sonograms & due dates

[jessica31876]

When my daughter originally called to tell us they had found out she was pregnant (I kinda already knew) but she confirmed it. That was back in Feburary or so. I got her last cycle date and the online calculator I used came up with a date of 10/11/12. She went to the doctors for her first appointment and they said 10/14/12. Then at 13 weeks I think she had a sonogram and they changed it to 10/17/12. Today she had her second sonogram and they got the date 10/24/2012. For my pregnancies it never went that way if they changed the dates it was that the due date got closer not farther away. Is this normal? How do the calculations change so much and why do the due date calculators you use going by your menstrual cycle give different dates?

[Libby Pritchett]

Well, everything I read when I was pregnant said that the earlier ultrasounds are the most accurate for dating purposes because after a certain point, the babies grow at different rates. So, it's really hard to use those later ones to figure out a due date. My doctor had a policy that they went by the last mentrual period unless the first ultrasound was significantly different.

According to my period, my due date was 2-14-12, but my first ultrasound showed me at 2-19-12. Still, because it was only 5 days, they stuck with the date of my period. If it had been a week or more, they would've changed it. After that, it didn't matter how big or small I measured or what the ultrasound showed, they didn't change my due date.

[Lindsay]

My youngest was pushed back but I think it was due to his measurements. And then he came two weeks early, go figure. I guess he thought he was "done" :)

[jessica31876]

My youngest was 43 days early and weighed 7 pounds. My middle son was due 10/31 and was born on 11/09 and he weighed 11 pounds. So I think that is why they kept moving my due date forward (sooner). So hearing them keep moving her date had me a little concerned. She has gained some weight since she got pregnant but not in about 2 months. She really to me does not look 23 weeks pregnant at all. She said the baby is super active and moves around a lot and everything is normal according to the sonogram though.

[lovely1m]

Mine was just like Libby. If they adjust everytime they do a u/s, it will change constantly which is just too much IMO. Also, it's her first baby, she's young and she was thin, so at 23 weeks pregnant, I can totally see her hardly showing. I was 27 at my first and a healthy weight and you couldn't see anything besides a small tummy until I hit like 7 months. Then it grew so fast.

[hollyxann]

Kennedy's due date was 2/17, she was born 2/14 after I had to be induced.

My niece was born 5/1, her due date was 5/2. But her mother had to be induced because of high blood pressure and after she was born the Drs said she was actually probably a month early. But she was healthy so they weren't too concerned.

A friend of mine had her baby on 5/30, her due date was 5/31 and when Nora was born (she came on her own) they said she was actually probably a week late because she was really jaundice.


As for showing pregnancy, I showed really early. As you all have seen from my FB pictures by 40 wks I was a cow! lol
This was me at almost 16 wks:
http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/47285_835499505364_7829234_n.jpg

And this was me the morning I got induced:
http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-snc6/182953_923924106754_1249204_n.jpg

[SmallMoments]

I only had one ultrasound. It gave a due date of 1/24. My lmp gave ma a due date of 1/25. I was induced on 1/30 and he was born 2/1 weighing almost 8#.

[haydensmommy217]

My due date was set based on my LMP was Feb 23rd. then i believe after 20 weeks when i found out i was having a boy the moved it up to March 3rd. Around 37-38 weeks Hayden still hadn't turned so they wanted to induce me well the day of my c section ( were afraid i wouldn't be able to deliver due to some hip problems) he ended up flipping into the birthing position. But they could tell that i was still 2 if not 4 more weeks before id go into labor (something to do with the cervix) and they said that he was weighing around 8 if not 9 pounds ( i guess they can tell in an ultrasound) I was already have bad pelvic pain so i kept my c section for that night and sure enough they said i could have gone another month (look of the placenta) he weighed 9.7 pounds. They said if i would have waited he could have been 11 or 12 pounds.

I started showing around 28-30 weeks and i was average weight before i got pregnant.

[jessica31876]

Holly you were adorable. Your 16 week pic is about how she is now. But hers is mostly all tummy/hips

[4noisyboys]

The earlier the ultrasound, the more accurate it is.

That being said...every one is different. My babies have all been born on or up to 9 days before my due date (by an ultrasound at 8 weeks).

My friend always went a full month past hers. I know most doctors don't allow that anymore...but she had all hers at home with a midwife, so they allowed it.

[rach3975]

My docs preferred to use a due date based on an early ultrasound rather than LMP. But after they gave us the initial due date they didn't change it, just said the baby was measuring big or small.

As for how she looks, I wouldn't worry unless the doctor is concerned. My first pregnancy I didn't look obviously pregnant until 26 weeks, though my 2 later pregnancies showed much earlier. I know someone who is 8 months pregnant with her 3rd child, and she hardly looks pregnant at all. She said this is how she was with the other 2, also.

[caliten]

based on LMP, my daughter was due on 4/4, but since the doc and I disagreed on the date of conception by more than a week, they ordered a dating ultrasound and my due date was changed to 4/10. She was born on 4/2 (7.5 lbs). Then when I got pregnant with my son, then determined a due date of 12/29 based on when my period should have happened (I was on the pill but hadn't had a period in 4 months, and that was the only one I'd had since my daughter was born....she was like 8 months old when it happened), but never ordered the dating ultrasound since he wasn't my first baby (and that didn't seem odd to me at the time). The ultrasounds later on kept coming up with different dates, and they told me he was going to be huge even though I was measuring small; he ended up coming 4 weeks early on12/2....just under 7 lbs....and the nurses couldn't agree on whether he was 36, 37, or 38 weeks. They come when they come, and most of them come when they're ready.

[Sherri Tierney]

With my first the LMP gave me one due date but I knew the conception date without a doubt and both ultrasound and conception date gave me a Nov. 7th due date. LMP gave me a November 10th due date. He was the one born too early though, he came on June 17th.

My 2nd my LMP gave me July 11th and my ultrasound gave me July 10th so that was close too. She came June 24th.

Declan... oh my, his was crazy. LMP gave me a due date of Nov. 3rd. We were kind of excited because Caitrin was due on either my grandma's birthday or Sean's grandma's birthday (the 10th and 11th of July as mentioned) so we thought it was cool that Declan was due on my MIL's birthday. When I had my first ultrasound I was told I given a due date of Nov. 17th. I STILL can't figure that one out. If that due date was correct then I actually found out I was pregnant just a couple of days past ovulation which is pretty much impossible, right? So, anyway, the next ultrasound gave me a due date of October 30th. This was how it went with his pregnancy. I had 3 doctors involved too. My family practitioner took care of all the routine pregnancy stuff. My perinatologist did the testing they do (for defects) and placed my cervical cerclage. The OB/GYN was on hand to perform the c-section since my GP can't do surgery and my peri is out of state. So, the peri had one due date for me, GP had another due date for me and OB had yet another. When I first met with OB to schedule the c-section he had the October 30th due date. I figured, okay, its close enough to Nov. 2nd we'd just go with it. He scheduled my c-section for October 22nd.

So... October 22nd rolls around and I go in for my scheduled c-section. They do all the prep work and have me pretty much ready for the epidural when OB rushes in to the room. He is freaked out because he JUST got a fax from my peri with the Nov. 17 due date. He starts telling me over and over "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry" and says he can't in good conscience deliver the baby that day because it would mean a preemie given the Nov. 17th date. I explained to him how we had a million different dates throughout the pregnancy and that, to be honest, I wasn't sure which one was most accurate. He said that the 17th one would be most accurate since it was the 1st one (when I thought I was 7 weeks pregnant but according to ultrasound I was 5 weeks pregnant, which, like I said is really odd because I had gotten a positive HPT over 3 weeks prior to that) and babies grow at different rates later in pregnancy, etc. He apologized profusely several more times and rescheduled my c-section for November 10th.

Talk about a crazy 'false labor'. I wasn't sure whether to laugh or cry. I was suddenly really freaked out about the fact that we might well have taken the baby 3 weeks early but I still wasn't sure which date I believed was right. We were just frustrated all around. I was beyond miserable... my feet were swollen to the point I could barely walk, etc. We picked my daughter up from my grandma's house and she cried and cried. She thought we weren't going to get a baby anymore. LOL

Anyway, November 8th I went in to labor on my own, 2 days before the scheduled c-section. He was born at 6lbs 15oz, 5 oz smaller than his sister who was born at 37 weeks. Given that I kind of have to believe that his due date probably was closer to the early due date and that they had just caught him during growth spurts after that. The doctor and nurses also felt strongly that he was a 38 weeker.

[Leontine78]

I had my first ultrasound at about 9 weeks. She set my due date at 9-8-12 but she couldn't measure it well. After abou 10 weeks I got another one and she came with my final due date on 3-8-12. I had several ultrasounds after and everytime my little man is a little smaller than due date says. But it never has been changed. The 12 week ultrasound is most accurate they say.

[jessica31876]

Im not to worried about the dates as I know they change. She has an appt with a specialist in 4 weeks I think because of her diagnosis of chiari malformation when she was a teenager. The doctor said today she needs to make sure that there are no risks for my daughter to give birth and if there is they may just do a scheduled c-section. I told her if I was making the decision I would do a c-section in a heartbeat. I know it is scary for any first time mom but Ive had 3 and they were all so much easier then the labor I had to endure with the second before they decided to do a c-section.

[glumirk]

I wouldn't worry about the due dates at all, and I didn't gain weight until after 20 weeks with either pregnancy, both the one where I turned into a health but and the one where I was eating way too much chocolate. Pregnancy is still not an exact science, so I never expected much. I was induced 10 days early with DS because of PE, and I had DD 3 days early while I was on bed rest for PE. However I have friends who expect nothing by their due dates because they have always delivered naturally over a week after the due date. Needing a c-section they will be more careful, but if they are worried they can give the steroid shots for lung formation.

I always feel bad for the women who labor forever and then need a c-section. I think that's the worst deal in childbirth. I was lucky to have fast deliveries for both kids. Although I highly discourage birthing on the back because I broke my tailbone that way with my first.

[mummytothree]

All 5 of my pregnancies were based on LMP, but I have always been regular and my periods come like clock work!!! Four of my pregnancies were all "finished" within days of their due dates, only one was induced 3 weeks early because of high blood pressure!

Now matter what I measure (belly wise or ultrasound wise) my dates were never moved! All my kids were born between the weights of 7.5 and 7.7 (except for one...the one induced early...he was 8.5) and I always always measured 3 to 5 weeks bigger with all my kids!!

To be honest....I'd be concerned in they were moving her date further out...to me that means the baby is measuring small and I'd want them to look at the reason why....not just move the date!!! And yes....even when I was measuring big and my OB knew this was "normal" for me we always had additional test done to be on the safe side and I was always monitored more closely!!!