Halfway there - 20 weeks!

How your baby's growing: Your baby weighs about 10 1/2 ounces now. She'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, we use measurements taken from the top of the baby's head to her 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 her torso during the first half of pregnancy and are very hard to measure.)

A greasy white substance called vernix caseosa coats her entire body to protect her 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 her digestive system. She'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 her bowels, and you'll see it in her first messy diaper (although a few babies pass it in utero or during delivery).

How your life's changing: You've made it to the halfway mark — Congratulations! The top of your uterus is at the level of your belly button now, and you've likely gained about 10 pounds. Expect to gain an average of about another pound each week from now on. (If you started your pregnancy underweight, you may need to gain a bit more; if you were overweight, perhaps a bit less.) Make sure you're getting enough iron, a mineral that's used primarily to make hemoglobin (the part of your red blood cells that carries oxygen). During pregnancy, your body needs more iron for your developing baby and the placenta, and to keep up with your expanding blood volume. Iron-rich foods include lean red meat, poultry, fish, lentils and other legumes, spinach, and iron-fortified cereals.

If you haven't already signed up for a childbirth education class, you may want to look into one. Whether you're a first-timer or a pro, you can benefit from a structured class that helps prepare you for the rigors of labor and delivery. Most hospitals and birth centers offer classes, either as weekly meetings or as a single intensive, all-day session. Ask your doctor or midwife for a recommendation. At 37 weeks, you'll be considered full-term, so plan to be done with classes by then.

How I'm doing: Only two more days until the big appointment. We are very anxious to find out the sex of this little baby so we can stop referring to it as an "it". The baby moves around a lot. The movements are only strong enough so I can feel them when I'm still and not distracted by something else. Scott still hasn't been able to feel anything from the outside yet. It might be a couple more weeks. Sleeping is a little interesting already. I'm most comfortable sleeping on my side "bear hugging" a pillow. I think it provides some support for my belly.

We will be signing up for our birthing class shortly. Unless we decide something different based on our appointment on Tuesday with our midwife, we'll be signing up for a Bradley Method birth class at a place called Birth and Beyond in Santa Monica. Our 8-week class will be starting February 7th. This will put the ending date right around 37 weeks. It's pushing it a little bit but I'd rather have all the information fresh in my mind when I go into labor and we're pretty sure I won't go early.

It's Chanukah already. Tuesday night marked the start of the first night of Chanukah. It feels like it's barely fall but the holidays are already here. We are in San Diego this weekend celebrating Chanukah with Debi, Jim, Gary and Cat. We had a nice dinner, opened our gifts and played a couple of games of Scattergories. Other than that, it's just been a nice relaxing weekend. Only two more weeks of work until the long Christmas and New Year break which we're all really looking forward to. We'll be in Redding for about a week and then back to San Diego again to visit Bauby and Grandpa while they're in town from Chicago.