When Are You Due?

As one might imagine, I've been getting this question a lot lately.  A. LOT.


It's very trivial to me.  People place SO much value on due dates without realizing that a due date is not a promise of the delivery of a baby at an exact moment in time but rather an average.  It's amazing how often that is forgotten by many.


Do you know what your personal due date was?  Were you born on it?  I wasn't.  I was three weeks late.  My poor mother.  Of all my friends who have had kids in the last year or so, I can think of only 1 that came on his due date.  I was looking for a legit medical website might report, on average, how many babies are born on their calculated due dates.  After looking at some seemingly legitimate websites and a few that were a little less credible, I found that the average is around 5%.  


While quickly visiting one of the less credible sites, I stumbled upon a ridiculous image and decided that, if I had to look at it, you should too:

Anyway, back to the 5%.  There's a 5% chance that our son will come on his "due date", April 18th, in 15 days.  Am I getting my hopes up for that?  Forget it.  Would it be awesome if he came a few days early?  You bet!  Am I expecting that?  No way.  Given the fact that I've had a very healthy pregnancy, I think I'll probably have to pay my dues in waiting for an overdue child. 


Please note that I said "healthy pregnancy", not "easy pregnancy".  There's no such thing as an "easy pregnancy" and anyone who uses those words in conjunction with each other should be punched in the throat while gargling razor blades.


So...my apologies to my husband.  He's under the impression that whatever is on his calendar, will happen on that specific day.  It's not that I'm saying it won't happen like that, but I'm too much of a realist to count on it.


Now that that's out of the way, let's talk about the dumb things folks sometimes say to women who are expecting.  Actually, let's not.  There are far too many people who will read this post who have said these things without realizing it and I'm not out to make anyone feel bad (shocking, I know).  But I will say that if people thought about things that they say more thoroughly, they might say a little less :)  I'll instead focus on something you should probably avoid saying women in the final weeks of their third trimester.  It's pretty much just one thing...


I've seen several times when a woman nears her due date (or even a few days after), that her Facebook Wall will be inundated with phrases such as:


Have you had the baby yet?


When's that baby getting here?


Friends...these fall under the category of comments that I find useless and not helpful.  This probably means that there's been no delivery to speak up and, in all odds, mom is probably uncomfortable and irritated about it.  If the baby had already come and the announcement hasn't been made, it probably means the family is just a little too busy and hasn't taken 5 seconds to breathe and get on Facebook.  I know that, in this day and age of smart phones and Facebook apps, that may seem ridiculous, but just chill.  When the time is right and convenient, all the news that a family wants you to have will be made available at the time that they choose.


Bottom line: Couples who are expecting a child are required to be very patient with the process and, if you want to be the most helpful (which I know most people do), just be a little patient in return.


To wrap this up, I wanted to share with you a clip from one of our favorite sitcoms, Scrubs.  It has always made me laugh out loud, but particularly these days.  Enjoy:





Keep It Real!