So, one of the first things I noticed during this strange journey: the "Wheel of Gestation" or whatever, that defines your reality for the next 9ish months, is ridiculously arbitrary. As in I tell the nurse, or the PA, or the Doctor the same information (date of the start of your last period) and they come up with a different magic number. This number is your due date and so determines how far along in your gestation you happen to be.
I kept giving the same day. First to the nurse, then to the midwife, then to one of the OB docs. Every single one of them gave me a different calculation based on this same day, using the same blasted wheel. I'm a person who likes to do research and plan, so this number constantly changing was moving many things around, and I am not too proud to admit that one of them was my sanity. I'd even planned travel around one set of dates so that I could schedule appropriate appointments.... only to be thwarted. I began to view the wheel as my personal scourge.
Now you may think that having this number vary by a few days would be no big thing. However, if you have crushing fatigue and nausea and are viewing each passing day of your pregnancy as one day closer to the goal post, every time someone moves the goal, and sets you back, it is simply maddening. And it's not like I'm working with a full deck of emotional stability here. When you only have so much control, the loss of just a little is not a good thing.
Imagine my relief today when I got a lovely, computer generated, day by day chart that was given to me by my new OB. This is my "official", as in go in your medical record, honest to goodness goal post. It has been quite a while since I'd fallen in love so quickly, but by simple math this woman stole my heart!
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