Shrimp Week #20 (Just Ignore the Double Chin)

How your baby's growing: Your baby weighs about 10 1/2 ounces now. (Ha! Maybe a normal baby does, ours is over a pound by now.) He's also around 6 1/2 inches long from head to bottom, and about 10 inches from head to heel. (For the first 20 weeks, we use measurements taken from the top of the baby's head to his bottom known as the "crown to rump" measurement. After that, we use measurements from head to toe. This is because a baby's legs are curled up against his torso during the first half of pregnancy and are very hard to measure.)

A greasy white substance called vernix caseosa coats his entire body to protect his skin during its long submersion in amniotic fluid. (This slick coating also eases the journey down the birth canal.)

Your baby is swallowing more, which is good practice for his digestive system. He's also producing meconium, a black, sticky substance that's the result of cell loss, digestive secretion, and swallowed amniotic fluid. This meconium will accumulate in his bowels, and you'll see it in his first messy diaper (although a few babies pass it in utero or during delivery).
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Yay! We're halfway through! If my ass keeps growing at the same rate as my belly I'm not going to be able to fit in the hospital doors. I had to take about 30 pictures to get one where I looked halfway not like a whale. I can't believe that we're halfway there. Now we have to get busy with new car buying (we both have Jeep Wranglers, hardly car seat ready) which is always a joy, and about a million other things which keep me up at night.

Also new is the shrimpy's insatiable appetite for kicking my bladder and making me scream Oh! at completely inappropriate times. I hope he turns himself around soon because as of our last appointment he's breach and I don't know how much more my bladder can take. He's gonna be a little mountain biker with those legs!