This was the google query I made yesterday. Little did I know this was a loaded question. There is no hard and fast rule like I expected to find. Rather, its the actual due date that is often the bigger question. Apparently as much as they try, all the brilliant people in the world have not been able to come up with the algorithm of measurements, scans and dates that accurately predict the due date even though everyone lives by one single date in terms of the nine month countdown.


Full term is anywhere from 37 to 42 weeks, an ultrasound in the first trimester is accurate, give or take 14 days, second term, give or take 8 days and third term, get this, is only as close as 22 days give or take. (And here I was hoping that the ultrasound on Tuesday would give me some definitive timeframe). But all that means nothing if doctors didn’t guess right in the first place. We thought it was odd to hear of a girl in our baby class who’s due date has been moved up more than a month since its original estimation, but now it seems that absolutely possible and not as rare as I assumed.

So the final countdown for us is on with “less than 6 weeks” to go – or so they say – but the reality is – only Cailee and the good Lord know when its time to make an appearance and boy is that nervewracking – especially after carrying an extra 20lbs for nearly 35 weeks.