*yeah i did. i used an acronym. that’s how cranky i’m feeling right now. but, the EDD. Estimated Due Date. for real. i think doctors invented due dates to make pregnant women at the end of their term feel like there’s no hope that they’ll ever be un-pregnant. unless you’re one of the lucky ones who has her baby before your due date. but the reality is that only 3% of women actually have their babies on their due dates….so i’m not really sure why the due date gets so much lovin’.
but it does. all i’ve heard for the past week(s) is when are you due? when are you due? from all well meaning strangers and dear friends alike. if i told you that this phrase sounds just the way that the crows at 6:30am outside of our bedroom window sound…would it make you want to poke your eyeballs out too? ok, phew. and i get it. there is a bit of validity to the due date, for medical reasons. everyone loves a timeline. time is what keeps things going, right? and it also allows for the docs to figure out if everything is growing just as it should be inside one’s belly. but why not create a pregnancy week? then at least you don’t feel like a bag of poop when you’re five or six days overdue, because you’re still sitting in that little window of maybe tomorrow! and then of course, panic takes over, and just the way comments like you’re so small for 31 weeks! or oh em gee, you’ll never make it full term aka you’re ginormous! that go to a pregnant woman’s head to make her feel like she’s anything but normal, she starts to worry that something is wrong with the little peanut cooking away inside of her. and then before you know it, you’re worked up to a heavy-breathing sweaty tear-stained mess because somebody looked at you the wrong way and you’re wondering if they’re staring in fear at your huge tum, or that they know something you don’t know… let’s just say that the mind works in amazing ways, and we can toddle along for nine months knowing that our gestational time isn’t up yet, so we just roll with it…but the minute you go past your due date, holy crap, game over. one day feels longer than a month…every little twinge you feel makes you think you’re in labour…and then of course, you say no, that’s not it…sigh….
and it’s not like your baby is a carton of milk sitting in the fridge. i took a swig of milk that was a day over the best before date without looking at it because i put something realllllly spicy in my mouth a few weeks ago. let’s just say the spice factor definitely took a spot on the back burner. but babies don’t turn sour the day after their due date. it’s not so down to a science that due dates are even all that accurate. unlike milk. down to a sci-ence. babies? due dates? not so much. but all of a sudden, now my pregnancy has gone from la-de-dah low risk to talk of induction and medical interventions up the who-haw (not literally, yet) but in the sense of ordering ultrasound scans and fetal non-stress tests. all in one week.
alright, that’s enough bear grumbling for now. off to my doctor appointment to see what’s in store….
mamabearroars 