I’m glad everything worked out well for parents and child.
Even now, there’s is still a lot of mystery surrounding human pregnancy. Occasionally, a woman will have what seems to be menstruation after conception. Some women have such irregular cycles that the possible date could spread over a couple of months. Due to dozens of factors, including anorexia and intense athletic training, it is not always apparent who is a parent.
In Indiana, when a married woman has a baby, the law says the husband is the father. If there is some doubt, the father has a period of time to get a DNA test. After that, it’s his kid, no matter who the child looks like. Just demanding the test is sure to leave “dragon tracks,” and even if the test says Pa is really Pa, then Ma may boot Pa out the door.
Early dating ultrasounds can measure the length of the fetus and estimate the conception date reasonably well. I know my exact date of conception and my dating ultrasound got it on the nose.
And because I am, after all, contrary–my ultrasound with my second son totally missed. I knew the date I got pregnant and the ultra sound was off by three weeks. Having a conservative doctor who wanted my repeat c-section to be done a week prior to my due date meant he was four weeks early. And it didn’t matter how many times I said I knew when I got pregnant.
After he was born, the pediatrician stopped by my room and said my son wasn’t quite done yet. I got the giggles imagining him being put back in like a cake that needed more time.
Some people do cook 'em big and cook 'em fast–but at 33 weeks, I’d think there’d be more than “blood sugar problems.” But…everyone is different, so maybe she cooks 'em extra fast. And yes, they can determine conception within a few days (well, more like form a very strong theory). The earlier the ultrasound, the more accurate the aging of the baby.
RuffLlama has ALWAYS been big. We were trying, so I know almost precisely when he was conceived, and the 8-week ultrasound confirmed it. However, when I had the ultrasound at 20 weeks (or whenever it is when they can determine gender), the techs wanted to move up his due date nearly two weeks. Pish posh, our OB says, the 8 weeks u/s confirms his due date is April 20 (Hitler’s birthday, eff that!).
At 36 weeks, I was cramping and starting to swell like a balloon. OB said baby is probably still small, around 5-6lbs. Due in 4 weeks.
Nuh-uh, my body says. Out RuffLlama comes at 37 weeks, 7lbs 11oz. That’s inching toward the larger size for a full term baby.
I’d warned my OB–we don’t go full term in my family. We just don’t. My mom delivered all three of us at 39 weeks (and all of us were over 8lbs); my middle sister delivered an 8lb 14oz (ouch) boy at 37 weeks; my oldest sister delivered a 7lb 9oz girl at 38 weeks, and a 6lb+ boy at 34 weeks.
If and when there is a RuffLlama 2.0, I have got to convince my OB that 40 weeks won’t be happening. As another birth will have to be c-section (due to my two spinal surgeries), that’s even more imperative–if they try to tell me to wait until 40wks to schedule a c-section, they’re going to need to instruct me just how to cross my legs and hold them in before my body insists on shoving them out a few weeks ahead of the doc’s schedule.