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At 20 weeks pregnant, you are definitely sporting your "baby bump." For most women, there is no more hiding your pregnancy, even if you wanted to. Your belly button has probably already popped, and it won't be long before your little baby is nestled in your arms.
You have reached the halfway mark in your pregnancy week by week - only 20 more weeks until your baby is born! Just keep in mind that only 5 percent of babies will be born on their actual due date. Some women deliver sooner, and others deliver later. For first-time pregnancies, your healthy, full-term baby may be born anytime between 37 weeks pregnant and pregnancy week 42.
Weight Gain During Pregnancy Week 20
Your pregnancy weight gain at 20 weeks pregnant may be as high as ten or eleven pounds, for a normal-sized woman. But remember that some women may gain more and some less!
Along with your protruding "baby bump" at pregnancy week 20, you may find that you now have a hard time standing on your feet for lengthy periods of time. Your shifting center of gravity and the increasing weight of your baby and uterus can make it uncomfortable to stand for too long.
Dizziness or Light-headedness During Pregnancy
At 20 weeks pregnant, you may even find that standing for a lengthy period of time causes you to feel dizzy or light-headed. This is because standing for prolonged periods of time can cause blood and other fluids to pool in your legs. If you can, take frequent breaks to sit down and rest. You should also wear low-heeled shoes with good arch support. If your work requires you to stand, you may want to try to arrange it with your boss for you to take a short break every three hours or so.
Fundal Height Measurements at 20 Weeks Pregnant
Now that you are 20 weeks pregnant, your doctor will start measuring your baby's growth at your prenatal visits. Your doctor does this by measuring the fundal height (the distance from your pubic symphysis to the top of your uterus). As a rule of thumb, your fundal height corresponds to roughly how pregnant you are. So at pregnancy week 22, your fundal height is around 22 centimeters.
In the days of old, before ultrasounds were used, the fundal height was a primary diagnostic tool used to assess your baby's growth. Today, your fundal height is used in conjunction with ultrasounds to ensure that your baby is growing properly.
Reasons for a Larger than Expected Fundal Height
If your fundal height measures more than two centimeters larger than your week of pregnancy, your doctor will typically perform an ultrasound to find out why. Possible reasons why your fundal height may be longer than average include:
- Inaccurate due date
- Too much amniotic fluid
- Baby's position is high above your pelvis, possibly due to a breech position or placenta previa
- Carrying a larger sized baby (called macrosomia), due to gestational diabetes
- Pregnant with twins or multiples
- Uterine fibroids
- Looser abdominal muscles, due to a previous pregnancy.
Some women who measure larger than others are carrying perfectly healthy babies who are just bigger than average. Other women may measure smaller. Usually, this does not indicate that there's a problem with your baby. However, a smaller than average fundal height can be a sign of intrauterine-growth restriction (your baby is not growing like he or she should. His or her weight is under the 10th percentile for his or her gestational age).
Are You Having a Boy or a Girl?
Around pregnancy week 20, you'll be having second trimester ultrasound to make sure that your baby is healthy and your pregnancy is progressing normally. At this scan, you may have the opportunity to find out your baby's gender! Is it going to be a boy or a girl?
The decision to find out is up to you. Some parents like the element of surprise of discovering at the baby's birth, and others want to know ahead of time so that they can start decorating their baby's nursery and purchase baby bedding sets!
At 20 weeks pregnant, the ultrasound technician (called the sonographer) can often detect your baby's sex with great accuracy, but there is also room for error. The sonographer's expertise, the quality of the equipment being used, and the position of your baby can all play a role in whether you get an accurate result.
You will continue to feel your baby's movements and if you haven't already felt these first flutters, you soon will. Now that you are at the halfway mark of your pregnancy week by week, enjoy feeling your baby's kicks, flips, and flips!
At 20 weeks pregnant, your baby is still growing strong. His or her eyebrows have thickened and are now visible. In only a few weeks, around week 26 of gestation, your baby will open his or her eyes for the first time since the eyelids were fused closed in the first trimester.
Your baby is very skinny during pregnancy week 20, and he or she has little body fat, lanugo hair has started to cover his or her body. Lanugo is fine, downy hair that offers warmth and insulation for your baby. It often will be shed by the time your little one is born, or will be shed within the first few weeks of life.
Your baby's spine is pretty straight at 20 weeks pregnant. An ultrasound scan can even show each vertebra in the spine.
This week, your baby is growing more complex skin, with multiple layers (such as the epidermis) forming. Your baby is becoming less transparent as fat starts to develop underneath the skin.
At pregnancy week 20, your baby's tooth buds, for both his or her baby teeth and the underlying permanent adult teeth, are now in place underneath his or her gums. After your baby is born, it will take six or eight months before these tooth buds start to appear as baby teeth.
All of your baby's abdominal organs (such as his or her stomach, liver, and intestines) are now completely enclosed in the abdominal cavity.
At 20 weeks pregnant, your unborn baby is wiggling and stretching his or her hands and feet, however most of the baby's movements are reflex responses at this stage of your pregnancy week by week.
Your baby remains very flexible now, and it's not uncommon for these babies to bring one or two feet up to his or her mouth.
Between pregnancy week 18 and 22 weeks pregnant, you will have a second trimester ultrasound. Many women have this performed at 20 weeks pregnant. This second trimester ultrasound is more in-depth than the first trimester ultrasound, because your baby's major organs, limbs, and other body parts are now well-developed and can be clearly examined with an ultrasound.
- The fluid-filled areas of the brain and the shape of the cerebellum (the back of the baby's brain) to make sure everything's normal. Abnormalities of your baby's head may indicate chromosomal defects, such as Down syndrome.
- Your baby's spine will be examined for spina bifida and other spinal defects.
- The arms and legs will be checked to make sure there are no malformations, such as clubfoot or extra toes and fingers. If your baby's arm and leg bones are shorter than average, this may be another marker for Down syndrome.
- The stomach and diaphragm of the baby will be checked.
- Your baby's kidneys and bladder will be examined to make sure that he or she has both of the kidneys and there's no blockage of defects in either organs.
- The umbilical cord is also looked at to make sure that it contains an average number of blood vessels.
- Your baby's abdominal wall will be examined to make sure there are no defects.
No More Crown to Rump Measurements After this Week!
At 20 weeks pregnant, this ultrasound will also measure your baby to ensure that he or she is growing normally. At this stage of your pregnancy, crown to rump measurement is no longer used, because your entire baby doesn't fit on the screen anymore. Instead, the doctor or sonographer will determine your baby's size using a series of different measurements. These include the circumference of your baby's head, the circumference of your baby's tummy, and the length of the baby's upper leg bone (femur). Using these measurements, your doctor will be able to tell whether your baby falls within the normal range for babies at pregnancy week 20.
The position of your placenta and the amount of amniotic fluid is also checked in a second trimester ultrasound. At 20 weeks pregnant, if your placenta is seen as low-lying, your doctor will do follow-up scans later in your pregnancy to make sure that you do not have placenta previa (a placenta that covers partially or completely the opening of your uterus). A majority of the time, a low-lying placenta moves upward and away from the opening of your uterus as your pregnancy week by week continues.
For most women at pregnancy week 20, their baby is fine and they will get the reassurance that your baby is developing normally. If a problem is detected, you will be referred to specialists who may be able to diagnose or confirm the findings.
Read About Your Pregnancy Week by Week - 21 Weeks Pregnant
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