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Your 37-Week-Old Baby
Your 37-Week-Old Baby

Your 37-Week-Old Baby

Big movement may be around the corner. Whether crawling, scooting or spinning in place, your baby is laying the groundwork.

author-Briana Engelbrecht
By Briana Engelbrecht
Updated On
Updated On
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In This Article

🚼 Baby’s Development 
Crawling
👀 Looking Ahead
🛍️ Panic Order

Around this time, you may notice your baby testing out new ways to move their body. What looks like wiggling, rocking or rolling in place is actually important groundwork for what comes next.

Mobility doesn’t usually arrive all at once. Instead, babies build strength and coordination through lots of trial and error, often experimenting with several movements before finding one that works. Around this time is often full of that practice, as your baby figures out how to get closer to the things and people they want to reach. To help you learn about this next phase, we talked to Dr. Chris Klunk, a board-certified neonatologist with Pediatrix Medical Group. 

Whether your baby is already scooting or still working up to it, this phase is all about learning how their body moves in space.

🚼 Baby’s Development 

Crawling

Even if baby isn't crawling just yet, this stage often comes with lots of groundwork. You might notice rocking on hands and knees, pushing backward instead of forward, spinning in circles on the belly or determined attempts to get somewhere just out of reach.

All of this counts as practice. Crawling requires coordination, strength and confidence and babies often experiment with many movements before it clicks. 

How can you encourage this exploration? "I feel like a broken record, but it all comes back to tummy time," says Dr. Klunk,"Tummy time strengthens the core and neck muscles, helping your baby roll, crawl, sit and eventually stand."

Dr. Klunk suggests making tummy time more engaging by placing interesting toys—or yourself—just out of reach, creating simple obstacle courses, or hiding behind small objects so your baby has to work to find you. 

There’s a wide range of what’s normal here, and not crawling yet at 37 weeks doesn’t mean anything is wrong. Some babies will army crawl, some will crawl traditionally, and some will skip it altogether and move straight to pulling up or cruising. 

However it unfolds, mobility is about to expand fast, which means curiosity, independence and the occasional tumble are all part of the package. Even if it doesn’t look like “real” crawling yet, all of this movement is helping your baby get there in their own way.

👀 Looking Ahead

  • Nine-month checkup: You've got a nine-month-old! And that means a milestone doctor’s appointment is coming up.

🛍️ Panic Order

If you haven’t baby-proofed your home just yet, now is the time to make sure it’s safe for the baby to explore.

Expert Sources

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