We can’t help it. Pregnant women are constantly wondering when the baby will come. I’m sure it doesn’t matter if it’s your first or your fifth. Heck, I even had terribly anxiety that my daughter was going to show up well before her scheduled entrance this time around. I googled, I asked friends, I re-read all the pregnancy progress chapters of maternity books.
The most interesting thing I found during my insomnia-filled, late-night googling sessions were pregnancy forums that contained women comparing their pregnancy progress during any one week of pregnancy. They compared dilations, symptoms, experiences, but it was impossible to find the rest of that individual’s progresses to read. Sure, we all know that every pregnancy and every woman is different; combine those stats together and you get infinity pregnancy situations. But that still doesn’t keep me from wondering who followed what path. So, I began to at least document my own pregnancy progress and keep it in one place (it makes me wish I had done this with Red. It’s so hard to remember!):
33 weeks: drop #1
34 weeks: drop #2
36 weeks appointment: 2cm, 50% effaced, station -1
36 weeks 2 days: Very strong BH contractions for 4+ hours straight. Calmed down with warm bath (but still going), stopping only when I went to sleep.
36 weeks 4 days: very strong BH contractions that woke me up in the night, accompanied by strong period cramps for about 2 hours. Eventually subsided and went back to sleep.
37 week appointment: SAME. 2cm, 50% effaced, station -1 (despite period like cramps, BH contractions, etc.)
37 weeks 1 day: Aspirated in my sleep. NOT FUN.
37 weeks 5 days: lots of pelvic bone pain, tight stomach overall.
38 week appointment: SAME. 2cm, 50% effaced, station -1.
38 weeks 3 days: Eggplant Parmesan ordered! I had many mild contractions in the late evening, false labor for 3 hours at 2am.
39 weeks appointment: Not checked for progress because it could throw me into labor!
39 weeks 1 day: Arrive for planned C-section. While in pre-op, waiting for IV, and just placed on fetal monitor, ACTUAL contractions began (we were literally just in time). Surgery started at 12:45, and Scarlett was born at 1:04pm <3
I also stumbled upon a very cool stat list a few times, so I’m sharing it here, too. Did you know? A Baby’s percent chance of being born during a specific week of pregnancy:
Percentage of babies born at 36 weeks: 3.3%
Percentage of babies born at 37 weeks: 7%
Percentage of babies born at 38 weeks: 13.1%
Percentage of babies born at 39 weeks: 26.6%
Percentage of babies born at 40 weeks: 30.5%
Percentage of babies born at 41 weeks: 15.8%
Percentage of babies born at 42 weeks: 2.3%
Percentage of babies born at 43 weeks: 0.2%
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