What IS going on in there??

We are at 31 weeks now, and it is certainly getting more interesting! and even more of a question, "Baby, what ARE you doing in there?"
From early on I've been following two different websites for insights to fetal development and weekly changes. My FB profile pic is updated regularly with each graduation to comparable fruit and vegetable size (this week "they say" we are at about the equivalent of 4 naval oranges, or 2 1/2-3lb) Wow.
(Admittedly I do sometimes wonder who came up with these analogies, whether these are organic or conventional fruit, and where I can find my stepdaughter an organic mango larger than a spaghetti squash? because she would lose her mind with happiness).
Beyond size, consider the development of tissues and organs. Truly miraculous as the embryo, fetus and human follow a pre-set mammalian path of development. Gills come and go, the tail quickly disappears, the determination of which cells go on to become baby versus placenta is "just a matter of location" ?Really? Kind of brings back the question of how did that ONE sperm get selected? Is it totally chance? is there some "great aura" that drew egg and seed together? Directed by Spirit? Did all the deceased great grandparents nudge their wishes? Was it Karma? Soup of the day?
And after things are rolling, to consider relative stages of development as this human is making their way to being independently viable; heart is beating, kidneys are working, lungs are developing....Incredible. As an alternatively minded medical practitioner I amuse myself with such things as, "We are ramping up myelination this week, better increase the good fats! More coconut, more avocado, more fish oils, yum!" "This week eyes are underway, more blueberries!"
And when we wanted to go out on a last big date before the baby comes, I researched long and hard to determine if the baby could hear yet, as Bassnectar only plays at notoriously high decibel levels. Once I had cleared it that what the baby would experience would simply be one AWESOME massage, but their ears were weeks from being developed enough to even hear my heartbeat, we rocked out (and it was a darn good groove).
The first baby belly bean movements were seen before they were felt, and I have to confess, seeing the baby move on the ultrasound was mindblowing. Sure, we had made love with a purpose and I had missed a period and I know enough basic science to know there was a baby in there, but to SEE it. Breathtaking. and then to see it move! eeesh, made me feel a little more queasy...
Hearing the heartbeat? I cry EVERY time. The little bird pitterpat is only slightly slower than it was in the beginning, add movement and I can tell you a lot about how fun this kid is going to be already. Just this last visit as the Midwife was pressing in with the fetoscope, it was hilarious as we could watch the baby punch/kick back every time she pushed into my belly. Ah, you silly baby! Already you perk up and squirm when we laugh, which is awesome. And you respond when your siblings are speaking nearby, or snuggling. And the happiness when your Papa is close! Wiggling wriggling joy.
I felt movement pretty early on, we credit it with my slimness. You can even SEE the movement across my belly!  I really enjoy just kicking back and watching my belly move, especially the afternoons sessions. It is better than television. I hadn't even considered it, but a dear friend said after their first pregnancy she really missed feeling the little guy in her belly. Except for when there is an elbow in my liver, or more recently baby feet tap dancing on my bladder, I can see how that nearness and dearness is so uniquely special and would be missed!
We like to joke about what IS going on in there, earlier when there was more room it literally felt like the baby was swimming laps right to left, and back again, kick turns and all (ooph that does NOT feel right, the uterus is oblong, right? so there are positions that can only be good for stretching as the baby is surely across the diagonal and I find myself holding my breath until it snaps back to in-line.) There was one walk where I said "Oh just stretch out already!" and that baby did, I felt poking at both the right and left sides of my abdomen, as if they were stretching arms overhead and legs out...ooooh weird...and I gave it 30 seconds before I burst out laughing and had to say "Enough! enough!"
Lately it's been more hiccups and some head spins and varied breakdancing moves, but less as the space gets tighter. Amazing.
The movements outside the body are an interesting feedback interaction as well, we were riding bikes a couple months ago and as I stood up on the pedals of the one speed to get up the hill, rocking back and forth with the effort, I got to the top and stopped to let the kiddos catch up and then noticed my belly was continuing the compensated rocking! Hilarious. We love dancing at our house too, it helps ease the tension in my widening hips, and I imagine the baby likes the rocking. I also read research saying the babies of mamas who danced during pregnancy had better balance after they were born, win-win! So movement, quiet, my comfort, laughing, singing; all of these feed into the baby's growth, in addition to adequate vitamins and nutrients, cookies (&note to self: more vegetables). Growing growing growing.
Now we are into the last trimester and I have learned the baby's brain will be developing and growing by 400-500% in the next few months.
Whoa.
Second thought was "Oh crap this means their head is getting 4-5x bigger and that is what needs to be squeezed out"...Ok breathe, deep exhale, this is good, this is important, tissues are stretchy for this reason, no problem (my bet in the betting pool is 7.5 pounds for selfish reasons, as well as that is the size the father and I both were at birth).
First thoughts went like this, "How much do the energetics and thoughts in my own environment influence this cognition potential? How can I help support the optimal brain development and smartness that I know the kid has the genetic predisposition for? The kindness and creativity? How can I support their calm and compassion by my thoughts, surroundings, even what I say or read or feel?"
Wild.
So then (and only I can ask this, hear me now-I will shoot lazers out my eyes at anyone else who dares ask it)
We (I) can wonder "What is going on in there?" in relation to my changing mind, and developing emotional heart. (Pregnancy brain is a real and dangerous thing, but like with PMS, DO NOT ASK A WOMAN if that is the problem. Give her extra room and don't take it personally!)
Being pregnant has shifted my priorities for sure, many many things are more clear and simple. Part of it is being tired and hungry, while I could notice those signals and defer them a calculated amount prior to being "in the family way", now it is non-negotiable. The hunger signal has about a 5 minute warning, and then my vision turns red and I start gnawing on my husband, or whatever edible is nearby.
Also it has resulted in the shifting of focus at work, bless my patients for their patience! I will no longer stay up late or work through the weekend to get a plan finished. It can wait, they can wait and it will be a better plan once I have rested and eaten. Most recently I had to admit defeat on the challenge given me by one of my colleagues, "What is one last project you'd like to work on before you go on leave?" And I had worked up an outline of a research article that I would love to write, and one day will, but two days ago I realized (with the help of a dear friend, who is a working mother of two) "I'll decide for you", she says, "just say no thanks!" Finally I admitted, there is plenty of time for research papers and what all later, this is the only time I will be pregnant with this baby, right now.
So,
I am not taking on ANY MORE PROJECTS before this baby is born. Phew! I just want to be pregnant for the last two months! I need to tend my patients, I need to wrap up the class I am teaching, and interesting metaphor~I need to clear the office papers out of the baby room, rather than add any more "office" to "baby space".
So the projects are baby related, self-care related, making time to watch movies with my family at home, my Mom at her home and siblings before there is a baby distracting me.
In the emotional realm I had a couple tough and necessary projects that I am still working through, and I credit the pregnancy with fueling the need for those, and softening my brain and heart enough that I can be adaptive in new solutions to old challenges.
One was around connecting with challenging family members. I've decided there's not much else I want to talk about with my dear old Dad, except how much we love our family, each other, my family, family family family and how much we love this baby, I think as a focal point it could last us happily the rest of our lives.
The other was/is much harder about disconnecting with challenging family members and related to the no new projects, how about no more ongoing futile projects either? Which involved facing the truth that I have been maternal probably my whole life. I love easily and have a lot of love to give. I feel like I understand what people need to feel cared for and there is something rewarding about feeling helpful. Doesn't everyone need a mom? and in the past perhaps I had more extra energy for this, I think possibly I just had worse boundaries. In any case, I ran into a disappointing conversation with another family member...who told me that now that I am married with kids &pregnant I am "always distracted", and he "doesn't like the disconnect". That I am now less available, and he doesn't like it, like it's not okay with him... which interestingly enough is not okay with me.
In preparing for motherhood, dealing with my own issues and lessons, with caring for small children and learning to balance that with my work, and then now being pregnant and the refining of energy focus, I don't have time for someone else's rants and complaints. That is what a therapist is for, and I am not his therapist.
He simply couldn't take responsability for his words and actions, could only petulantly complain and
Bless all our inner children, but
I don't have room for it from a 5 or 8 year old, I certainly don't have time or room for it from a 37 year old. Even with the kids I remind them regularly to use their words to ask for what they want/need, but no meanness, no angry words, whining,  blaming, these are actually unintelligible to me. Does not compute. I'm choosing to hang out somewhere else. Soon I'll have a fed, dry, warm, small baby that is still crying and that is practice enough in patience.
And I realized the other day he would blame my unborn child if you asked him, it was the getting married, learning how to be 3rd parent someone else's children. Rather than a dysfunctional pattern, that I am calling out as combative and unhealthy. I wouldn't diagnose family but he is tripolar~the third being angry. He is the only person to criticize me for becoming less available with pregnancy and parenting.
Suddenly all of the communication; real, rocky and attempted, became glaringly clear and apparent, transparent and unacceptable.
(In his defense another dear friend reminded me that from his perspective he has been wronged, repeatedly, and I am just another person letting him down...ouch...so Love, and the question "what is loving?" is apparently rarely simple)

What really is going on in here?
Pregnancy, and motherhood are making big changes within my self, inside and out. As well as the mystery and wonder of this creation of a whole other life, I can't help but wonder about the recent research that shows genetic material from the baby a.) has been found in the maternal bloodstream and brain and b.) I joke, but should this child reach their due date (yes please!) they will be an Aries and that is a different temperament from my peace-loving Libra self. This child will be my first, but third youngest in this house and family line to some strong willed, very smart (darling, loving and delicious) siblings. Maybe it's my MamaBear coming on to a higher level. Maybe I am already learning, absorbing, reflecting that stronger boundaried nature of the being that I carry within me, the human I will be "dancing" with in the glorious dance that is parenting and endless learning, infinite heart expanding. I hear this labor, delivery and birth thing is a real Journey and character builder, whatever is going on in there is surely just the holographic preview of more amazing and awesome changes to come.

What's a Girl to Wear?

Yes, yes, Obviously I knew that getting pregnant meant changing up the wardrobe and new "fashion experiences". I mean I thought I knew... I even found myself curiously looking at celebs pregnancy fashion choices early on in weeks 3, 4, 5 (a sure sign of odd hormonal changes as I couldn't give much of a shit about celebrities, or fashion, pre-pregnancy). While this would be fine if you have an unlimited budget (Drew Barrymore, ever the cutie pie!), I do not have a movie star budget. I guess I thought I would just get creative with what I had for the first few months. Well, I quickly tested the limits of that idea...When I found that my pants didn't fit, or rather they could be buttoned but it wasn't a happy feeling, and then my cami-bra tanks were getting uncomfortable, I was a little thrown off and flustered. No major belly bump yet, but nor do my regular clothes feel good, what am I supposed to wear?? I guess I sort of imagined you go from letting out the notches on the belt to some cute belly displaying something or other...
And then I had to have the conversation with myself about packing these clothes away instead of despairing that I will never fit them ever again. While that is a possibility, it simply cannot be foretold at this point in time. And I have had to repeat this conversation each time I grow out of the last solution. My recommendation? Take the clothes out of the dresser drawer so it's not so discouraging when you realize you have actually only two choices of pants to wear (dark grey or black?). Pack the clothes that are no longer options cleanly away like a little potential treasure for later. All the colorful tanks as well. Today I did a second culling of the shirts that are now too short to cover my belly and had the same conversation. sigh. Can I mentally consider it a fair exchange for the cute CUTE! new gift clothes and baby hand me downs that are coming in!? yeah maybe.

For what to wear, first I graduated to the pants that used to need a belt, some awesome genetic pregnancy design made my butt grow first so it could hold up the pants that used to fall down without help. Then I got introduced to the rubber band through the button hole trick, awesome! Until my husband told me it's called a "girth hitch" in rock climbing, "Hey Buddy, watch the language, okay?"
This was fine for a couple weeks especially while standing, but sitting down was too much! I would undo the rubber band, relax through dinner or while driving, then stand up and get out of the car and head into the store and realize I was gapping my fly.
(I admittedly did miss out somehow on the belly band, though strongly and soundly recommended.They only had beige the one day I looked at Target and online were very mixed reviews. Tried to make my own, it did not work well)
Finally, after a couple of unsuccessful trips to the second hand shop, feeling increasingly uncomfortable and desperate, I surrendered and walked into a maternity store and said "I need jeans that fit for under $100." This sentence in itself sounded ridiculous coming out of my mouth! But I put them on and the relief, beyond words, so worth it. I wanted to wear them out of the store...so happy and snug. I then found another pair of the same for $20 at the second hand a month later, felt like I really earned it.
That's another oddity, I was always a below the navel pants wearing girl. Never could get into "girl jeans" with the high waist, always the low waist "boy jeans". Now I love the feeling of being contained! and snugging the stretchy waistband of the maternity pants up and over my belly, mmmm. Keeps my belly and babe from being cold if the shirt is slipped up and I just feel all held. I was laughing about the difference of preference with a friend and our sweet 5 year old boy chimed in with full support "I do that all the time!" and proceeded to pull his pants up to about his ears, okay kiddo, thanks for the fashion endorsement, I think.
So here I am learning about sizes, I mean these pants will still fit four months from now, right? So far they are stretching merrily along as I do...
Then I move to the larger sized cami-bra tanks, first time buying a large anything, ok, of which I have all of three now that I repeat wear. From there I was thinking ahead and looked into buying the organic cotton pregnancy/nursing bra. Looking online, great reviews, and I'm feeling somewhat ambitious, sure my 34A self can grow into the Medium 34-36 B-C, right?
I try one on when they arrive in the mail and it just fits...uh oh. So I send them back for the large (really???) which accommodates up to a D, (I mean seriously??) and when it arrives in the mail I try it on and I'm seeing there's room in the cup to grow, around the ribs feels tolerable (I mean something has to keep it up right?) could/should work for the next 6 months, but the straps need some taking in. Okay. Set those aside for a month and when the tanks started to feel a wee bit restrictive I pulled the bras back out to see where to stitch them up and, holy cow, they fit. This is madness!! The cup space still has room to grow into, and the sales pitch is that it is stretchy and comfy to accomodate changes and variability, so far so good, but there's no way I'll need the XL, will I?? These are women's sizes, right? I mean I'm the girl that BEGGED her mom for a training bra, "You really don't need one" she says ever so gently, "Yes I DO Mom! Everyone else has one!" "It's a good thing!" she tells me, and after 25 years I had really come to terms with it. I loved that I didn't need a bra, I can jog pain free, I don't have the back pain that caused a friend of mine to get a medically approved breast reduction. Yay fairy breasts! My husband loves them, and I got an amazing glimpse to an alternate reality a couple years ago at Burning Man my first attempt at pasties (awesome!) when a group of my friends who's cleavage I had admittedly admired quite regularly told me how jealous they were of my perky breasts that stayed up without support. Really?!! (I kind of wish I knew about that reverse envy when I was 17) I thought everyone loved boobs, the more the better! (though with nursing etc I understand the gravity defying perk may now be a well loved memory)
Just how crazy is this going to get?
Well, the other day I walked in and asked the lady at the store for leggings. "Do you have any leggings?"
I NEVER thought I would utter those words, and you know what? They are comfy! I bought two pairs. And they really complete the wonderful outfits I got passed along from a girlfriend who was pregnant during the summer. Maternity tank dress over leggings and long sleeved shirt? I went to Thanksgiving dinner in the most cutesie outfit I have worn since I was probably 5 years old. Feeling adorable and adored. Fun!
Another fun twist on the fashion, here I am working it out, and my sister says "She actually gave you those clothes, not loaned, right? Like I can have them if I get pregnant?" "Yeah Baby! you diggin my style? Sure. Just give them back if I need them again. (and don't tell my husband I said that last part)."

Body Rockin'

We need body rocking, not perfection. ("Body Moving" Beastie Boys 1998)

Warning: The following is written by a skinny bitch (though I prefer the term "slender" truly)...and I am writing frankly about my own unique experience. I do not mean to demean, compete with, or offend anyone who hasn't yet come to peace with their own bodies and the myriad unique expressions of feminine gorgeousness. Just because I'm generally littler (growing every minute!) does not mean that you being bigger is any less delicious, in fact you may be much much more bodacious. Anyway, this ain't no competition! If it will bother you, simply skip this post. Thanks.

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It probably has clear enough origins 37 years ago, or 36 1/2 years ago, when my dad persuaded my mom when I was six months old to take me off breastmilk and put me on formula because I wasn't gaining weight quickly enough. (Combine first year medical resident with new father and you get a worrier, combine 6 month old with dairy formula and you get earaches and amoxicillin). Fact is, I have been low on the weight chart since the beginning it seems. The joke is I take after my Grandfather Vic who was a skinny-minny up to the very end, despite eating spaghetti every other day and carbs without pause, which was evidenced by the small nibbles missing out of any cake or bread my Grandma made and left in plain view where he could find it...

My heaviest was freshman year college (classic) when I discovered vegetarianism, but wasn't yet eating vegetables. This is a terrible combination anyway, but especially in a dormitory setting where they have Cheerios and Lucky Charms on tap, pizza and grilled cheese by the tray and I had friends who were over 21 and able to procure liquid carbohydrates for us. Still, and I thank my Mom and Grandma for these genes, I can fluctuate a broad 15-20 pounds and few would notice.

Jump ahead to this joyfully welcomed pregnancy; an event I have been awaiting eagerly for over a decade, deferring through medical school, holding out past the interviewing of potential baby daddys, negotiating carefully with my darling new husband who's two young children are finally at the age that doesn't require constant supervision. (though this was of course hashed out thoroughly before any proposal) 

And as soon as the pre-period bloat didn't recede, and the positive test, I was all convinced the topography was changing. A few weeks in and I'm showing him my slightly barely bloated belly, "Honey! Look! I have a belly!" "It's beautiful Dear", he says accommodatingly, and knowing full well from his prior experience just how very belly this situation will get. 

And then there are some of the more unexpected reactions people have. 

For instance, when I broke the pregnancy news to my mother, one of her first comments was, "You'll finally be overweight!" Um, okay.

Another friend, as I was 17 weeks in and marveling at this sweet pooch protruding over my waistline, and complaining that the rubber-band girth hitch wasn't cutting it anymore on the wardrobe expansion plan for the jeans that used to require a belt to be worn in public at all."Jen, I'm going to vomit" she says, "you are so tiny!"

Which was oddly ouchy because here I was enraptured with the changes I am undergoing, and I feel like I am significantly different than I have ever felt in this body! I realized right about then that you really can't talk to everyone about everything along this pregnancy journey. No problem. (how about I blog publicly on the internet instead...hmmmm.) Though I do hope the disclaimer at the beginning of this blog post will have deterred anyone else who may take offense at being exposed to my diminutive musings. Meanwhile I'm just tripped out and loving (almost) every minute.

And then there was last week in yoga class, and mind you this is a studio started by a midwife, catering specifically to pregnant moms, mama baby yoga etc. You think I would have noticed on my way in, and yet... The woman next to me leans over as we are settling in before class and says "You know this is a prenatal yoga class right? Like for pregnant women?"

Can't you all see this belly! and I've got boobs! Actual breasts requiring a bra, which move when I run up or down the stairs! Never before seen in this territory! I told her if she knew me 4 months ago she would be able to tell something was different. She is also 8 whole weeks ahead of me, which is a significant difference. In eight weeks I don't think anyone will be doubting why I am elbowing my way to the front of the ladies bathroom line. But, I guess I'll wait a little while longer before the "Baby on Board" T-shirt.

Food 1:Appetizers and Seconds

It used to be that before I was pregnant, as I am the slowest eater in the house, there was often food left on my plate when everyone else was done. At that time, feeding the 8 year old especially was a priority, because though she is a small girl child, she would rather be a hummingbird. Meaning, she would much prefer sugar, all things sugary, to any protein. I have made it one of my personal missions in life to expand her dietary repertoire to include regular protein and good quality fats, and if I had some breakfast sausage on my plate and she was hungry, well, "we can share it" I would say.
Quite quickly after becoming pregnant we learned this was no longer the case...There we are at the table and the kids are eying my plate and from deep deep within comes this frightening low growl of "DON'T EVEN THINK ABOUT IT". Whoa! and then we all laughed and now they may eye my food longingly, but they then look up at me and say "I know, I know, I won't even ask."
From that has evolved a most awesome and unexpected thing. When there is say, one piece of cheese left, the girl more than the boy, will often hand it to me and say "This is for the baby".
"Thanks!" I say with my mouth full and smiling.
I truly never thought I would take food from children, but it's not really a rational thought process any longer, and I can easily justify it, this is for their younger sibling, the smaller child, right?

Early on in the first trimester of pregnancy I wasn't so nauseous as some friends I have heard horror stories from. Thankfully no vomiting, except for that close call the one time our girl had food poisoning and I was trying to clean up her vomit..But there was a quality of "seasickness" that would come on, more so in the afternoon or evening than morning, and especially if I was at all hungry. That is a truly poor design, but seems to be the case with this wild adventure, here you are hungry and nothing sounds appetizing at all, the thought or smell of food itself makes the bile rise. The longer you go without eating the more screwed you are. My sister tells me about young pregnant teenagers who would come into the ED with intractable vomiting and report they "hadn't eaten for days". It can quickly become serious, and violent.
So I learned somehow, by glorious divine inspiration, that the reliably best appetizer, at least for us in summer, was watermelon. I would cut away the green, leave most of the white rind and liquify it in the Vitamix. Heaven. I graduated to adding strawberries and lime juice (hold the tequila) and this was a blissful daily requirement before eating. So scrumptious and satisfying and enough of a beginning that I could then even consider the idea of food and make my way to more protein and fat rich meals.
I must've consumed 5 whole watermelons on my own in a two month span, pints and pints of strawberries, and it was one of those things I tried to share with the family and none of them felt quite the same joy as I, in fact mostly they turned their noses up. Ah well, more for me!
The academic in me did look it up, I had to know, what is the glycemic index of watermelon? Is this a ridiculous path to certain ruin? especially with the concerns of gestational diabetes etc. Turns out watermelon is well recommended for those concerned with blood sugar, it is after all mostly water. I was probably doing myself a great favor with leaving on the bitter white rind, and adding the lime. With the juicy strawberries and the fact I learned that watermelon has more lycopene than tomatoes, it was probably a just right food for that exact timing of cardiovascular development and it prepared me for the ridiculousness of myriad answers to the question "What am I hungry for?" Because my prior eating habits are now pretty much out the window. Kale, who was a B.F.F., now tastes like fresh cut grass, ew! And I have found myself bribing myself, as I would bribe the aforementioned 8 year old, "If you eat your broccoli you can have the gluten free waffle..."I mean, you just can't gain weight on vegetables, right?
As fruit has moved to occupy a much more significant role in my diet, it is still very specific and focused. From watermelon on to daily black mission figs (Hey, three a day keeps a preggo girl regular!) and as the availability of those are waning after a lovely couple months I am now on to at least 2 pomegranates a week. Delish. So happy.
"Any odd cravings?" folks have asked. Not to the degree that I have heard about, or that I am anticipating with great curiosity. I have been surprised by the exponentially increasing interest in cookies some of you have already heard about. I previously "liked" cookies, sure, but was much more of a chocolate girl. Bitter, dark chocolate, a bar or two a week. Within 2 weeks of being pregnant I noticed there were bars piling up in the pantry (props and love to my dear husband who was steadily continuing to bring them home each grocery trip) Me lost my taste for chocolate!!?! Maybe the Mayans were right, this may be how the world ends...
But no, I can eat the shit out of a pan of gf chocolate brownies..and Pamela's gf cookies? Full frontal sugar and all? Oh happiness! Which leads me to feel this baby is certainly of my blood line, and may even be male, as my father and brothers will do ANYTHING for cookies. Seriously, ask them, anything.
Turns out my husband's family are also cookie monsters, so in case we were worried about immaculate conception or anything, I think that's ruled out. Though I imagine God/dess loves cookies too.

Let's Start in the Middle

So I will have some catching up to do as I am at 20 weeks, which is considered halfway through, but I have been encouraged more than once to write about my pregnancy experience. So, as much as any of you can find the humor in it, I am happy to share my adventures on the beginning of what I anticipate will be one of the wildest rides of my life. Parenthood.
For starters, right away I noticed math goes out the window. You miss your period and though my understanding of biology and anatomy makes it clear to me that actual conception happened with ovulation and therefore mid-cycle, which was approximately two weeks prior, positive test at first day missed? and viola! You are 4 weeks pregnant.
Kind of sweet when you are looking at 40 weeks of all sorts of interesting and unexpected experiences, phew! those first two weeks? All things considered, were a breeze.
Now about that 40 weeks gestation, and I acknowledge in relation to the pregnancy of say, an elephant at two years(!) I am feeling okay with human gestation, but how is 40 weeks equivalent to 9 months if generally months are 4 weeks plus a couple days? Do they just say 9 months to make you feel better because 10 months sounds like almost a year? Or is it including that wiggle room of the first two weeks being actually the, um, coital weeks shall we say, and perhaps they rounded the numbers to include the variation on the actually delivery time on the tail end of this grand adventure. Or is it simply that the "old math" no longer applies.
Because then there was that day in class as I was teaching Anatomy, about week 7 of pregnancy (accepting common nomenclature, so yes actually 5 weeks and only just barely beginning to feel funny(funnier) than usual). My sweet students looking up at me with their brows furrowed, the bravest says, "Dr.Jen? I think you made a mistake with the scoring on the midterm". So my own math also went out the window, probably as I was trying to wrap my head around the whole 40 weeks is 9 months thing. Thankfully my usually more than adequate math skills were only offline for a couple weeks, but I actually could write the formula for what I was trying to do, which was toss out a couple questions that more than half the class missed, put it over the new total and give extra credit to the students who had gotten those right. Somehow I had knocked everyone's points down, and I just couldn't confidently reconcile the math! I actually ended up emailing one of the students privately that evening and asking him to confirm what I thought was the solution (add two points to everyone's score).
Seems so simple now!
So on from addition & subtraction, how about algorithms such as~If I buy these maternity pants that fit now, will they really stretch enough to fit four months from now? Is this even possible?! I ask the lady at the store? She assured me it was. I'll let you know.