Second Trimester Checklist: What to Actually Do in Weeks 13-27

The first trimester is mostly nausea and waiting. The third trimester is mostly logistics and impatience. The second trimester — roughly weeks 13 through 27 — is the quiet middle where you have the energy to actually get things done. It is also where most of the important tests happen and where a few decisions (pediatrician, childbirth class, travel) get much easier if you make them now instead of at 36 weeks.

This is the whole second trimester checklist — the medical to-dos, the life-admin to-dos, and the things you can safely take off your list — with every claim sourced to a real page you can go read yourself. If you're not there yet, our first trimester checklist covers weeks 1-13, and the third trimester checklist picks up at week 28.

01What the second trimester actually is

"Your second trimester begins around week 13 of pregnancy and lasts through the end of week 27," according to the Cleveland Clinic. That's about fifteen weeks — the longest and, for most people, the most comfortable stretch of pregnancy. Morning sickness usually eases, energy comes back, and the bump starts to show enough that strangers finally believe you.

It is also when your prenatal calendar gets busier in a specific, predictable way. The StatPearls antepartum care review at the NIH describes the standard U.S. schedule as "every 4 weeks from 10 to 28 weeks gestation." So most people will have two, maybe three, routine visits in the second trimester — plus the specific tests below.

02The medical checklist

These are the appointments and screenings to know about. Your OB or midwife will drive the timing, but knowing what's coming makes it much easier to schedule work around them.

03The anatomy scan is the big one

Of everything on the medical list, the 18-20 week ultrasound is the one worth planning around. It's longer than a typical visit, and both parents usually want to be there. The Cleveland Clinic puts it plainly: the ultrasound is "mainly for providers to look at fetal anatomy" — the brain, spine, heart, kidneys, arms, legs, and the placenta and amniotic fluid.

A few practical notes people wish they'd known: some ultrasound rooms only allow one support person; ask when you book. Some practices won't tell you the sex out loud unless you say you want to know. And a full bladder helps the images, so don't empty it right before the appointment (your practice will tell you exactly how much water).

04Feeling movement — and when to start paying attention

Somewhere in the second trimester, you'll feel the baby move for the first time. "Quickening happens around 16 to 20 weeks in pregnancy, but some women may feel it sooner or later," per the Cleveland Clinic. If it's your first pregnancy, expect closer to 20 weeks; if you've been pregnant before, closer to 16.

It doesn't feel like kicks at first. The Cleveland Clinic describes it as "flutters, bubbles or tiny pulses" — "fluttering like a butterfly," "tapping or tiny pulses," "bubbles popping," "light rolls or tumbles." MedlinePlus puts it the same way: "a fluttering in the lower abdomen." You'll probably second-guess whether it was really the baby the first few times. It was.

Once you can feel movement consistently, it becomes something to loosely track. Cleveland Clinic's advice on when to call: "Contact your healthcare provider if you don't feel 10 movements within several hours," and "if you notice any sudden changes in movement (slowing down or stopping for several days), talk to your midwife or obstetrician." Most practices give you a specific kick-count method in the third trimester — you don't need to be counting formally yet.

05What your body is doing

Second trimester symptoms are usually milder than the first, but they're their own thing. Cleveland Clinic's list of "common symptoms in the second trimester" includes: "An increased appetite. Bleeding gums. Nosebleeds or nasal congestion. Hemorrhoids. Skin changes. Round ligament pain. Some swelling in your hands, feet and ankles."

None of that is fun, but almost all of it is normal. Round ligament pain — sharp little pulls on the sides of the lower belly, usually when you stand up or twist — is the one most people don't expect. It's the ligaments stretching to accommodate the growing uterus. It's alarming the first time and boring by the tenth.

06The life-admin checklist

This is the part nobody hands you a printout for. These items don't have a medical deadline, but they get much harder the closer you get to the third trimester, when everything competes for attention with a growing bump and a shrinking calendar.

07What to nest on now (and what to save for later)

The urge to prepare the house tends to arrive somewhere in the second trimester and get loud in the third. It's fine to lean into it — that's what nesting during pregnancy is — but you don't need to have the nursery finished by 20 weeks. A crib or bassinet, a car seat you can install, a place to change a diaper, and a small pile of newborn clothes is genuinely most of what you use in the first month.

The hospital bag can wait until closer to 34-36 weeks. So can most of the actual newborn purchasing. What's much harder later is the meeting-with-people work — pediatrician visits, classes, hospital tour, tours of daycares if you're using one. Do that now.

08One page that lasts fifteen weeks

Almost none of the second trimester is one big event. It's a slow accumulation of small, mostly boring things: an ultrasound, a blood draw, a first flutter, a class registration, a maternity dress that finally fits. Keep this list somewhere you can see it, tick off what you finish, and don't move on to the third trimester panic before you have to.

When you're ready, the third trimester checklist picks up at week 28 — Tdap, hospital bag, birth plan, and the last stretch. And once the baby is here, the newborn basics guide is where we point people first: safe sleep, feeding, and when to call the doctor, sourced the same way this page is.

Questions parents actually ask

Newborn Weeks is planning help, not medical advice — always follow your own doctor, midwife, or pediatrician.