I get irrationally annoyed when anyone says that pregnancy lasts for 10 months. I couldn't get past it when trying to read Girlfriend's Guide to Pregnancy while I was PG and it's bugged the crap out of me ever since. Just now I was watching a rerun of Criminal Minds and a female character who had a kid actually corrected another character when she said 9 months. ::facepalm::
It's simple math and I can't help but chafe when people don't take 3.5 seconds to figure it out for themselves. Pregnancy lasts roughly 38 weeks from conception to birth... not 40. That's 266 days. 9 months (assuming 30 days per month) is 270 days. 10 months would be 300 days.
/rant. I feel a little better now.
Re: Super random rant
I agree and it bugs me too!
Nine full months, does not equal ten months. It is still only nine full months.
soooo..... I'll play devils advocate.
My doc told me that a gestation period for a human is 10 "cycles" by definition. If you have a 28 day cycle, that would be 280 days from LMP. If you subtract the 2WW that gives you 266, which is the same as your number. In the case the month=/= "cylce" but it could be miscommunciated as the same thing. If you have a long cycle (33 days) you could have a longer gestation period, in theory, and if you have a short cycle, you could have a shorter gestation period, in theory......according to my doctor that is.
Feel free to disagree with me, though! I have no research to back this up.
I agree and am similarly annoyed.
However, for me, pregnancy really did last 40 weeks (I was 2 weeks late). Even so, it still wasn't 10 months.
Well 40 weeks is what we call the whole pregnancy, even though you're not pregnant for the first 2 weeks. I think people call it 10 months because they think 4 weeks = a month. So if pp's doctor said 10 cycles, that's the same. 10x4 = 40. But still, a cycle isn't a month. So it still doesn't last 10 months even if you want to count cycles. It's 9 months.
What really bugs me is when people are 24 weeks and say they're 6 months and then they say only 3 months to go. Um, no. If you are 24 weeks you have 16 weeks to go. You can't have 24 weeks = 6 months and 16 weeks = 3 months.
I once had someone argue that it was just "easier" to say 4 weeks is a month... ok fine. But she was talking about how old her baby was too. SO I said that will work fine until you get to 12 "months" = 48 weeks. Because their birthday will still be 4 weeks away. And they'll be 13 "months" old in your weird math/calendar that's "easier" for you to count.
I've never heard anyone say that your own gestation period would be shortened or lengthened based on your normal cycles... if you hada 33 day cycle, that would be 330 days , minus 14 = 316 days? So instead of 266 you would have FIFTY extra days???
Hmm. I've heard about all kinds of differences in people's cycles coming into play while trying to get pregnant, but once they're pregnant it pretty much always follows the same path, right?
But, it's not the 2WW that you subtract from the 40 weeks to get 266 days. It's the 2 weeks before ovulation even occurs. So even though they count those as part of the 40 weeks of pregnancy, you can't possibly be PG if you haven't O'd yet.
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On this note, my SIL counted her kids in weeks till they were ONE. She was like...."Oh, she's 42 weeks old!" BUGGED THE ISH OUTTA ME!
Also, I totally agree with you, M!
spin off of this. I cant stand when people continue to tell age of children in months way after the first year. Like I met someone the other day who told me her son was 32 months. Ship lady I dont need to do the math just say he is two and a half!
I found myself doing that until a couple months ago. And each time I did it, I immediately thought, "why didn't I just say that she's one and a half? It's not like anyone cares that she's actually 1.65 years old." So dumb. I finally trained myself to just say that she'll be 2 in July.
Bio & Blog | The Chic Bambino | Bumps & Babies Fair
I have a FB friend that takes her baby's pic every week with blocks spelling out her age (in weeks, obviously). I'm not really IRL friends with her, so I don't know if she actually talks about her like this too. But I'm pretty much of the opinion that once they hit 3 months you should not be referring to weeks anymore.
Bio & Blog | The Chic Bambino | Bumps & Babies Fair
Wait til your second - you won't remember how many months or weeks he is! All I can possibly muster up for Cooper is that he'll be 2 in October.
I'm going to make an AWESOME big brother.