33 Weeks Pregnant

Your baby now weighs about 2kg and measures up to 44cm from head to toe. She may already be getting ready for birth by turning upside-down. Her head should be pointing down, ready for her journey into the world.

Your doctor or midwife will be paying careful attention to your baby's position in the coming weeks. Some babies do decide to turn back round again.

Your baby's skull is still quite pliable. The plates of bone that make up her skull have not completely fused. This is so she can ease out of the relatively narrow birth canal, the passage between your cervix and the opening of your vagina. But the bones in the rest of her body are hardening. Your baby's skin is also gradually becoming less red and wrinkled as fat builds up underneath.

If you're a first-time mum, your baby's head may move into your pelvis this week and press firmly against your cervix. This happens for about half of all first-time mums. If you're a second-time mum, you can expect this to happen a week before labour. For some, this won't happen until the start of labour.

- BabyCentre.co.uk

It probably feels like there is no room left inside of you at the moment and you would no doubt be glad if your baby came tonight. Even though your baby has a great chance of surviving now, he may still have trouble breathing so it’s best that babies are born after ‘term’, which is 37 weeks. Not long to go… Your baby is about 12 inches long and he sleeps for most of the day and night, as it is too cramped in the womb for any somersaults now. His skin has changed from reddish to bright pink as he continues to put on weight and lay fat down.

Now is the time to start thinking about your newborn! What will he look like? And what you might need to buy for your newborn! It's probably also a good idea to prepare yourself for the sleepless nights and nappy changes to come:

Newborn babies need nearly twice the amount that an adult requires and even when they are 18 months old, they will still need, on average, five hours more sleep than their parents do. They spend a lot more time in the dream sleep stage, which you can distinguish from the other stages by the occasional twitch and her eyes moving underneath her lids. On the other hand, when she is in the ‘deep sleep’ phase of her sleeping cycle, she will be hard to awaken and will make little sucking movements with her mouth. She may also ‘startle’ in the same manner that adults do as they are falling asleep.

Before the age of three months, your baby will not be able to differentiate between night and day and so her sleep will be scattered across the twenty-four hour period. After the three month stage, your baby will start to learn that night equals a longer period of sleep than the daytime naps that she receives. As she grows older, you will find her naps become less frequent, but are more predictable and longer than the frequent but short ones of her early months. By six months you can reasonably expect more of a routine. 


- Gurgle.com

This week your baby may be anywhere between 17 to 19 inches in length and weigh more than four and a half pounds. At this stage in fetal development, your baby  could grow a full inch more this week alone — especially if he or she has been on the shorter side.  Weight gain can range from a third more growth to a full doubling before the big debut.
 
The level of amniotic fluid in your uterus has reached its maximum at 33 weeks pregnant, making it likely that you have more baby than fluid now. That's one reason why you're probably feeling lots of nudges and pushes — there's less liquid to cushion the blows. (Of course that means you're even closer to your baby now!)
 
If your uterine walls had eyes, here's what you'd see: your fetus acting more and more like a baby, with his or her eyes closing during sleep and opening while awake. And because those uterine walls are becoming thinner, more light penetrates the womb, helping your baby differentiate between day and night (now if only baby can remember that difference on the outside!).
And good news! Your baby has reached an important milestone about now: The development of his or her own immune system that (along with antibodies from you) will be able to provide protection from mild infections.

- WhatToExpect.com