As days go by

One of the hardest parts about the end of pregnancy is the not knowing when. I'm not ancy for him to come. On the contrary, the further I get into the school year, the easier it will be for me to transition out of the classroom and the better it will be for our bank coffers. There just seems to be such lack of clarity about the actual due date, though. I know for sure the late of my LMP, and for that matter, we know for sure the date of conception. My LMP gives me a due date of September 8, making me almost 38 weeks pregnant. My date of conception -- with a longer luteal phase -- is about 5 days behind, making me a little more than 37 weeks pregnant. At my ultrasound on February 29, the baby measured 6 6/7 weeks, which puts my due date at September 17 and makes me 36 4/7 weeks pregnant. The midwife, however, gave me a due date of September 19, which makes me 36 2/7 weeks pregnant. That's a range of almost 2 weeks, which when you get to the end of things seems like it could make a difference. The ultrasound seems the most reliable, but are all embryos the same size early on? Could the ultrasound tech have been off by a couple days?

The ticker on the baby's blog is set for September 17, since I've been counting up weeks based on the first-trimester ultrasound. When people ask my due date, I say September 19. Fortunately, it seems he's going to come in a window such that the delivery won't be affected by the confusion -- no one will think I'm too early and, hopefully, won't worry he's coming too late.

For someone who loves Microsoft Outlook calendar with a passion, I think I'm handling this ambiguity in dates rather well.