33 Weeks Pregnant – What to Expect Your 33rd Week of Pregnancy

by Claire October 15, 2015, 4:33 am 2k Views 45 Comments

This week your baby weighs more than four and a half pounds and is still gaining weight, and your baby has reached an important milestone about now: She’s got her own immune system.

Let Heidi Murkoff author of What To Expect While You’re Expecting, Walk you through Week 33 of your pregnancy and fill you in on all the exciting developments!

It’s week 33 and as your watermelon-sized belly is likely to attest, your baby has come a long way from his poppy seed size status. He seems like a relative heavyweight at four and a half pounds, but remember, he could double that weight in the coming weeks. Happily he won’t be doubling his height. At around 17 to 19 inches long, your baby is pretty close to the length he’ll be at birth.

What’s going on in that 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 drift shut to sleep when it’s dark and flicker open when it’s light. These are your dozing darling’s first lessons in learning the difference between night and day, a distinction that’s obviously important once he’s outside the womb.

Still playing a crucial role is the amniotic fluid that surrounds your floating baby. It’s around one degree warmer than your body temperature, so it serves to keep your baby toasty and warm until the big day. Until now, there was more amniotic fluid than actual baby in your womb, a ratio that created a cushion between 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’s less elbowroom for baby and less of a cushion for mama, meaning those left hooks and karate kicks will be more uncomfortable for you.

Though your little one may be able to throw a mean jab, he’s not quite ready for a prime time bout. His body is still busy developing its independent immune system, thanks in large part to the antibodies you’re passing along through the placenta. Thanks, mom!

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Written by Claire

Claire is our Community Manager here at New Moms Forum. A mom of two (almost grown-up babies), Claire has been building and operating community-based websites for almost 20 years. In her downtime, Claire enjoys spending time with her family and drinking copious amounts of red wine!