19 weeks - almost halfway

How your baby's growing: Your baby weighs about 8 1/2 ounces, and he measures 6 inches, head to bottom — about the size of a large heirloom tomato. His arms and legs are in the right proportions to each other and the rest of his body now. His kidneys continue to make urine, and the hair on his scalp is sprouting. This is a crucial time for sensory development: Your baby's brain is designating specialized areas for smell, taste, hearing, vision, and touch. If your baby is a girl, she has an astonishing 6 million eggs in her ovaries. They'll dwindle to fewer than two million by the time she's born.

How your life's changing: You're just a week shy of the halfway mark. You may notice some achiness in your lower abdomen (perhaps extending to your groin) or even an occasional quick, sharp, stabbing pain on one or both sides, especially when you change position or at the end of an active day. This is round ligament pain, and it's caused by the stretching of the muscles and ligaments that support your growing uterus. It's nothing to be alarmed about, but if the pain is persistent and continues even when you're resting, or is severe or accompanied by cramping, call your practitioner.

You may also have noticed some skin changes lately. Are the palms of your hands red? Nothing to worry about — it's from increased estrogen. Patches of darkened skin are also common during pregnancy. When they show up around your upper lip, upper cheeks and forehead, they're called chloasma, or the "mask of pregnancy." You may see these splotches on your arms or other areas that have been exposed to the sun. Your nipples, freckles, scars, underarms, inner thighs, and vulva may also darken during pregnancy. That darkened line running from your belly button to your pubic bone is called the linea nigra, or "dark line." All of this darkening is caused by a temporary increase in melanin, the substance that colors your hair, skin, and eyes. For most women, these darkened spots will fade shortly after delivery. In the meantime, protect yourself from the sun, which intensifies the pigment changes. Cover up, wear a brimmed hat, and use sunscreen when you're outdoors. And if you're self-conscious about your "mask," a little concealing makeup can work wonders.

How I'm doing I'm doing fine. I'm feeling good. I went to my first prenatal yoga class yesterday at Santa Monica Yoga and I'm very sore today. I'm going to try and go twice a week as much as possible. Classes are on Thursday evenings and Sunday mornings. I think it will really help. Some positions felt really good already and my belly doesn't weigh that much yet.

Friday marks the halfway point. We are very much looking forward to that milestone. But what's even better is that in 1 short week we'll be going into get our 2nd ultrasound and we'll hopefully get to fine out the gender of this little guy. We are going to find out the gender of the baby, but we are going to keep the name a secret until we meet the baby and make sure it fits. We haven't picked a name yet but when we do we are going to keep it a surprise for the baby's birthday.

We have started to register. We started a registry at one of the two stores in LA that carry the crib we want to get. We're not buying any other baby furniture so we picked out a high quality crib that is made out of wood instead of particle board, isn't made in China, and is from a company that has a spotless safety record--all things that are very important to us. The company is called Munire and this crib is from their Urban line (we're getting pine colored, not white).

We created our first registry at USA Baby and it can be found here. We are very excited to find out the gender so we can register for more things and start buying! We've been holding out on buying pretty much anything until we know if the baby is a boy or a girl. The crib takes 8-10 weeks to arrive (and probably longer over the holidays) and other things are not always in stock in the stores so we won't be following typical Jewish tradition and waiting until the baby arrives to buy things.