rather than negotiating in a changing room, carry everything, and give an opinion when asked instead of drifting toward the exit. Cheap wins exist: bands that extend the waistband of jeans she already owns, borrowing from friends who have finished with theirs, and secondhand.
And watch the language. Compliment her, not the bump, and never her size in any direction. Big, huge, tiny and comparisons to anyone else are all the same mistake. If she says she feels enormous, she is not asking for a measurement, she is checking whether you still see her.
▸What she is going through
- Energy and appetite are back.
- This is the "golden trimester", use it.
▸Your missions this week
Concrete things worth doing in week 14, not just being supportive.
▸Questions dads actually ask
When does the second trimester start?
Sources differ slightly, with some counting from week 13 and others from week 14, because the trimesters are a rough division rather than a clinical boundary. Either way, weeks 13 and 14 are the transition. Nothing changes overnight; the improvements people describe arrive gradually and on their own timetable.
When will she start showing?
It varies enormously and measures nothing. Some people have a clear bump in the early second trimester; others go much longer, and second pregnancies often show earlier than first ones. Let her decide when it counts as a bump and follow her lead rather than announcing your own assessment.
Is it normal to still feel sick at 14 weeks pregnant?
It happens to plenty of people, and the idea that sickness ends neatly at 12 weeks is a rule of thumb rather than a fact. Ongoing sickness is still worth mentioning to the midwife or doctor rather than enduring, particularly if it is affecting how much she can eat and drink.
Is it safe to have sex during pregnancy?
In most uncomplicated pregnancies clinicians do not restrict it, but there are specific circumstances where they advise against it, including certain bleeding, pain or placenta findings. That makes it a question for your midwife or doctor rather than the internet. It is asked constantly and nobody in that room will find it awkward except possibly you.
▸Sources
Checked against these pages on 17 Oct 2026. Where the guidance differs by country, follow your own midwife or doctor.
- NHS: Week 14 of the week-by-week guide
- ACOG: How your fetus grows during pregnancy
- NHS: Vomiting and morning sickness
- NHS: Travelling in pregnancy
▸Situations you might be hitting right now
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This is general information for expectant fathers, not clinical guidance. Anything about symptoms, pain, or bleeding goes to your midwife, doctor, or emergency service, not to an app.
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