To think there's no need for such specificnees in pregnancy?

[ChaosTrulyReigns]

I've noticed a new vogue for saying "I'm 26+3"(that was an example, other degrees of pregnancy are available).

Wha?

Yup, if you're nearly due or overdue and are practically counting in milliseconds, it's completely understandble, but whyohwhy during the term?

Surely "6ish months" , or "two-thirds gone" is utterly fine?

It's quite spoiling my enjoyment of the baby name boards on Nethuns.

I never had a clue. I was all 'Well, I'm due in April, so what is it now? December? Five months. Ish.'

Toffee, unless maybe you had some kind of infertility treatment (and even then I'm not sure) how could you possibly know the exact day of conception?

Aw, I think it's cute. Also, there's a massive difference developmentally between a 24month old and a 35monther.

I used to date my pg by my SIL who I knew was eight weeks ahead

I find it odd. there is nothing wrong with counting the days yourself, but its just not really that important to anyone outside your family/friends (as long as there are no serious health issues).

mind you I had the other problem being a bit too casual with dates when I went to make my first appointment yesterday in that I was not sure to the nearest week or so. I mean I have worked it out, just its not something I carry around in my head as it all still new and I tend to be quite in control of my emotions until the risks become minimal.

Maybe she knew the day she had sex It's not an odd concept!

Spider me too. It's sometimes embarrassing when someone asks how far along I am and I have to think for ages. Then respond with 'about 7 months?'

Thank you OP! I had a run in with a woman this weekend who referred to her child as being 46 months old!

I think with babies, it helps to refer to their age in weeks for the sake of vaccinations and check ups. I think you should start referring to their age in months after 3m.

With pregnancy, as someone who has miscarried 4 times, every day and every hour and second counts. Every loo trip or knicker check without blood is another goal achieved. I didn't count how many weeks and days I was pregnant with dc1 but my final 2 full term pregnancies I counted and referred to them as 26+2/ 30+3 because it does matter.

I think its normal to post that specifically online. Its sometimes the only place you can be quite so open about all aspects of the pregnancy, including minutiae no-one cares about in real life. I always told work in weeks (NHS though so they thought in them anyway) and family, but anyone asking would have got "23 weeks - nearly 6 months" or whatever.

And DS1 (3.5) is "3-and-a-half" but DS2 is "13 months" and will be until about 20 months then he'll be "nearly 2" and so on.

I don't use it in real-life when speaking to most people because there's no point, I either say "28 weeks" or "six months" depending on who I'm chatting to. But on the phone to the midwife or the labour ward/antenatal day unit, I do say days and weeks. The same goes for on here, if I'm just talking casually and it comes up, I say 28 weeks or 6 months - but if I'm on a pregnancy-specific thread where the number of days can make a difference, I will put 28+3.

YABU anyway. Why does it bother you? Is it back to that childhood attitude where it's 'cool' to be all vague about everything?

It's a bit of an odd concept Juno, unless you think sperm meets egg within 10 minutes of copulation the egg then implants exactly 2 hours later or something!

I think it depends on which pregnancy it is. With my first, I knew practically to the minute because it was new, I'd never done this before and I wanted to know exactly what was happening. With number two, I knew about weeks and now with number 3, I am too busy to keep complete track- I know I am about 28 weeks and I know my due date but that's about it.

The business of course is as a result of the previous 2 pregnancies now known as DD1 and DD2. .

So if the people who are posting weeks plus days are on their first pregnancies, then you are a little bit u.

It is a bit so speciifc - makes me think you're really telling me I had s-e-x 26+4 weeks ago. I don;t think that if you say, 6months ish. But that's probably my strange mind.

I do think it's a newish thing, my youngest is um, let me think, mid-late units and I naver had a conversation with anyone with spceific days until they were nearly term.

I understand your comments, Fiveleaves, but surely saying 18 weeks and not feeling any movement is just as concerning for the parent as '18+3 and no movement yet'?

It just feels too precise, iygwim? And, I hope my OP coveyed that I was really only mentioning it in the context when speicifness was irrelevant?

And as for don't read the threads malarkey... wouldn't MN shrivel and die if we only read threads pertinent to ourself?

It can be important, I get that this is a little light hearted and get that it can be annoying but my ds2 was born at 24 weeks to the day. 48 hours earlier and the drs would not have saved his life. I promise you lying in hospital I knew how many seconds it was to that magic 24 week mark.

If someone tells me the weeks it lets me know they are a first time parent. With the second you have no clue. I was pregnant, very pregnant and then had a baby. Baby was new and then I rounded to what I thought was the nearest month. DS is one but not one until the end of this month... It doesn't matter.

Mama of course there are times where it is relevant, we all know that.

But in general, it is silly, precious and cringey.

It probably is new, I have noticed older people refer to months and younger in weeks. We aren't being more precise its just the way we deal with it at the doctors office.

nIf you were pregnant and everyone said you were 4 months you'd say you were four months. If all your HCP referred to you as 17 weeks you'd say 17 weeks [shrugs]

Also the weeks don't really exactly correlate to months... drives me crazy trying to figure out how many months I am.

This is my third pregnancy. I am 6+3 by LMP. If this had been a planned pregnancy, I would have been able to tell you exactly what day I ovulated and the exact age of the foetus. As it is, I'm not all that sure because I wasn't peeing on OV tests. It's always been very important to me to know exactly how pregnant I am. Not least because I've given birth on 40+1 both times, and expect to this time (all being well). I was definitely doing this with my first pregnancy five years ago and my second three years ago.

Yanbu, I've only just worked out what it means and I've been on and off here for years. Clearly only recently bored enough to read stuff relating to pregnancies.

Thats true. All the midwives talk about it in weeks only. Nobody medical ever mentions it in months so you get used to always thinking like that and its quite hard to mentally convert from knowing you're 17 weeks or 25 weeks to however many months it is, the little grey cells are already feeling littler and greyer by the week as it is!

It isn't either silly or precious to say you're 25 weeks if thats the only way anybody medical ever says it to you. Its just fact.

YABU. Why do you fucking care?

(37+1)

Nice.

I go in weeks because pregnancy isn't really 9 months. It's more like 10. And that's how all the Dr's and midwives discussed it. I had DS at 37+3 and that three days meant the difference between being classed as prem, or just being a bit early (though obviously it wouldn't have made a huge difference).

Yeah exactly and when you go over 42 weeks pregnant.. you resent say only 9 months pregnant (bitter bitter bitter)