21 weeks

How your baby's growing: Your baby now weighs about three-quarters of a pound and is approximately 10 1/2 inches long — the length of a carrot. His eyebrows and eyelids are fully developed. And you can certainly feel him move. He's oblivious to your schedule, though, so don't be surprised if he starts working out just when you're settling down for the night. If you're having a girl, her vagina is formed now, though it will continue to develop until birth.

How your life's changing: You're probably feeling pretty comfortable these days. You're not too big yet, and the usual aches and pains associated with early pregnancy are, for the most part, gone. Relax and enjoy it while you can — the third trimester will bring some mild discomfort from carrying a baby who is nearly full-term.

That's not to say you don't have some minor glitches to deal with now. Increased oil production may have given you a mild case of acne, for example. If that's the case, be diligent about washing well with a gentle soap and water twice a day, but don't take any oral acne medications — or even use any topical acne products — without checking with your practitioner first.

You're also prone to varicose veins now (especially if your mom has them). That's because pregnancy puts added pressure on the veins in your legs. (Your blood volume is increased and your uterus puts pressure on the inferior vena cava, the large vein that returns blood from the lower half of your body to your heart.) As if that's not enough, an increase in the hormone progesterone causes the walls of your blood vessels to relax, so as your baby and uterus grow, the veins can become more and more prominent. Varicose veins tend to worsen with each pregnancy, and while they're most likely to show up in your legs, they can also appear on your vulva.

If your legs ache, put maternity support hose on first thing in the morning. Increasing your circulation with a brisk walk each day can also help, as can elevating your legs and sleeping on your left side with your feet propped up with a pillow.

How I'm doing: Things seem to be going pretty good. I feel pretty normal. My belly seems like it's getting bigger and bigger every day. It's more difficult to get in and out of bed and to sit up because I can't really use my abs very much any more. I pretty much have to roll out of bed. I'm also using a small stool to get into bed since our bed is pretty high.

The baby is kicking up a storm. She seems to be most active in the late afternoon to early evening. I can especially feel her when I'm leaning forward and my waistband compresses my stomach a little. I don't think she likes that since it probably makes her space a little smaller.

We're starting to think of names. Since we're not sure it's a girl we're thinking up a girl's name and a boy's name so that's a bit more work. It's a big decision to make. We are still planning on waiting to tell the official name until the baby arrives since we want the option of changing our minds if we don't think the name fits.

Since we're over halfway there we're also planning on starting to rearrange and set up our room to accommodate the baby very soon. We think we'll order the crib I posted earlier by January since it takes 2-3 months to arrive and we don't want it to be late. I have a few other ideas to make the baby's part of the room a little special since we won't have a separate nursery. I'll post some pictures as we work on that.

Only one more week of work until we're off for the holidays. We can hardly wait. It's hard to concentrate at work when vacation is looming so closely.