Move your due date up? Huh?

I was recently privy to a conversation that really tripped me out. These girls were talking about how they hoped they could get their due dates moved up so they wouldn't have to be pregnant as long. Uh, what? First of all, once again with the due dates. Who cares what it is? The odds that you'll have the baby on that day are like, next to nothing. It's not like you're racing toward THAT finish line and when you get there, you're done. It's just an estimate. Who gives a crap what they estimate? The baby comes when the baby comes.

What's more, they're talking about using measurements, and how the doctors, if you're measuring "ahead" (in other words, if the baby is larger than average), will "move" your due date sooner. What a load of shit. At our last appointment, just a couple days ago, Alyson estimated that this baby is 6 pounds or a bit over. That means that if I were to have the "average" 7.5 pound baby, I would need to do that at 37-38 weeks gestation. In reality, that's almost certain NOT to happen because most babies aren't ready at that point anyhow. The notion that a larger baby is ready to be born sooner than a smaller baby is just crazy talk to me. Just because they're bigger doesn't mean they're more developed. It just means they're bigger.

You know what this reminds me of? People who think that because their baby is bigger than average, that they can turn them forward-facing in the car without repercussions, at a young age. Hey, Orren hit 20 pounds at 4 months. Should I have gone ahead and turned him around? Uh, no, nobody with half a lick of sense would ever think that was a good idea, because any moderately intelligent person knows that a 4-month-old's spine is extremely immature, and it doesn't matter if the 4-month-old in question is 10 pounds or 30 pounds. The spine is still 4 months old, thus, immature.

The same applies to when babies are ready to be born. Some babies will be bigger and some will be smaller. There will be a continuum at any gestational age, but readiness to be born has to do with gestational age, not size. A friend of mine had her baby a week ago at 39 weeks. He was the size we estimate Chaiyo/Sirikit probably is right now at 35 weeks. My friend's son is perfectly fine and healthy, just tiny. He was born at full term. There is no concern for him. If Chaiyo/Sirikit were born tomorrow, Alyson wouldn't even attend our birth at home because the baby would be DEFINITELY premature. Sure, he/she would be the same size as my friend's son, but 4 full weeks behind in development. Gestational age is what matters, not size. You can't move the end date closer by growing a large baby. Just trust me on this one.