Your little one’s main job at this point is putting on weight (lucky baby). During these last weeks of your pregnancy he’ll be packing it on to the tune of about half a pound per week. Babies actually have not one, but two types of fat. One type, called brown fat, makes up about 5% of a newborn’s body mass. Brown fat has more mitochondria (the cell’s “power plants”) than does white fat. It helps to generate body heat to keep babies warm after they’re born, preventing hypothermia. Brown fat is deposited on baby’s back and shoulders and along the upper half of his spine. The other kind of fat, white fat, is the kind we’re more familiar with. It’s white fat that will give him his chubby little cheeks and plump arms and legs. By the time we become adults we’ve lost most of our brown fat.

Vernix, that thick, cheesy-looking coating protecting your baby’s delicate skin, is getting thicker now. Vernix also acts as a lubricant, easing the passage through the birth canal.