20 Weeks Pregnant – What to Expect Your 20th Week of Pregnancy

by Claire October 15, 2015, 4:20 am 2k Views 36 Comments

Curious about whether that melon-sized belly contains a boy or a girl? Now is your chance to take a peek! You should be able to find out your baby’s gender from week 18 on of your pregnancy on, so get that ultrasound scheduled!

Even though your baby is still teensy, just over six inches long and about ten ounces in weight, week 20 is huge. Why? Well, for one thing, you’re halfway through your pregnancy, and baby is halfway ready to meet you! This is also a big week if you’ve been waiting – and waiting and waiting – to find out whether that cantaloupe in your belly is a sweet boy or girl.

The time has come for the big reveal, since a second trimester ultrasound can now deliver the definitive news. Want to keep playing the guessing game? Make sure you tell your practitioner and the ultrasound technician that mum’s the word and that you’d rather they didn’t spill the baby gender beans.

If you’re carrying a girl, her external genitals may not be as prominent as a boy’s (When are they ever?), but they are clearly delineated at this age. And they’re just the tip of the iceberg. Inside your little girl’s body is a fully formed uterus, in miniature. Her tiny ovaries contain the millions of eggs she’ll be born with, and her vagina is beginning to hollow out.

If you’re bearing a boy, the evidence pops up like a flag in a stiff breeze on the ultrasound. Even at this tender age, the family jewels are there for all to admire. Well, one of them anyway. The testicles haven’t descended from the abdomen yet. They’re just waiting for the scrotum to finish construction so they’ll have a home to move into in just a few weeks.

Meanwhile, your baby is starting the process of plumping up, as new fat gets deposited under the skin. Most of the fat is called brown fat and is designed to keep baby warm until your little one’s internal temperature regulatory system kicks into gear after birth. The white fat, the kind that’ll really fill baby up and is responsible for those pinchable cheeks and roly-poly thighs, doesn’t make its appearance in large quantities for a few more weeks. Which means baby will stay slender and somewhat wrinkly for now.

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Written by Claire

Claire is our Community Manager here at New Moms Forum. A mom of two (almost grown-up babies), Claire has been building and operating community-based websites for almost 20 years. In her downtime, Claire enjoys spending time with her family and drinking copious amounts of red wine!