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Day 264 of 280 · 37 weeks + 5 days

Read the newborn guide

Last reviewed · 3 min read · 5 sources · Plain-text version

Thirty-seven weeks and five days. Today you and your partner read one section of the newborn guide together, so the first week holds fewer surprises.

Size this week
about the length of a leek
Length this week
around 48.6 cm from head to heel
A couple on a sofa under a reading lamp, her in a loose cardigan with a full bump, him holding printed pages, both laughing at something they've just read, a pencil between them.

Thirty-seven weeks and five days. You've read a lot about pregnancy. Today you read about the person at the end of it: what a newborn actually does in the first weeks, together, before you're too tired to take it in.

Your baby

A single leek with its green top on a plain pale wooden table, soft window light.

Around now your baby is around 48.6cm long from head to heel, about the length of a leek (NHS). The NHS says you may come to recognise when your baby is active and when they're calmer (NHS). You're already learning their rhythms. After the birth, you'll learn new ones, and they won't look much like a schedule at first.

Your body

Two items on the NHS's list for this week fit today's reading: look after your emotional and mental wellbeing, and ask about the newborn screening tests your baby will be offered (NHS). Knowing what's coming helps with the first. Asking at this week's visit covers the second.

Your body is also doing its late-pregnancy work: more discharge and Braxton Hicks tightenings, which shouldn't be painful (NHS). Reading on the sofa with your feet up counts as rest.

Try today

  1. The newborn-guide read

    Time: 20 minutes · What's developing in the guide

    1. Sit together with one screen or a printout of the newborn guide's "What's developing" section.

    2. Read it aloud, taking turns paragraph by paragraph: senses, reflexes, sleep, feeding, crying.

    3. Each of you marks the one line that surprised you most, and says why.

    4. Write down one question for the pediatrician and add it to your list for the first checkup.

    Make it work:

    Stop at twenty minutes even if you haven't finished. The goal is a picture of the first weeks, not an exam.

Watch for

  • Normal

    your baby's own pattern of busy and quiet times; there's no specific number of movements that counts as normal, and a change is what matters (CDC).

    Call your provider

    if movement suddenly decreases and stays low after you eat a snack and lie down for a few minutes (MedlinePlus).

  • Normal

    tired eyes at the end of a long day.

    Call your provider

    right away for changes in your vision (CDC), including blind spots (MedlinePlus).

  • Normal

    feeling warm in late pregnancy.

    Call your provider

    as soon as you can for fever or chills (OWH).

For you

Reading together does something a class can't: it puts both of you on the same page, literally, about what's normal. That matters at 3 a.m., when one of you is sure something is wrong and the other remembers the line about it.

If your baby arrives in the coming days, the day-by-day notes change hands. They follow the baby from then on, and they start at your first month. You'll get the same short morning note, about your newborn and about you.

If you're anxious or low as the birth gets close, the NHS's advice is plain: tell your doctor or midwife (NHS). If you're the partner, that goes for you too: say it to someone.

Sources

This guide is general education that summarizes published research and guidance from groups like the American Academy of Pediatrics, the CDC, and the WHO. It isn’t medical advice, and every child develops on their own timeline. Your pediatrician knows your child; if something feels wrong, call them. In an emergency, call 911.

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