20 or 21

Well, I’m at 20 or 21 weeks. The docs aren’t sure which due date to go by yet– so here in a little over a month I will probably have another gestational development scan. If I still measure a week further along then they’ll advance my due date, and if not they won’t. So I’m due in the beginning part of December either way.

This week of time won’t matter at the end, of course, but it will matter if I have any sort of earlier complications. One week makes a big difference in survivability of the fetus, and may change whether they try to stop labor (if I go into labor very early) or allow it. From that standpoint the later date may be the better one, even if it were incorrect it would make sure decisions were made conservatively. I’d still rather have as accurate an idea as possible, of course.

As a side note, it turns out I’m probably not immune to rubella any longer. That makes all the articles I’ve been catching about parents not vaccinating their children actually critical to me — I am currently a person who can’t be vaccinated (until I have this child) and must rely on the possibly compromised herd immunity to protect me and my unborn child (who would likely die or have serious birth defects due to the disease - it’s scary stuff). According to Wikipedia, it’s this risk to the fetus that was the primary motivator in creating the vaccine. (Of course, like most of the internet, Wikipedia is quite fallible, but this does make sense.) They’ll give me a shot to try to re-immunize me before I leave the hospital. (Luckily my other immunities still seem to be up to snuff.)