Pregnancy Week 33

Your Baby

As you begin week 33, your baby is continuing to grow at an amazing rate. Right now, it measures around a foot long (305 mm) and weighs about 3 - 3 3⁄4 pounds (1,700 g - the weight equivalent of 7 cups of water). By the time this week ends, your baby will have added almost 3⁄8 inch (10 mm) to its length.

Your baby is about 1 inch (25.4 mm) longer than it was just four days ago!

As fat accumulates under the baby’s skin, its skin color changes from dark red and transparent to pinkish and translucent (even in babies who will eventually be dark-skinned). Your baby is making its greatest demands for protein and fat now during the last half of pregnancy. In the last six to eight weeks before birth it will double its weight.

You

Depending on its size and position in your uterus, the baby may be carried high (pressed up against your lungs) or low (pressing against your pelvis); your baby may lie in a position that makes you look wide or compact; and you may look bigger or smaller than women who are just as far along as you with their pregnancies.

You may be bothered more by constipation now than before. As your uterus becomes larger, it pushes more on your bowel, interfering with its normal activity and making it more sluggish than usual.

By about this point, the volume of amniotic fluid has reached its maximum. As your baby grows, there will be less fluid and more baby and thus, you will feel considerable movement from within. By the time you reach your delivery date, the amniotic sac contains a full liter of fluid.

Your breasts will feel increasingly nodular or lumpy as they prepare for milk production. Breast changes will be most noticeable if this is your first pregnancy.

At the close of this week of pregnancy, the circumference, or distance around your baby’s head has increased by about 3⁄8 inch (9.5 mm) due to its rapid brain growth.