We are all individuals! (I'm not)

It's a quote from a Monty Python movie... I do hope you're laughing!

Anyway, the point is that each and every one of us was created as an individual entity and although we are all connected at our source, our bodies and experiences contribute to the uniqueness of our personal journey.

This goes for every aspect of fertility, pregnancy, birth and post-partum as well.

The realization I had today was about gestation times. When you go to your first prenatal appointment, your care provider will ask you for the date of your last menstrual period (LMP) then they do some fancy math and arrive at a due date for you which they attempt to confirm in an ultrasound. If you're lucky, you're care provider may ask you if you know when you conceived or when you ovulated. But most often, your due date is determined as 40 weeks from your LMP.

Who cares? When does this become a problem?

It becomes a problem towards the end of pregnancy: anxiety over going past your due date, impatience, decisions about inductions, etc...

But we all actually gestate on our own individual schedule. And especially if you conceived on any day other than day 14 of that cycle, you will have an inaccurate due date.

So I've developed a theory about my own body over the past three pregnancies, and I am sharing it with you for the sake of showing how each and every woman, and each pregnancy is different.

So after experiencing life in the 3rd trimester 3 times now, I have some insight into the uniqueness of my body's gestational trends.

My babies were both born early - and even Tani who should probably not have been forced to be born at 36 weeks, would not have gone much past 37. And Odeliya was born at 38 wks. Well, here I am at 28wks and just 4 weeks ago I said to my husband that I could see actually making it to 40 wks this time, no big deal.

Then the minute I hit 26 weeks my body went into 3rd trimester mode - 2 weeks early! And since then i've been miserable. Tired, peeing every minute, lots of BH ctrx, low back pain, sciatica, reflux from everything... the works. I think our bodies are only designed to tolerate that for so long!

So my theory is that I just don't gestate for 40 weeks. I make babies that are ready to be born by 38 weeks, b/c my body goes into 3rd-trimester-mode at 26 weeks. And you know what? That's ok. I'm cool with that. It's all good!

Of course, they say 3rd babies will throw you for a loop every time, but we'll see!

I hope this inspires some of you to question your due dates if it is leading to external problems!

Ok, gotto go do some pelvic tilts to get this baby off my sciatic nerve!!

Love to you!
~Ayelet