Anna's pregnancy diary: Week 13

goodtoknow's Food and Diets Editor Anna is pregnant, so we've asked her to keep a diary of her pregnancy, telling you all the good bits and bad bits and asking for your help and comments.

This week Anna gets the results back from her 12 week scan and is still struggling with food.

Bleurgh. I feel dreadful. Worse than ever! Where is this magical corner I'm supposed to have gone round? I'm in the second trimester now and I really thought I'd wake up one morning cured of terrible headaches. But no. I've had a pounding head every day this week no matter what I eat or how much water I drink.

It's very hard to concentrate at work when your eyes are blurry and you just want to put yourself in a dark room. Screens hurt my eyes too. Ah well, maybe next week!

I've also just had the results back from my 12-week scan triple test. The report tells me that my risk of having a baby with Down's Syndrome is 1 in 852, which means it's low risk. Hurrah! I look this up on the internet and find that the risk is different from hospital to hospital, but in general, if it's greater than 1 in 300, you're classed as low-risk.

I'm relieved, but of course that doesn't last long. The more I read about it, the more I see people who have risks of 1 in 12,000 etc. I would've liked mine to have been that huge. I'm higher risk anyway, because of my age (36) and I know 1 in 852 is a teeny weeny chance, but I'm still not happy.

Food is still causing me a few problems too. It's not that I find the avoidance of particular foods difficult (although I could eat a whole truckful of parma ham and paté), it's the bad foods that hide in other things that I keep slipping up on.

I'm trying not to eat peanuts, so I've given up my morning peanut butter on toast, but almost ate a Snickers bar! Then I went out for dinner for a friend's birthday and ate a crème brulée for pudding, which could have had undercooked eggs in it, but it didn't occur to me at the time.

The silliest was when I was in the office tucking into a cheesecake a PR had sent in. I literally had a mouthful of it when Beth said: 'Should you be eating that?' You could almost see the panic in my eyes as I tried to sift through the ingredients quickly in my head. I concluded it was fine, swallowed my mouthful and scowled at Beth.

After all this I think I deserve a treat. So I splash out and book myself an hour-long maternity massage at my local spa. When I turn up, the room's already prepared and the special massage bed is hilarious. I'd expected it to have a hole for my belly and my face, but not for my boobs! Of course!

You have to lie on your front and slot your body parts into the various holes so that you really can get comfy. The massage is amazing. I feel so much better and the masseuse manages to get rid of my headache for a few hours too. I'd so love one every week, but my husband has promised me one for my birthday when I'll be 21 weeks so I'm looking forward to that already.

- Coming up: Hair dye dilemma, maternity clothes and growing a bump
- Previously: Anna has her 12 week scan
- Read Anna's diary from the beginning
- More about week 13 of pregnancy

More help and advice

- Pregnant? Find out what's happening to you and your baby with our week by week guide
- Tests during pregnancy - what to have
- All you need to know about scans
- Help in the first trimester
- Having problems conceiving? Find out more

By Anna Penniceard