How Much Does the Baby Weigh at 33 Weeks

At present that you're 33 weeks along, y'all're approaching the middle of the third trimester.

By now, your infant has reached the length he'll measure at birth, but he'southward yet busy putting on almost one-half a pound a calendar week.

You might notice this rapid growth in the form of sharper kicks (oof) and shortness of breath, thank you to crowding around your lungs.

Your Baby at Week 33

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It'south week 33 and, as your watermelon-sized belly is probable to attest, your baby has come a long way from his poppy-seed size condition. He seems like a relative heavy weight at four and a half pounds, but recall, he could double that weight in the coming weeks. Happily he won't exist doubling his height. At around 17 to 19 inches long, your baby is pretty shut to the length he'll be at nativity.

What'southward going on in the uterine nursery? Well, your fetus is starting to react remarkably like the infant he'll become. Sensitive to the light that penetrates through your now thinner abdominal walls, drowsy eyes migrate close to sleep when it's dark and flicker open when it's light. These are your dozing darling's beginning lessons in learning the divergence between dark and 24-hour interval, a distinction that's obviously important in one case he's outside the womb.

Still playing a crucial role is the amniotic fluid that surrounds your floating baby. It's around i caste warmer than your body temperature, then it serves to keep your babe toasty and warm until the big 24-hour interval. Until now, there was more amniotic fluid than actual baby in your womb, a ratio that created a cushion betwixt you and your little boxer.

But now amniotic fluid levels have topped out and your baby's taking up more room in the uterus. The result? There'southward less elbow room for baby and less of a absorber for mama, pregnant those left hooks and karate kicks will exist more uncomfortable for yous.

Though your little ane may be able to throw a mean jab, he's not quite set for a prime time bout. His trunk is still busy developing its independent immune system, thanks in big function to the antibodies you're passing forth through the placenta. Thanks, mom!

At a Glance

Soft spot

The plates of bone in your baby'south skull are nonetheless fairly pliable, which makes information technology easier for him to clasp downward the nascency canal.

Thirsty baby

Your babe drinks upwardly to a pint of amniotic fluid a day! This helps prepare your baby'south gastrointestinal organization for prime time.

Packing on the pounds

Your infant is gaining weight at a fast clip now, putting on near half a pound a week. He'll come up close to doubling his weight past the time he's built-in.

33 weeks significant is how many months?

If you're 33 weeks pregnant, y'all're in month eight of your pregnancy. But i month left to become! All the same have questions? Here's some more information on how weeks, months and trimesters are cleaved down in pregnancy.

How big is my baby at 33 weeks?

This week your babe may be anywhere between 16 and 17 or more inches in length and could abound up to another total inch this week — especially if he'southward been on the shorter side.

He weighs more than 4¼ pounds and is still gaining weight at a charge per unit of well-nigh one-half a pound a week. Weight gain tin can range from a third more to a total doubling before the big debut.

Baby'southward kicks may feel sharper

With that much infant inside your uterus, your amniotic fluid level has maxed out at 33 weeks pregnant, making it likely yous have more baby than fluid at present. That'due south 1 reason why some of his pokes and kicks feel pretty abrupt these days.

Babe differentiates day from night

If your uterus had eyes, hither's what you'd see: your fetus interim more and more like a baby, with his eyes closing during sleep and opening while awake.

And considering those uterine walls are becoming thinner, more calorie-free penetrates the womb, helping your infant differentiate betwixt day and night. Now if but babe tin can retrieve that departure on the exterior!

Fetal immune arrangement is developing

Good news! Your babe has reached an important milestone about now: He's got his own immune arrangement. Antibodies are being passed from you to your piddling ane as he continues to develop his fetal allowed organization, which will come in handy once he's outside the womb and fending off all sorts of germs.

Your Torso at Week 33

33 Weeks Pregnant

Insomnia

With the hormonal changes, midnight bathroom runs, leg cramps, heartburn and your basketball game-sized abdomen, it's no wonder sleep is elusive. Third trimester indisposition strikes about 3 in 4 pregnant women — who may also exist coping with anxiety about the upcoming birth and a mind that races all night long thinking about their to-do-before-the-baby-comes list.

At 33 weeks significant, your body needs rest, and then recollect that worrying about it won't help and neither will staring at the clock watching the minutes tick past.

Instead, do your best to go comfy — before bed and when you become in it. Try a warm bathroom and perhaps a warm loving cup of milk before turning in, plus avoid exercising, screen time, eating or drinking likewise close to bedtime. You can too try asking your partner for a massage. Y'all deserve it!

If sleep still eludes yous, read a book or listen to soothing music until drowsiness sets in. And look on the brilliant side: Pregnancy insomnia is great grooming for those sleepless nights to come!

Omega-3 fatty acids

Studies advise that infants built-in to mothers whose diets contain enough of omega-3 fat acids (DHA) found mostly in fish oils have an border in terms of early on development.

So if y'all eat your wild salmon, will your kid go to Harvard? Maybe, maybe not. Only DHA is critical to brain and vision development — and almost all of a babe's aggregating of DHA occurs during the last trimester. DHA may as well help preclude preterm labor and protect against postpartum depression.

But oasis't you heard that fish is unsafe for significant women? Actually, the Nutrient and Drug Assistants (FDA) recommends eating 8 to 12 ounces (or about two to three average meals) a week of a variety of well-cooked fish and shellfish that are low in mercury, such as shrimp, tilapia, flounder, salmon (wild is best), pollack and catfish. Steer clear of swordfish, shark and bigeye tuna, which are more than likely to incorporate college levels of mercury.

Detest fish? Other DHA sources include algae-derived supplements, though check your wellness food store and inquire your practitioner before ownership a bottle, and DHA-enriched eggs, bachelor in most supermarkets. Or try these tasty omega-iii-rich and pregnancy-friendly meal ideas.

Pregnancy Symptoms Week 33

Strong fetal movement

Varicose veins

Round ligament pain

Nail changes

Shortness of breath

Clumsiness

Pregnancy brain

Braxton Hicks contractions

Tips for You This Week

Look into breastfeeding

Almost 83 percentage of women effort breastfeeding later on giving nascence, according to the Centers for Illness Control and Prevention (CDC). Will y'all be one of them?

If and so, now's a great time to nourish a breastfeeding class, talk to your practitioner about it or watch an instructional video.

Ask about room-sharing

If y'all don't already know it, find out your hospital'due south policy on rooming-in — which is sharing a room with your baby 24/seven afterward yous give nascency. Studies take shown that it'southward good for baby, y'all and the bail y'all'll share. Merely it's okay if y'all decide non to room-share as well!

Sneak in more than calcium

If milk leaves a sour sense of taste in your oral cavity, there are plenty of other ways to sneak your calcium in. Blend milk into smoothies or soups, or featherbed it altogether and cash in on calcium from other dairy products.

Ane loving cup of yogurt has the same amount of calcium every bit a cup of milk, and an ounce of cheese as well serves upwards a serving, as does a quarter-cup of grated cheese.

Or you tin score your calcium ready in fortified fruit juice — think orangish, grapefruit, apple, cranberry and others — or calcium-enriched soy milk and cheese.

Keep in heed that skipping milk means missing non only its calcium just likewise its vitamin D. Yogurt and cheese might exist good sources of the former but non then much the latter.

Luckily, getting vitamin D is equally like shooting fish in a barrel as soaking up the lord's day for a few minutes a solar day since your body manufactures information technology in response to sunlight. Check, too, that the sunshine vitamin is in your prenatal tablet. If you're drinking soy milk, expect for a brand that'southward enriched with vitamin D.

Switch to light weights

Yes, weight training increases muscle tone — and fifty-fifty prevents os loss — but during pregnancy it's important to lighten upwards.

Lifting heavy weights increases pressure in your trunk, which causes y'all to concur your breath and could compromise blood menses to the uterus. Plus, loosened ligaments could atomic number 82 to injury.

Your all-time bet: Switch to light weights and practise more than reps — or only wait on weights until after commitment.

Write a alphabetic character to your footling one

Yous've got so many hopes and dreams about your baby, and each one is worth remembering and sharing. Record them before you forget by writing a letter — or a series of messages — to your babe.

Feel a little funny writing to a fetus? Just speak from the heart. Talk nigh what this pregnancy means to you and how information technology's changing your body and your earth. Recount the foods you craved, the way yous finally chose your baby's proper noun and what colors y'all picked for the nursery.

Share your reaction when y'all first found out y'all were pregnant, when you felt those outset kicks and when you found out your baby'south sex (if you take). Imagine what you lot'll do together in the future. Do y'all see yourself pushing a swing in the park or tossing a football game on the front lawn? Or imagine what your baby'south future might exist like.

Your letter to your infant is certain to become one of your almost treasured possessions — and somewhen, your child'due south.

Prevent an upset breadbasket

If your trunk has trouble digesting lactose (a type of sugar), you may find that drinking milk can lead to cramps, gas, bloating and diarrhea.

Certain, y'all could buy lactose-costless milk or pop a lactase sheathing earlier downing a glass of the stuff, but at that place are other ways to creepo upwards your calcium consumption and avert an upset breadbasket.

One solution: Swallow naturally aged difficult cheeses like cheddar, Parmesan and Swiss (they lose more than one-half their lactose during processing). Or get active with agile yogurt cultures: They harbor practiced bacteria that pause down lactose.

You lot can besides cut back on the amount of milk you drinkable. It's possible that your stomach can handle smaller servings, like a half a cup at i sitting or a thin slice of mozzarella.

Lastly, since lactose is easier to assimilate when mixed with other foods, particularly high-fiber ones, take your milk with whole grain cereal, or cook that cheese on a piece of whole wheat staff of life.

Slumber on your side

Information technology's been a few months since you've been able to sleep on your back — or your abdomen, for that matter — but now that you lot're officially a side sleeper, consider rolling onto your left side at night (though either side works).

Why? Some experts say that the left side is the ideal sleeping position for both you and your baby, since it allows for maximum blood flow and nutrients to the placenta. Information technology may also aid ease the swelling in your feet, ankles and easily.

If you practise curlicue onto your dorsum during the night or merely tin can't get comfortable on your side, tilt your hips to 1 side and identify a pillow under ane side of your bottom for support.

From the What to Expect editorial team and Heidi Murkoff, writer ofWhat to Expect When You're Expecting. What to Expect follows strict reporting guidelines and uses only credible sources, such every bit peer-reviewed studies, academic enquiry institutions and highly respected health organizations. Larn how we keep our content authentic and up-to-engagement by reading our medical review and editorial policy.

What to Await When You're Expecting, 5th edition, Heidi Murkoff.

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