Twenty Weeks

Well, the halfway point is here. I am 20 weeks along, which means that I have 20 weeks to go. It seems like a long time in theory, but I'm sure it will fly by so fast, we won't know what hit us.

To say that this last week has been the most exciting week of the pregnancy, is putting it lightly. Finding out that we are having a girl makes the pregnancy seem much more real. If we could just agree upon a name (ie: when hell freezes over), I could start calling her something more than "the baby." We are having a real struggle over the name. One of my friends predicted that this baby would be a girl simply because we already had the perfect name picked out for a boy, and can't agree on anything for a girl. I fear she will come out at the hospital and we'll have to look at her and say, "Hey, you!" Maybe when we see her, we'll know. I've heard people say that before, but does it really work that way? With Will, he was Will the day we found out he was a boy. He was never anything other than Will, and when I laid eyes on him, it suited him perfectly. Honestly, I'm hoping our new baby comes out and introduces herself. That would really take the pressure off.

Here's the email for week 20 from the gurus. They refer to the baby as "he" this week, but from here on out, I know better.

How Your Baby is Growing:
Your baby weighs about 10 1/2 ounces now. He's also around 6 1/2 inches long from head to bottom and about 10 inches from head to heel — the length of a banana. (For the first 20 weeks, when a baby's legs are curled up against his torso and hard to measure, measurements are taken from the top of his head to his bottom — the "crown to rump" measurement. After 20 weeks, he's measured from head to toe.)

He's swallowing more these days, which is good practice for his digestive system. He's also producing meconium, a black, sticky by-product of digestion. This gooey substance will accumulate in his bowels, and you'll see it in his first soiled diaper (some babies pass meconium in the womb or during delivery).



And, she is the length of a banana this week. I don't know if they mean a regular banana or these crazy, huge, steroid taking bananas I've been buying at the grocery store lately. They are pretty incredible. I had to choose some of the "smaller" bananas, because I thought I wouldn't be able to eat it all in one setting. Freaky!


L