When does your OB start predicting baby's size?

alexandria1201

I am 33 weeks pregnant. At all of my recent OB appointments, the only thing my doctors do is listen to baby's heartbeat and ask if I have any questions. Many family/friends have expressed surprise that they haven't measured baby at all or given me any guess at his size.

What has your experience been? Has your OB been measuring baby by this point? Or no?

coldlife2

alexandria1201 said:

I am 33 weeks pregnant. At all of my recent OB appointments, the only thing my doctors do is listen to baby's heartbeat and ask if I have any questions. Many family/friends have expressed surprise that they haven't measured baby at all or given me any guess at his size.

What has your experience been? Has your OB been measuring baby by this point? Or no?

What do you mean by size? Do you mean fundal height? Or pounds and ounces of how heavy they expect the baby to be? 

I have never had an OB. I only had midwives. My fundal height was measured at every appointment, but they never gave weight estimations until I was in labor and they guessed from feeling my belly (and it was very wrong all three times!)

Pound and ounce estimations are basically a guessing game. They are notoriously frequently wrong. 

harpseal135

Um they never estimated size with my LO. 

Size guessing is so inaccurate, even by ultrasounf its off up +/- 2lbs!   Fundal height should be done at every appointment to be sure there is appropriate growth. 

I never showed big, fundal hight not very high as I'm my torso is long.  Doc said not concerned as baby had plenty of room to stretch.  She ended up being 8lbs 12 oz.  

My sister on the othererhand (almost same sized as me) looked like she could have twins she got really big with her 7lb 4oz baby.  

alexandria1201

Understood weight/length is a big guessing game. Though I still wish they would play it with me. =P But They've never measured my fundal height either. They literally only listen for his heartbeat. 

My 34 week appointment is next week. I will ask them about it.

lelkcot

Starting in second tri all of my prenatal appointments included measuring fundal height. I would definitely expect that at each appointment. As to the guessing the baby's size, my midwife only did that once towards the end of my pregnancy, based off feeling my stomach (making sure they were heads down), fundal height and my weight gain. If you want them to guess, you could probably just ask. 

meggyme

If you want them to guess, why don’t you ask them?

swizzlemalarkey

@alexandria1201 just ask. It’s not completely accurate though which is probably why they haven’t. I had midwives for my prenatals and they were measuring fundal height by then for sure. They would also feel for baby’s position. Towards the end they guessed how big he’d be but every midwife had a different guess, I saw multiple ones. I never had a growth scan as they weren’t worried about his size,  I heard anywhere from high 6s to high 7s. He was 8 lbs born at 40 weeks.