Knowing what week you are in

[itshappening]

Sorry, I have tried googling but am a bit confused.

I know that weeks one and two are before ovulation so pregnancy dated from first day of last period.

So if the first day of last period was 8 weeks ago to the day, you are 8 weeks.

BUT if a book is describing pregnancy in terms of 'week 8' or 'week 9', how exactly does that work? When you reach the date of 8 weeks as above, are you just starting week 8 or have you just finished it?

I suspect this may be a silly question, I have a mental block here maybe!

I find this really confusing too, but I'm pretty sure that you are just starting week 8 at that point. That's when people start talking about 8+1, 8+2 (as in 8 weeks and 1 day, 8 weeks and 2 days) etc.

You start counting your pregnancy from the date of your last period so technically you're pregnant before you conceive, if you see what I'm saying.

When books/apps/whatever refer to week 8 that'll be the beginning of your 8th week. You then count your actual pregnancy like - 8+1, 8+2, 8+3, as in, 8 weeks one day and so on.

So first day of your last period is Day 1. So if it was Monday 1st January then week 1 would be Monday 8th January. Week 2 would start Monday 15th January. Tuesday 16th would be 2 weeks + 1.

I rely on my app telling me lol

It does get confusing!!! But the way I see it is that when you are 8 weeks you have completed 8 weeks of pregnancy. After that day you are in your 9th week but won’t have completed 9 weeks until 9 weeks after your last period. I think it gets confusing because there are so few days in a week compared to, say, a month. It’s more obvious when you look at it in terms of months- I.e. I am 7 months pregnant today (as in I have completed 7 months of the pregnancy) but tomorrow I will start my 8th month despite being 7 and a bit months pregnant. Only once I’m 8 months pregnant do I refer to 8 months.

8+1/2/3 etc is your ninth week of pregnancy.

Just like in your first year of life you are under 1. As soon as you turn 1 year and 1 day you're in your second year of life.

It’s just like centuries. Years 1-100 are the first century. Similarly in pregnancy, there is no week 0 so days 1-7 are 1st week, days 8-14 second week etc So like MissBax says, at 8+1/2/3 you’re in your ninth week.

Thank you everyone. This kind of thing was never my strong point!