Whats In Store For Me Until My Due Date
Now that you know how far along you are, it might be helpful to know that pregnancies are often referred to in weeks and trimesters. Take a look at this pregnancy timeline for a breakdown of the weeks, months, and trimesters of pregnancy:
Here are some of the things you can expect in each trimester of pregnancy:
First trimester : You might notice some early signs of pregnancy, such as morning sickness and food cravings. Your provider will be able to confirm your pregnancy and set up your prenatal visits to make sure you and your baby stay healthy and safe.
Second trimester : This trimester is often referred to as the honeymoon phase of pregnancy. You may feel as if you have some extra energy to get things done, like baby-proofing your home, going to prenatal classes, and doing some gentle pregnancy exercise.
If you aren’t already, this may also be a good time to start doing Kegel exercises to strengthen your pelvic floor muscles. You can do these simple muscle clenches anywhere, and they’re beneficial not only during pregnancy and labor, but afterwards as well.
Third trimester : You’re nearly there! As you get closer to the birth of your baby, you’ll want to get prepared by making sure you have all the right baby gear. But remember to take the opportunity to slow down and rest whenever you can.
Review this article:
How To Calculate How Many Weeks You Are
Example:count one week to the nextuntil you reach the present date.
LMP = December 2, 2021
1st Wed = December 9, 2021 = 1 Week2nd Wed = December 16, 2021 = 2 Weeks9th Wed = February 3, 2022 = 9 WeeksYou are 9 Weeks and 1 Day pregnant
Another method to calculate how many weeks pregnant you are is to:
How Many Weeks Am I Formula:LMP = Last Menstrual PeriodHow Far Along Am I Formula:LMP = Last Menstrual Period*LMP date may be adjusted if unknown or following ultrasound.
Each of these methods will give you the gestational age of your pregnancy.
How Soon Can You Tell If Youre Pregnant 24 Really Early Signs
So you think you may be pregnant? But how early can you tell if you really are?
Honestly, its hard to pinpoint exactly how soon you can tell if youre pregnant because each one of us is unique.
Some women get a 6th sense about it straight away , while others dont know until months down the line.
Most of us will fall somewhere in the middle of these two extremes and well start to get an inkling we may be pregnant within 2-4 weeks of conception.
Pregnancy symptoms are usually very mild in the first couple of weeks making them hard to detect without a blood or urine test. Usually, the first sign is a late period. But what other early signs and symptoms will give you a clue to whether youre pregnant or not?
And how early can you take a pregnancy test to find out for sure?
How reliable are urine pregnancy tests, what can you do to make sure you get an accurate result and what might cause a false positive?
What about super early symptoms, like before implantation? Is that even possible?
We answer all your questions below.
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How Can I Ensure The Most Accurate Due Date Possible
Start tracking your periods before you get pregnant so that you can easily tell how far along you are. You can use a calendar or period tracker app, such as Period Calendar, Flo and Clue, all of which are free on iPhone and Android.
Then, if you get pregnantwhether its planned or a surpriseyoull know the start of your last period and can accurately assess how far along you are. At that point, you can sign up for Todays Parents free week-by-week pregnancy newsletter to learn about your babys development, how youll be feeling and what to expect.
Free pregnancy apps like The Bump, What to Expect and Pregnancy Tracker include pregnancy calendar calculatorsto estimate your due date, as well as functions to help track the size of your baby, anticipate pregnancy symptoms and plan for doctors appointments and other key dates .
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Tips For Moms Partner
Many times the male partner does not feel he has a role in a potential pregnancy at this time. However, his health and lifestyle can also affect your future baby. He may need to evaluate his nutrition, medication intake, as well as habits like smoking, and using drugs or alcohol.
Men can also benefit from taking prenatal vitamins or another type of vitamin supplement, including a proper diet, prior to conception.
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Dating Pregnancy Using Ultrasound
Ultrasound in the first trimester is the most accurate method of dating pregnancy. During the scan, baby is measured and the age of pregnancy is estimated by comparing baby’s size against recorded averages. If there is a significant difference between gestational age according to LMP and gestational age according to the ultrasound, you may be given a new gestational age and due date based on the ultrasound measurements.
Your pregnancy may also be dated by ultrasound measurement if an LMP formula was not appropriate for your pregnancy for any reason. LMP formulas are not suitable in several situations including the following: LMP is not known or is not certain, birth control pills were taken in the two months before LMP, the menstrual cycle is irregular, you are carrying multiples .
Although the age of pregnancy based on ultrasound measurements is more accurate than the age of pregnancy based on LMP, both are estimates and not definitive statements.
Tracking Progress: How To Tell How Many Weeks Pregnant Are You
How do I know how many weeks pregnant I am? you ask? Your last menstrual period comes in handy not only for estimating your due date its also used for zeroing in on how many weeks pregnant you are. Youll want to keep track of it in order to monitor your progress as your baby grows.
To figure out your pregnancy week, start counting from the first day of your LMP, which would be considered 0 weeks and 0 days, says Joseph Adashek, MD, FACOG, a perinatologist and co-owner of Desert Perinatal Associates in Las Vegas. The day after you bleed, you are 0 weeks and 1 day pregnant. On the day you conceive, you are 2 weeks and 0 days. After 2 weeks and 6 days, youre considered 3 weeks pregnant, and so on. This is also known as your babys gestational age.
Sounds a bit illogical, given that youre obviously not pregnant until after youve ovulated, right? But in the old days, a gestational age was helpful before ultrasounds could offer clues as to exactly how far along you are, Adashek says. These days, gestational age is still used uniformly around the world to determine how many weeks pregnant you are, especially since many places still dont use ultrasounds routinely. The gestational age is also the age automatically reported by the ultrasound, should your doctor use one.
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How Long Are Women Actually Pregnant For
A study from 1990 of over 1000 women found that the median gestation length for first-time mothers was 277 288 days since LMP. For second-time mothers, median gestation length was slightly shorter and about 275 287 days since LMP.
Interestingly, one study of a small population of 125 Caucasian women found that gestation lasted on average 268 days from ovulation, and that despite no labor or preterm complications in the sample pool, gestation length varied by 37 days across the sample. Progesterone may explain the variability because a slower rise in progesterone after implantation correlated with a longer pregnancy. But, keep in mind, this is a small sample size with one racial background.
Although research doesnt understand why yet, racial background does affect gestation length. A study of over 100,000 women in London found that women of African or Asian backgrounds had a median gestation length of 273 days, which is about a week shorter than Caucasian women.
Bottom line: how many weeks pregnant the average woman is when she gives birth does vary considerably, but about 282 days from LMP seems to be more accurate although whether thats true for women of all ethnic backgrounds definitely requires more research.
What Are The Signs And Symptoms When You’re 3 Weeks Pregnant
When youâre 1 week âpregnant,â you havenât conceived yet, and so thereâs not much going on. That can change by the time youâre three weeks pregnant. Your belly can be a hive of activity, though you may not be able to tell.
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If the sperm and egg find each other, theyâll join up in a fallopian tube to create a single cell called a zygote in a process called fertilization.
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The zygote carries chromosomes from the mother and father and sets the first building blocks of your future babyâs genetic makeup.
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The zygote then moves down the fallopian tube and toward the uterus as it starts dividing into a larger group of cells.
Although thereâs more activity in your third week of pregnancy, will you feel anything? Probably not. However, read on to learn a bit more about those typical early symptoms of pregnancy and when you might notice them.
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Can Any Medication Or Medical Conditions Affect The Result
Always read manufacturer’s instructions for any medication you are taking before doing a test.
- Fertility drugs containing hCG can give misleading results .
- Other fertility therapies, painkillers and hormonal contraceptives should not affect the result.
- If you have recently stopped using hormonal contraception or are using fertility therapies, your periods may be irregular, leading you to test too soon.
- Ectopic pregnancy, ovarian cysts, menopause and some very rare medical conditions can give misleading results.
If you do get unexpected results you should discuss them with your doctor.
What Is A Pregnancy Calculator
A pregnancy calculator is a way for you to determine how far along you are depending on when your last period was. This requires you to know when the first day of your last period was.
If you dont then you can always estimate but it might be a little off depending on how close you were to the actual date.
Even when doctors determine how far along you are they use your last period as a determining factor .
This helps you to determine those key milestones when you are pregnant such as when you can anticipate being out of the first trimester .
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High Blood Pressure And Dizziness During Early Pregnancy
In most cases, high or normal blood pressure will drop in the early stages of pregnancy. This may also cause feelings of dizziness since your blood vessels are dilated.
High blood pressure, or hypertension, as a result of pregnancy is more difficult to determine. Almost all cases of hypertension within the first 20 weeks indicate underlying problems. It may develop during early pregnancy, but it may also be present beforehand.
A medical professional will take your blood pressure during your first doctors visit to help establish a baseline for a normal blood pressure reading.
Im 7 Weeks 1 Day Pregnant So Im In My 8th Week Of Pregnancy Right
Wrong. You are seven weeks pregnant.
Many moms assume that being 7 weeks and 1 day pregnant means theyre technically in their eighth week of pregnancy. And, while there is definitely logic behind that, its just not the way the medical community answers the question of how many weeks pregnant am I.
Think of it in terms of your age.
If someone asks you how old you are, you say youre 30, whether youre 30 and 3 days or 30 and 364 days. Even the night before your 31st birthday, you still say youre 30, although youve almost completed your 31st year.
So how many weeks pregnant are you? Most mamas answer that by saying how many weeks and days theyve completed:
- Im 8 weeks and 2 days pregnant.
- Ill be 20 weeks pregnant on Monday.
- Im 32 weeks and 6 days pregnant.
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What Is My Due Date
Your due date, also known as your estimated date of delivery, is the approximate date your labor might begin. Your estimated due date is commonly calculated by adding 280 days to the date of the first day of your last period, using Naegeles rule.1This may vary if you have irregular periods.
It’s worth noting that although predicted due dates are commonly calculated at 280 days, a baby is born on its predicted due date just 5% of the time.2 A 2020 study published in the International Journal of Obstetrics & Gynaecology suggests a number of factors that can influence the length of your pregnancy, including ethnicity, height, variations in the menstrual cycle, the timing of ovulation, parity and maternal weight. It is for this reason that calculations using Naegeles rule can be considered as an estimate and not a definitive date.3
Why Your Due Date Is Important
Your due date is likely one of the first bits of information youll seek out after you find out youre pregnant. Friends and family will want to know so they can look forward to greeting your new baby .
Doctors, midwives, and nurses will want to know so they can track important health milestones and make decisions about interventions and prenatal testing.
Your due date is less of a deadline and more like a time marker. Your due date indicates the 40th week since your last menstrual period or the 38th week from ovulation.
Once your due date is calculated, you’re likely to give birth within a four-week period that surrounds your due date. In other words, sometime during the two weeks prior to and two weeks after your assigned due date, you’ll likely meet your baby.
Around 70 out of every 100 pregnant people will have their baby within 10 days of their due date. Assuming there are no complications, others will deliver either a little earlier or a little later than that.
The due date is valuable for many reasons, including the preparation of your home and family for the new arrival. There are also several other reasons it’s helpful to know your due date.
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Why Is Dating From Last Menstrual Period Or Lmp Inaccurate
Say you have a 28-day cycle, and after the two-week wait to take a pregnancy test, you got a positive pregnancy test on the day you missed your period. Your last period was 28 days ago, so even though implantation happened within the past few days, youre already considered four weeks pregnant.
The problem with this method, aside from the fact that it considers pregnancy as beginning from several weeks before you are actually pregnant, is that it is inaccurate for any woman who does not ovulate on day 14. If you ovulated later than day 14, your due date will be set too early. And if you ovulated earlier than day 14, your due date will be set too late. The further away from day 14 you ovulate, the less accurate your due date will be.
What Are The Three Trimesters In Pregnancy
The pregnancy period is divided into three, three-month segments known as trimesters. The division helps understand the changes in the body.
First trimester: It lasts from week one to week 13, when you experience nausea and tiredness.
Second trimester: It lasts from week 14 to week 28. You will feel much better in this period, and your pregnancy bump will be seen. Early pregnancy symptoms such as morning sickness, headache, dizziness, fatigue, etc., slowly disappear.
Third trimester: It lasts from week 29 until you deliver the baby. You will require extra energy to help your baby grow and beat the tiredness .
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How Is Pregnancy Due Date Calculated
Your pregnancy due date is calculated by adding 40 weeks to the first day of your last menstrual period . This is done with an assumption that you have a 28-day menstrual cycle. The time between your menstrual period and ovulation is calculated as the first two weeks of pregnancy, as ovulation takes place two weeks after the first day of LMP. If you deliver the baby on the estimated due date, she is 38 weeks old after conception and not 40 .
If you miss your first period, you are likely to be four weeks pregnant .
Super Early Signs Of Pregnancy How Soon Can I Tell If Im Pregnant
1. Missed Period
Sometimes the very first indicator for many women, a missed period is normally a good sign that a pregnancy has occurred.
However, its also not always the case. Periods can be delayed in general by stress or changes to your diet, and bleeding can even still occur throughout pregnancy.
If you havent yet missed your period, but would like to test early, home pregnancy tests such as First Response can detect pregnancy hormones up to six days prior to a missed period. But this is certainly not guaranteed.
Its better to wait until your period is actually missed so that your body is making enough hormones to detect and you can get an accurate result. You will also need to make sure you take the test properly.
Read the full instructions on how to do this towards the end of this page.
2. Nausea or Vomiting
Nausea is an extremely common side effect of pregnancy, especially early on. If you find yourself feeling nauseous for no reason you can pinpoint, dry retching or unexpectedly over the toilet, you may want to take a test.
3. Spotting
Some women notice very light pink or brown spots of blood around a week two weeks after conception. This is the fertilized embryo implanting into the lining of the womb and is called implantation bleeding.
4. Dizziness
Finding yourself needing to sit down often, getting light-headed or wobbly on your feet, and unable to focus on things you normally can could indicate pregnancy.
5. Headaches
6. Increased Sensitivity to Smells
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