Wednesday, December 21, 2011

The big debut

So...I was doing some reserach today to try and find what are my chances for delivering over the next few weeks. Here's what I found out (there are many studies and this is approximate):

5% of babies are born pre-term (<37 weeks)
8% are born between 37-38 weeks
12% from 38-39 weeks
20% from 39-40 weeks
35% from 40-41 weeks
15% from 41-42 weeks
5-10% post-term (>42 weeks)

So now, I'm polling for guesses as to when she will show up!--the closest to the due date will win a special surprise from me! Right now I am 37 weeks and 5 days (due date: Jan 6th) and it looks like she may stay put for awhile (at least, she's still stuck in my ribs so clearly she hasn't "dropped"). It turns out that most first-time moms deliver, on average, 5 days past their due date. Second-time moms? You may be surprised to hear that they too deliver, on average, 3 days past their due date.

I've done a lot of lit searching about the risks of a post-term delivery and have decided to be induced at 42 weeks if it goes that long, so the latest due date possible will be January 20th. It also may be helpful to know that I was about 4 days early and Morgan about 3 days late. Happy guessing!