Week 20!

PJs is really moving a lot lately, especially in the evening and after I eat. Perhaps in response to our long conversations on names! Or to thank me for eating the milk and cookies he or she is asking for at night! It's so exciting to feel the movements - they're slowly getting more pronounced and Jamie can even feel them from the outside!

One pregnancy website says that PJs is the size of a cantaloupe, but that is really misleading... PJs is the length of a cantaloupe, but not that round! The photo at left is a baby at this stage.

What PJs is up to this week:
Your baby measures about 16.5 centimetres from crown to rump and at 300 grams is steadily gaining weight. Over the next month the baby will gain about a pound!

A whitish coat of a slick, fatty substance called vernix caseosa begins to cover your baby and protects the skin during its long immersion in amniotic fluid. It also eases delivery. The baby's swallowing more this week, good practice for the digestive system. After your baby takes in amniotic fluid, his body absorbs the water in the liquid and moves the rest into the large bowel.

The baby's permanent teeth are already starting to form behind the baby teeth, although they won't mature for several years. The baby can move his or her eyes, although not always in tandem. From this point on, the baby seems to be able to differentiate between mornings, afternoons and nighttime and starts to become more active at certain times more than others.