"Just Barely" Pregnant PS''ers

[noelwr]

Mamma Hawk - you are correct about gestational days though I think that is more difficult to calculate. however, most literature is based upon pregnancy weeks, provided you have an average 28 day cycle. I think if you had something like a 45 day cycle, you couldn''t really use the 1st day of your LMP. maybe they use gestational weeks. it is INDEED confusing. I''ll shut up now.

 

[fieryred33143]

That''s why tickers on places like thebump.com are really helpful

lol!

Wait until you get used to the week thing and then have your LO and have to switch back to months

. I know some moms that still say my baby is 19 weeks. That''s way too confusing.

 

[cara]

Date: 1/25/2010 7:21:42 AM
Author: Hudson_Hawk
The pregnancy week part makes sense, I''m still not understanding the gestational week though. If you don''t conceive until 2 weeks after your LMP, then shouldn''t your gestational week be 1-2 weeks behind your pregnancy to account for the extra? So while I may be 6 weeks and so many days, my embryo is only 4 weeks and so many days developmentally.

Gestational age IS counted from your LMP. It is the usual counting method for how far along you are in a pregnancy. Human pregnancy is usually 40 weeks gestation, using that method.

The far less common way to count is by fetal/embryo development age, which is apx. 2 weeks behind gestational age. Of course this would be a more useful way to count if everyone knew when they ovulated, but most women don''t. And you''ll end up confusing people if you count this way because most people are more familiar with the milestones and meanings of dates from the gestational counting method.

Which explains why we used this wacky gestational age counting method. Historically, women didn''t have ultrasounds or anything high tech to help date the pregnancy - so they went with what info they had, which was the date of their LMP.

Anyway, don''t feel bad! In someways it doesn''t make any sense to count this way with modern knowledge about reproduction and technology.

 

[Hudson_Hawk]

Yea when I said gestational I mean fetal development. My brain doesn''t work properly these days.

 

[lucy.lucy.80]

Hi Ladies

Hope everyone is doing well!!

Re: gestational age- not sure if any of you guys are on fertility friend pregnancy tracker (there is a fee involved) but it is the best thing in the world! It keeps track how far along you are (week/day) and also tells you whats going on with your body each week & what how the lilttle bean is developing each week. Find it very helpful!

************

Today is the big day. I have been so excited for this day to come, but now that its here I am terrified....I am 7wk 1 day and have my very 1st ultrasound today and also find out the results for the blood work done last week. Apt is this afternoon so I will report back afterwards....ack so nervous

 

[cara]

Good luck lucy!

 

[jcrow]

Date: 1/25/2010 1:11:48 PM
Author: lucy.lucy.80
Hi Ladies

Hope everyone is doing well!!


Re: gestational age- not sure if any of you guys are on fertility friend pregnancy tracker (there is a fee involved) but it is the best thing in the world! It keeps track how far along you are (week/day) and also tells you whats going on with your body each week & what how the lilttle bean is developing each week. Find it very helpful!


************


Today is the big day. I have been so excited for this day to come, but now that its here I am terrified....I am 7wk 1 day and have my very 1st ultrasound today and also find out the results for the blood work done last week. Apt is this afternoon so I will report back afterwards....ack so nervous

re: the pregnancy tracker... you can also sign for weekly info via babycenter.com. you get info on your progress and the baby''s progress each week. and it''s free :]

 

[meresal]

Date: 1/25/2010 1:26:19 PM
Author: jcrow

Date: 1/25/2010 1:11:48 PM
Author: lucy.lucy.80
Hi Ladies

Hope everyone is doing well!!


Re: gestational age- not sure if any of you guys are on fertility friend pregnancy tracker (there is a fee involved) but it is the best thing in the world! It keeps track how far along you are (week/day) and also tells you whats going on with your body each week & what how the lilttle bean is developing each week. Find it very helpful!


************


Today is the big day. I have been so excited for this day to come, but now that its here I am terrified....I am 7wk 1 day and have my very 1st ultrasound today and also find out the results for the blood work done last week. Apt is this afternoon so I will report back afterwards....ack so nervous

re: the pregnancy tracker... you can also sign for weekly info via babycenter.com. you get info on your progress and the baby''s progress each week. and it''s free :]

This is what I use, which sends me and DH emails.... but also, if you have an Iphone or Ipod Touch, you can download the App for "What to Expect..." and it will give you weekly updates and tracks your days for you as well.

 

[Puppmom]

Good luck today, Lucy!

 

[jcrow]

speaking of apps, i highly recommend ipregnancy. it has updates for you and the baby. it keeps doc info, appts., weight info, blood pressure info, heartbeat, etc. all in a handy dandy space.

 

[Jena17]

Can anyone give me an idea of what my first prenatal visit will include. I just found out Friday and I am around 4 or 5 weeks. I have my first prenatal visit on Wednesday. It is just with a nurse I guess. What should I expect from that visit? I have another visit with a doctor on February 22nd for a U/S and exam. So I am not sure what I should expect to happen at the one this week. Any advice would be helpful! Thanks girls!

 

[Hudson_Hawk]

Jena, I know my appointment will include a pelvic exam, pap smear, blood draw, urine test, u/s and time for questions.

 

[cara]

You might not get HH's full list Jena. I think it varies a bit based on doctors' standards and insurance. Especially I wouldn't get your heart set on an ultrasound, as it sounds like they have you scheduled for one later in Feb. when you will hopefully be farther along.

 

[lucy.lucy.80]

Jena- BTW congrats on your BFP!! I just had my 1st apt last week (at 6wks) and we went over the following: diet, excersie, family history, LMP, blood work, urine test- there was no US since not much can be seen very early on (but maybe your doc will try?). My guess is at your Feb 22nd apt, they will do an US.

****

Thanks for all the well wishes ladies!! So everything went great!! I am right on schedule at 7wks 1day and my OB said things were off to a great start! It was so neat to see the little bean and heart beat flicker on the US!! My next apt is at 12 wks so now its back to the waiting game!

 

[lover in athens]

congrats lucy!

welcome jena!

 

[noelwr]

lucy - yay! I''m glad it went well and you could see the heartbeat. I''m sure you left the appointment all smiley. keep that going and don''t try to worry too much before the next one.

 

[Kit]

Date: 1/25/2010 5:43:14 PM
Author: Jena17
Can anyone give me an idea of what my first prenatal visit will include. I just found out Friday and I am around 4 or 5 weeks. I have my first prenatal visit on Wednesday. It is just with a nurse I guess. What should I expect from that visit? I have another visit with a doctor on February 22nd for a U/S and exam. So I am not sure what I should expect to happen at the one this week. Any advice would be helpful! Thanks girls!

Hi Jena,

FWIW here's what my first appointments have included:

extensive, expensive bloodwork for everything possibly imaginable including qualitative hCG (betas)
blood pressure, weight
urine sample
pelvic exam
vaginal cultures for STDs
pap spear if you need one
Q&A
a bag of free stuff like vitamin samples, etc.

I was also supposed to get the H1N1 vaccine but I forgot, and the nurses forgot, so I have to get one from my regular Dr.

It's great that you have a u/s lined up pretty soon! Some doctors make you wait until 12-14-16 weeks. Argh!

Subsequent visits were very short and sweet, it's more like a quick check up and opportunity to ask the Dr. questions and discuss care.

ETA: at the first appointment she also asked me about family history of birth defects and heritage issues, to determine if genetic testing was recommended. It might be good to try and gather this information especially from DH's family since I kind of made some educated guesses here.

 

[Kit]

Date: 1/25/2010 6:18:03 PM
Author: lucy.lucy.80
Thanks for all the well wishes ladies!! So everything went great!! I am right on schedule at 7wks 1day and my OB said things were off to a great start! It was so neat to see the little bean and heart beat flicker on the US!! My next apt is at 12 wks so now its back to the waiting game!

Yay Lucy! That''s great news. Now instead of a 2WW it''s more like a 5WW! I''m not sure which one is worse, ha!

 

[cara]

So I had a mini-first appt today and it looks good! ONE little sac, maybe a hint of a flicker of heartbeat but normal for the estimated age! Yay. Big sigh of relief, and I get to go back next week for a proper first visit with more workup and another ultrasound to check if things are still going well.

And no water torture on the ultrasound trying to get abdominal images, just the dildocam!

Yay lucy for your good appt. Hope the next 5 weeks of waiting will be easy for you and fly by... AND by then you will be almost out of the first trimester, how exciting!

Jena, welcome and good luck!

 

[Hudson_Hawk]

YAY congrats Cara! I have my phone interview with the nurse this afternoon at 3:30, then my first apt is on the 10th.

 

[lucy.lucy.80]

LIA, Noelwr, kit, pupmom, cara- thanks so much ladies

Cara- Congrats! Thats great news that the little bean is developing to schedule and its good you dont need to drink an entire gallon of water. I did for my US (even though the doc told me i didnt need to) and boy did I race to the bathroom after the apt! haha!

 

[Rock_of_Love]

Hey Ladies! I''d love to join you here...I found out I''m pregnant at the beginning of Jan. Right now I''m 8wks 4days and very excited (and nervous) for my first prenatal visit this Friday.

I''ve been hovering mainly over at BWW, as I''ve been planning my wedding for 10/10/10...but with this recent news, we moved up the date to 5/10/10. So, now I''m a BIW and a Preggo PSer at the same time! Yikes! Anyone else have a similar situation?

Also, TOTALLY hear ya on this whole "how far along are ya really" thing. It took me forever to get used to counting from my LMP and not actual ovulation. Logic kept telling me - but I wasn''t pregnant those first two weeks - NOTHING was happening!!! I''ve now just accepted it...and I like the fact that I''m considered further along than I actually thougt I was!!

Oh - so many questions...new acronyms to learn in this forum...guess I''ll start reading!!

 

[cara]

Congrats Rock of Love (and nice screen name, btw) and welcome! This thread isn''t so bad, but the TTC thread? watchout!

 

[taovandel]

Rock of Love: Last year I was in a similar situation like you. I was planning on getting married on October 29th in Jamaica....found out I was pregnant on March 16th...Move the wedding up to 6/7/09...Gave birth on October 31st (good thing we didn''t go to Jamaica...haha!). I was surprised at how supportive people were. For some reason I thought my fuddy duddy relatives would look down at me for getting pregnant and not actually married....but nope....everyone was so supportive and came to the wedding and were just really sweet and kind. Hopefully you will get treated the same way.

It was kind of difficult planning a totally different wedding though for me (The first would have been a destination wedding and obviously the second was a rushed in state wedding--but still beautiful)...I had my mind set on so many things and it was hard to change things and not really get my "dream destination wedding". I had to learn to compromise a bunch of things also (Location, Dress) and because we pushed up the wedding some of our budget went out the window also as we had less time to save up for certain things or we didn''t feel the urge to splurge because we knew we had the LO on the way.

I found just taking time to breathe and to learn to compromise is what got me through the crazy process of planning a wedding and being pregnant at the same time.

 

[CDNinNYC]

Rock of Love, I just popped in here and saw your news. Congratulations!

 

[Hudson_Hawk]

Date: 1/27/2010 7:30:16 PM
Author: Rock_of_Love
Hey Ladies! I''d love to join you here...I found out I''m pregnant at the beginning of Jan. Right now I''m 8wks 4days and very excited (and nervous) for my first prenatal visit this Friday.


I''ve been hovering mainly over at BWW, as I''ve been planning my wedding for 10/10/10...but with this recent news, we moved up the date to 5/10/10. So, now I''m a BIW and a Preggo PSer at the same time! Yikes! Anyone else have a similar situation?


Also, TOTALLY hear ya on this whole ''how far along are ya really'' thing. It took me forever to get used to counting from my LMP and not actual ovulation. Logic kept telling me - but I wasn''t pregnant those first two weeks - NOTHING was happening!!! I''ve now just accepted it...and I like the fact that I''m considered further along than I actually thougt I was!!


Oh - so many questions...new acronyms to learn in this forum...guess I''ll start reading!!

Congratulations ROL! Glad to have you on board! FWIW, those tickers aren''t always right. They don''t all use a 28 day cycle. I''ve gotten varying answers from the bump, and other sites. I''m just throwing up my hands and saying I''m 6weeks now.

 

[Mara]

also re: the ''dating''... once you guys have your first US they will hopefully be able to measure the bean on the screen and give you an idea of how close or off your ''estimates'' are for dating. but my hospital just used a 28 day cycle to estimate as well, so who knows. i guess that''s why they say due dates are never really accurate.

 

[Rock_of_Love]

Date: 1/27/2010 10:06:28 PM
Author: taovandel
Rock of Love: Last year I was in a similar situation like you. I was planning on getting married on October 29th in Jamaica....found out I was pregnant on March 16th...Move the wedding up to 6/7/09...Gave birth on October 31st (good thing we didn''t go to Jamaica...haha!). I was surprised at how supportive people were. For some reason I thought my fuddy duddy relatives would look down at me for getting pregnant and not actually married....but nope....everyone was so supportive and came to the wedding and were just really sweet and kind. Hopefully you will get treated the same way.

It was kind of difficult planning a totally different wedding though for me (The first would have been a destination wedding and obviously the second was a rushed in state wedding--but still beautiful)...I had my mind set on so many things and it was hard to change things and not really get my ''dream destination wedding''. I had to learn to compromise a bunch of things also (Location, Dress) and because we pushed up the wedding some of our budget went out the window also as we had less time to save up for certain things or we didn''t feel the urge to splurge because we knew we had the LO on the way.

I found just taking time to breathe and to learn to compromise is what got me through the crazy process of planning a wedding and being pregnant at the same time.

Wow! Good to know I''m not alone here!

We were planning a destination wedding in October...and I''m due early September! After going back and forth, the easiest thing seemed to just move up the destination wedding. We are having it in Puerto Vallarta and pretty much everything was already planned. I have a coordinator down there, etc. It was really just the easiest thing to do. If we moved it back to the states, we actually would have had to increase our budget as all my relatives, and his, that weren''t coming to the destination, now would to the state wedding...as well as some of the more distant friends. On the flip side, the wedding is becoming much smaller now...for obvious reasons - short notice, etc. So, trying not to let that totally bum me out. And, of course, I''m getting the "are you sure it is safe to travel to Mexico while you are pregnant???"

Also, I lucked out on the dress! In shopping for a more generous waistline...empire style...I really found the dress of my dreams. I''m super excited about that!!

Anyway, back to topic!!

Thanks for the welcomes, ladies!! There is soooo much great info here, I can''t wait to dive in!!!

I''ll post how my 1st prenatal visit goes tomorrow!! So nervous and excited!! I hope everything is as it should be!!

 

[Jena17]

Hi Ladies!

Welcome, Rock of Love! Congratulations!

I went to my first visit on Wednesday, they just went over my health and history, etc. Gave me a bag of stuff and sent me for blood work! Blood panel, thyroid, HIV, etc... Normal stuff I guess. My husband thought they would have atleast gave a pregnancy test to confirm it there. Do you know if they will do that in the urine test or blood tests they gave me?? I don't have any doubt that I am, but I thought there was a way to tell if the HCG levels were normal. Also, how long do you think it will take them to get the tests back? They said they would call if something was wrong only.

We want to tell our parents this weekend, I am only 5 weeks so it is still really early but I want them to know! So if there were any problems the doctors should have called by now don't you think?? We have our first U/S at the end of February and pap smear, etc. then. But I don't want to wait until then to tell them.

 

[cara]

Jena the reason most people wait is that they don't want to deal with the parental response if something goes wrong, since you are still really early in trimester one. If you will want your parent's support if something goes wrong, and don't mind them knowing that you and your hubby are trying for a child, tell away!

The odds of (dreaded m-word) go down a fair bit once you've seen a good heartbeat, and they drop to about 1-2 % by the end of the first trimester, which is what they stay at for the remainder of the pregnancy.

Me personally I prefer to wait until we are out of the first-tri, but totally understand the impulse! My first pregnancy I wanted to spill to everyone! And then, I learned why it was good I waited (though hopefully you would have no cause for regrets.) Even this time, I will probably be spilling to certain friends sooner than I would prefer because not-drinking becomes noticeable and warrants harassment/investigation in certain situations. Ahhh, college friends.

ROL, congrats on moving up your wedding and finding a dress! With your first post that was actually my first thought - that will make dress shopping more challenging

but I found dress-shopping quite challenging, so maybe that is my bias!