It is Monday, and time for another installment of my week by week pregnancy guide. If you want to catch up with previous weeks, scroll to the bottom.

This week your belly button will pop. I found it extremely amusing (totally not sure why). And it will stay like that until after you give birth. It will eventually go back in. Mine took a little longer with my second. Well, everything took a little longer with the second, so this was no surprise.

A topic of discussion at this point is whether you are exercising or not. If you didn’t exercise before pregnancy, or even during thus far, then this is definitely not the time to start. It would be too straining on your body that is straining enough as is.

However, if you have been at it, then you may need to slow down (talk to your doctor), but you can still do some things. I used to love walking while pregnant (I still do now). I would walk for miles at a time, and since my body was totally used to it all I had to do was decrease my speed a little towards the end. In fact I could not have kept the same speed even if I had tried. The benefits (besides not gaining a ton of baby weight) was also a much easier delivery, less back aches during pregnancy, and a very quick recovery. Not to mention it did wonder for my mood (when I wasn’t completely overtaken by hormones).

Even if you have not exercised before now, you may consider taking some slow ten to fifteen minutes strolls. Talk to your doctor first, but he is most likely to agree that it should not be a problem. If nothing else, it may at least relax you a bit.

If you haven’t already, schedule your glucose screening test. If your doctor hasn’t ordered one for you yet. Ask him why. Also, don’t be surprised, or scared, if you find you are getting to be anemic at this point. It is temporary, and will go away once the baby is born. Sometimes the baby sucks out of you more of your nutrients than you think. Eating diets rich in iron (like spinach) can help, but there is only so much iron you can consume. And most iron pills will make you extremely constipated while pregnant. As long as you are eating as healthy as possible, your baby is not suffering. And your iron levels will level off.

What are you experiencing this week?