**Disclaimer: The due dates referred to within this blog post are pregnancy due dates, not school assignment due dates.  As a teacher and a hyper-organized person, I take school due dates very seriously and encourage all students and their parents to do the same! ‘Due date, schmue date’ should not be a  phrase heard coming from the mouth of any student, ever!**

And now back to my regularly scheduled post…

I have come to the conclusion that due dates are nothing more than another means of driving a pregnant woman insane. 

The matter of due dates has confused me from Day 1 of pregnancy (or, at least, what I think was Day 1…).  According to my dating ultrasound, my wee one’s due date was August 15th, 3 days ago.  Of course there was a part of me that thought Baby might come early, (because his/her mama is always early to everything), so when August 15th came and went, I’ll admit I was a little worried – even though only 5% of babies are actually delivered on their due date.

The other method of calculating a baby’s due date requires the first day of your last period, and then counts forward 40 weeks to come up with the magic date.  Going by this method, my baby would be due on August 21, meaning I’m not even 40 weeks pregnant yet.

That’s a 6-day difference between the due dates I’ve been quoted.  It may seem like no big deal, but to a woman who is on the verge of one of the scariest/most painful/most miraculous moments of her life, 6 days is a big freakin’ deal.

My doctor considers Baby ‘overdue’ now (because the medical profession goes by the dating ultrasound’s due date), and I’m fairly certain she will be scheduling me for an induction when I go in for my appointment tomorrow (after stopping for my LAST donut ever…). My doc already told me she wouldn’t schedule an induction until I was 10 days past due date…which means that I could possibly be pregnant until August 25th! That’s another whole week of waiting!!!

Because I am absolute rubbish at just waiting for, well, anything, I decided to look in to acupuncture as a means of bringing labour on naturally. (I already tried spicy food – that just gave my heartburn heartburn. And I have been walking around the block so frequently that I have developed a personal commentary on the landscaping choices of each and every one of my neighbours.)   I am a huge believer in the benefits of acupuncture, so I gave my naturopath a call to see if she might be able to help move the labour process along.  Keep in mind, I was thinking I was already overdue and heading towards chemical induction.

My naturopath was amazeballs at easing my anxiety, and I haven’t even been in for a treatment yet. Over the phone, she shared with me that it is her opinion that we should always go by the date-of-last-period due date, and not the ultrasound one (unless you have very wonky periods that only show up every few months…then the dating ultrasound is really all you can go by).  Just look at my situation: one date tells me I’m overdue (cue hormonal tears of stress), while the other date tells me I’m just now approaching 40 weeks.  One date means possible chemical induction before Baby is even significantly overdue.

I feel so much better after speaking with my naturopath.  Because of that conversation, I probably won’t need to give my newborn a lecture on the importance of punctuality and keeping people waiting.  Even more importantly, I might be able to avoid a chemical induction.  Acupuncture is scheduled for later today…and I’ll be ready for what may come next…