Week 34
Days 232 to 238 · 33 weeks 0 days to 33 weeks 6 days old · about 8 months A typical baby this week is about 69 cm (27.2 in) long and weighs around 8.2 kg (18 lb). Babies vary widely, so watch for steady growth along your baby's own curve rather than comparing with others. Your baby is likely getting stronger on their feet, more skilled with their fingers and more chatty, with strings of babble that sound like real conversation. For many families, this is also when sleep that had settled starts to wobble again. This week looks at shoes, hand, foot and mouth disease, why sleep can change around 8 to 10 months, getting through broken nights, shaping finger foods safely, conversations before words, and a simple sick-day kit.
Day 232 · 33 weeks 0 days old
Bare feet are best for now
Tiny shoes are irresistible, but your baby does not need them yet. Indoors, bare feet are best for babies who are crawling, standing and cruising. Feeling the floor helps them balance, and the muscles and bones of the foot develop well when they can move freely. Babies' feet often look flat because of a pad of fat in the arch, and that is normal at this age.
If floors are cold or slippery, socks with grips on the bottom or soft leather slippers with flexible soles are fine. Avoid plain socks on smooth floors, which turn your baby into an ice skater.
Outdoors, your baby may need something to protect their feet from cold, rough ground or hot surfaces. Choose soft, light shoes with flexible soles that bend easily, a roomy toe area, and a secure fastening so they stay on. Leave about a thumb's width, roughly 1 cm, between the longest toe and the end of the shoe. Babies' feet grow quickly, so check the fit every couple of months.
Hand-me-down shoes that have moulded to another child's foot are best avoided once your baby is walking, though they are fine for a baby who is carried. Sturdier walking shoes can wait until your baby is walking well outdoors.
Try this: Let your baby spend floor time barefoot today and watch how they use their toes to grip.
Day 233 · 33 weeks 1 day old
Hand, foot and mouth disease is common and usually mild
Hand, foot and mouth disease, unrelated to the illness of farm animals, is a common viral illness in babies and young children, and it spreads easily in childcare settings, especially in summer and autumn.
It often starts with a fever, fussiness and a sore throat. A day or two later, small painful spots or blisters appear in the mouth, and a rash of flat or raised spots shows up on the hands and feet. Spots can also appear on the bottom, the diaper area, the legs and around the mouth. Weeks later, a few may lose some fingernails or toenails, which grow back normally. There is no specific treatment, and it usually clears in about 7 to 10 days. The main concern is drinking, because mouth sores can make feeding painful. Offer the breast or bottle often, and cool, soft foods like yogurt or puree. Pain relief can help your baby feed: ask your pharmacist which medicine suits your baby and follow the dose for their weight on the package.
Wash hands carefully, especially after diapers, as the virus stays in stools for weeks.
Call your baby's doctor if your baby is not drinking enough or has fewer wet diapers, has a fever for more than 3 days, or seems very unwell. Try this: Ask your childcare provider how they let families know when illnesses like this are going around.
Day 234 · 33 weeks 2 days old
Why sleep may wobble around 8 to 10 months
Just when nights seemed settled, your baby may start waking again, protesting at bedtime or fighting naps. Many babies go through a patch like this somewhere between 8 and 10 months. It is often called a regression, but it is really a sign of progress.
Several things tend to happen at once. Your baby is learning to crawl, pull up and cruise, and the brain seems to keep practising at night. Babies often sit or stand up in the crib half asleep and then cannot get back down. Separation anxiety, which you read about in the weeks before, often peaks around now, so waking to find you gone feels more upsetting. Some babies are cutting teeth. Many are also moving from three naps to two, and the new schedule can take time to settle.
These patches usually last a few weeks. Keeping your usual bedtime routine and responses steady helps your baby find their way back to sleep more quickly. Daytime practice of new skills, especially sitting down from standing, can mean less practising at night.
If your baby seems unwell, is pulling at an ear with a fever, or snores loudly with pauses in breathing, check in with your baby's doctor, since illness can also disturb sleep.
Try this: Give your baby plenty of time on the floor today to practise crawling, standing and sitting down, especially in the late afternoon.
Day 235 · 33 weeks 3 days old
Getting through a run of broken nights
Knowing why sleep has changed does not make 3 a.m. any easier. A few practical strategies can help you get through a rough patch without exhausting yourselves or creating patterns you do not want to keep. Respond to your baby, but keep night visits calm, dim and brief. If your baby is standing in the crib, gently lie them back down and offer a hand on their tummy or a few quiet words. Try to wait a moment before going in, as some babies resettle on their own after a little fussing. Keep lights low and avoid play or screens.
If you used a particular approach to settling, such as one of the gentle or more structured methods described in the weeks on sleep, you can return to it. Most babies relearn quickly once a developmental burst passes. Whether and when to drop night feeds is covered in a later week.
Take turns at night if you can, so each adult gets one longer stretch of sleep. Go to bed early for a few nights. Keep the sleep space safe, even when you are desperate: on the back, in the crib, nothing loose, and never fall asleep with your baby on a sofa or armchair.
For your partner: Agree on a night plan this evening, with clear shifts, so neither of you has to negotiate at 3 a.m.
Day 236 · 33 weeks 4 days old
Shaping finger foods so they are safe
As your baby's pincer grasp improves, they can manage smaller pieces of food. How you shape and cook those pieces matters more than which foods you choose. A good test: you should be able to squash the food easily between your thumb and finger, or press it against the roof of your mouth with your tongue.
Some foods need extra care. Cut grapes, cherry tomatoes and blueberries into quarters lengthwise, or flatten them. Never offer whole nuts; use smooth nut butter thinly spread, or finely ground nuts stirred into food. Cook hard vegetables like carrot and apple until soft, or grate them raw. Remove skins from sausages and cut them lengthwise and then into small pieces, or better, choose fresh meat. Take bones out of fish and meat. Avoid popcorn, hard crackers, raw hard vegetables, whole chunks of cheese and sticky lumps of bread or peanut butter.
Always stay with your baby while they eat, sitting upright in a high chair, not lying back, crawling or riding in a car seat. Let them put food in their own mouth rather than pushing pieces in.
The foods to avoid entirely before 1 were covered when your baby started solids. You can refer back to that list.
Try this: Do the squash test on everything you put on your baby's tray today.
Day 237 · 33 weeks 5 days old
Conversations before words
Your baby babbles "ba-da-ba". You answer, "Oh, really? Tell me more." Your baby pauses, then babbles again. This simple back-and-forth, sometimes called serve and return, is one of the most powerful things you can do for your baby's language and brain development.
Babbling is changing now. Many babies string syllables together with the ups and downs of real speech, so it sounds as if they are telling you a story in a language you do not know. They may also copy sounds you make, or try out new ones like squeals, raspberries and whispers.
The key is to take turns. Make a comment, then pause long enough for your baby to answer. When they babble, respond as if they had spoken: look at them, smile, and reply. Copy their sounds and see whether they copy you back. Add words to what they are doing: "You're banging the drum. Bang, bang!"
You do not need to talk nonstop. Quiet moments are fine. It is the turn-taking, not the amount of words, that seems to matter most. Background television makes these exchanges less frequent, so switch it off when you can.
Try this: During one diaper change today, copy every sound your baby makes and wait for them to respond.
Day 238 · 33 weeks 6 days old
Stock a simple sick-day kit
Babies tend to get ill in the evening, at weekends and when the shops are closed. A small kit, kept in one place, means you can deal with most minor illnesses calmly.
A useful kit might include:
a reliable digital thermometer
infant pain and fever medicine, checked for the right age and product, plus the measuring syringe that comes with it
- saline nose drops and a nasal aspirator
- oral rehydration solution sachets
- thick barrier cream for sore bottoms
- plasters, a few gauze pads and tweezers
a small notebook to record temperatures, feeds, wet diapers and medicine times
Write your baby's current weight on a note inside the kit, since doses depend on weight, and update it after each checkup. Check expiry dates every few months. Store medicines high up, out of sight, ideally in a locked box, as your baby can now reach more than you expect.
Keep a list of numbers on the fridge or in your phone: your baby's doctor, your local health advice line, poison information, and your local emergency number. If someone else looks after your baby, show them where everything is.
Try this: Gather what you already have into one box today and make a short list of what is missing.