It is Monday, and time for another installment of my pregnancy week by week guide. Last week we discussed Week 19. If you want to catch up with it, or any other previous weeks, scroll to the bottom.

Congratulations! You are at the half way point. Things should be getting a lot easier for you now until close to the end as you start adjusting to being pregnant.

At this point you may notice this dark line forming from your naval downwards. It is going to get even darker as you progress. But it goes away shortly after you give birth. With Munchie it didn’t go away until a few months after giving birth. With Ducky it disappeared almost immediately. So, as with everything else, each pregnancy is different. But my doctor assured me, it will go away, eventually.

The most exciting part of this week (both times) was the ultrasound. Aside from finding out the gender of my baby (which I discussed in Week 19), this is the first ultrasound where you can really start seeing your baby and his wonderful features.

One of the other worries a lot of moms to be have is the stretch mark. Now that you are most likely visibly pregnant, and therefore stretching, it would be a good time to start using lotion. A lot of lotion. Cocoa Butter helped me out a lot, and even after two kids I have no stretch marks. I know I am one of the lucky ones, but you too can prevent stretch marks if you apply it correctly. First of all apply it often. I only did it once a day, but honestly I recommend to do it twice (better safe than sorry). Apply the lotion on your breasts (as they too are growing rapidly), and on your expanding belly. The thing about stretch marks that a lot of people don’t realize is that they are not immediately apparent. I know women who stopped using the lotion in the last month of pregnancy because they said they could not see any marks so there must not be any. Then they gave birth, and as their bodies were returning to pre-pregnancy sure enough there were stretch marks. So use the lotion.