Week 20 · Second trimester
20 weeks pregnant
Sweet pea, full stem
25.6 cm (10.1 in)head to heel
The Sweet pea, full stem (~25 cm) marks the ladder's deliberate switch from bloom width to full-stem length. At the halfway point, “sweet pea” becomes both a flower and a name someone might already be carrying in their heart.
This week, inside
The fetus is around 25.6 cm long, and measurements now shift from head-to-bottom to head-to-heel because the legs are easier to include. A white, protective coating called vernix now covers the skin.
What you might be noticing
Tiredness or sleep changes, stretch marks, bloating, and heartburn can continue. New swelling is also listed among possible symptoms; worth mentioning at your next visit.
- Sleep changes
- Stretch marks
- Bloating
- Heartburn
- New swelling
Small things that help
Choose a halfway keepsake: two photos side by side, a short letter, or a list of twenty small moments. Put scan questions and preferences in one note you can open quickly.
For the record
At the halfway marker, what feels longer, shorter, stranger, or more tender than you expected?
Zohra asks one of these every week, and keeps your answer. A year from now it is the part people say they are most glad they wrote down.
Where this came from
Not sure you are at week 20? Work out your due date — or see every week’s size on one chart, and the rest of the second trimester.
Keep this week
Zohra draws this same flower in the app, at this same size, and keeps what you write beside it — with your bump photos, the letters, and the sounds from your appointments.
Zohra arrives on the App Store for iPhone shortly. Everything on this site is free to read now, with no account and no sign-up.