Who has to give inventive dates for LMP?

[jeminijad]

I very recently began cycling regularly (19 mos pp and w/PCOS.) I don't O on CD14, recently had a chemical pregnancy... in other words, I knew when I ovulated, but it wasn't 14 days after my last period started!

So since I am beginning care with an obstetric practice, this time I was prepared- I figured out what date was two weeks before my O date and had that ready to rattle off when they asked for LMP! Because w/my DD, it was all kinds of aggravating trying to get them to put down the wheel and listen to me...

I know there are more out there! Who else is just done trying to educate their offices about the menstrual cycle and all its variations?

[kalamos23]

I faked a date with my middle m/c and fwiw, I hate that dang wheel! It's so flipping annoying!

With this pregnancy, since it was directly following a m/c, whenever they ask me when my LMP was, I just tell them I didn't have one unless they want to count the LMP in May I had from before that m/c and then I give them the date I ovulated. Usually throws them for a loop but any dates are going to be way more accurate from your ovulation date than from LMP anyway if you know you ovulated late.

[MagpieWench]

OMG, I did with my last pregnancy... because I knew what they'd tell me my conception date was... and I also knew that we hadn't had sex for about 12 days before or after that date, so unless there was something odd happening... yeah. (At the time, my cycle was 45-47 days and they didn't want to believe me on that, or that I can almost always feel the mittelschmerz...)

I told them my LMP was about 2 weeks after it actually was.

[myk]

i ovulated on CD12, so i gave them a LMP date that was 2 days off the actual. i KNOW i ovulated on that day. i was using OPKs, charting, mittelschmertz.. i mean really there's no doubt whatsoever in my mind. saved me from having to explain or argue. the first couple of ultrasounds i had confirmed that exact ovulation date.

now i get to bicker with the surgeon as to when i should schedule my c/s - they always say your dates could be off so they want to schedule it at a certain time. i said that's fine, but my dates aren't off. 38w according to my (adjusted) calendar is 38 weeks. period. yes, i know it's often off because people don't know when exactly they ovulated.. but i'm not one of those people!

[dakotablue]

This was fun when I went in for an ultrasound for this baby. The tech was insistent on knowing my LMP. and when I said I didn't know she stared at me and said you must know.

I said sure I do actually it was Dec 25th 2008. She got this smug look on her face and input Dec. 25 into her computer, Then I reminded her it was 2008!!!

Yeah My MW just goes by the dates my ultrasound said I was due. Not sure what my LMP should be....hmmm I should look that up.

[spatulagirl]

I too hate that wheel! My first two kids were under OB military care. My cycles range from 32-55 days. I had to lie each time when my LMP was. Once DH left the military and we moved to the States, I was so happy to get under midwife care! Someone who actually listened to me and didn't own a wheel!

Right now if someone asks or I have to input it somewhere, my LMP is 12 days later than it actually was.

[kythryne]

I do... and the crazy part is that this is an IVF baby. There is absolutely NO doubt about my dates, but because I was on fertility drugs for weeks before the egg retrieval/fertilization, I didn't have anything even remotely close to a natural cycle. So my LMP is useless in calculating my due date, but everyone insists on getting it anyway.

[MaerynPearl]

I fudged mine, by only one day (ovulated on cd15 instead of cd14)

Ended up having her at 41+6 and she was a tiny 7lb6oz lol... but I think that's just because I have babies that size, its what my body grows, my first two were only an inch and a couple ounces off that. And it took her longer to reach that size because she has a different daddy... one who didn't even hit puberty until the summer of his Junior year!

[WifeofAnt]

I'd have to go back and look at my charts to find my 'real' LMP. I think its written down in my medical chart but I only told the truth when I knew they were going to rely on a dating ultrasound (which matched up with my charting exactly).
I *know* when I ovulate while I'm charting. EWCM, cervical position, temperature, and the... emotional bits send a giant red flag up. Then there's the fact that my pre-o and post-o temps are about 1.5 degrees different.

[butterflies]

Even though my first OB is a big proponent of NFP and teaches classes on charting, she still wanted to do an early u/s to confirm my dates! I thought that was so strange and not at all what i would have expected.

I was initially excited to find her but ended up leaving her practice for another with more experience delivering multiples vaginally.

[ILoveMyBabyBird]

Originally Posted by MaerynPearl

I fudged mine, by only one day (ovulated on cd15 instead of cd14)

Ended up having her at 41+6 and she was a tiny 7lb6oz lol... but I think that's just because I have babies that size, its what my body grows, my first two were only an inch and a couple ounces off that. And it took her longer to reach that size because she has a different daddy... one who didn't even hit puberty until the summer of his Junior year!

You finally had your baby, Congrats!


I didn't lie about my LMP, this time or last, mainly because i have my past overdue pregnancy to back me up that i don't deliver at 40weeks. Even with ds I tried and tried to get the dr. to move his date from the 21st to the 28th, but she settled on the 24th after the ultrasound, so that's what they went off, I was 41weeks +1 day from the date of the 24th, had it been the original based on LMP, it would have been, 41weeks 5 days, but from my date that i calculated it was just 40 weeks, 4 days when i had him...Based on when i felt mittleshirmetz and we had our oops.

Now this time around i was charting, temping etc and etc, and i have my date as the 23 of april and my LMP has me at the 19th, but the MW says she won't change it until i get an ultrasound, but even with ds he was big and always measured at the LMP, he was 9lbs, 21inches at birth, so going on the ultrasound i don't expect to bumped back more than a few days again, but oh well, I'm not having the baby until it's ready to come out on it's own, I am hoping my MW feels the same, lol. With ds we had an induction date scheduled for the 4th, but I went into labor a couple days before.

[butterflies]

Originally Posted by dakotablue

This was fun when I went in for an ultrasound for this baby. The tech was insistent on knowing my LMP. and when I said I didn't know she stared at me and said you must know.

I said sure I do actually it was Dec 25th 2008. She got this smug look on her face and input Dec. 25 into her computer, Then I reminded her it was 2008!!!

Yeah My MW just goes by the dates my ultrasound said I was due. Not sure what my LMP should be....hmmm I should look that up.

i only had one period between dd and ds (my cycles usually don't return until about 20 months post-partum) . i always wished i had caught the first cycle just so i could see the look on their face when i gave a LMP of 2.5 yrs ago.

[Comtessa]

I never gave my LMP on my last pg. I knew when I ovulated, and I knew there was no way that the baby could have been conceived anywhere near day 14 anyway (I was out of town far from DP at that time). I had plugged enough numbers into the online calculators to know that if I gave my LMP, they'd be pressuring to induce a good 10 days before the baby was due. When asked for LMP, I always just said, "I'm due on this day." If they continued to push for LMP, I'd blink blandly at them and repeat, "I'm due on this day." After a few repetitions, they usually gave up.

BTW, the baby was born the day before the date I'd given everybody. The verdict of the ped? 40 wks gestation exactly. So THERE, stupid cardboard wheel.

ETA: love that at my first MW appt for this pg, she said, "When was your LMP?" And I said, "I think my ovulation date will be more helpful to you," and she grinned and said, "ok, we're going to call your LMP this, then." And when I said, "Could I tack on a couple of days just to be safe?" She said, "sure!"

[JollyGG]

My doctor made my LMP up. I hadn't had a period in 12-16 weeks at the point that my ultrasound showed I was 4 weeks pregnant. But since my doctor had done an ultrasound 6 weeks earlier looking for any reason why I wasn't cycling (and the source of pain I was having) she knew that I hadn't been pregnant 6 weeks earlier. I had been trying to figure out what was wrong as i normally have a very regular 32-36 day cycle. I wanted to get it figured out so we could start trying. I never did get a chance to start trying. I think she gave LMP as the date of the previous ultrasound.

But it seems like everyone wants you to confirm the dates (ultrasound, etc.). I usually just looked at them and said that I didn't remember and to check the chart.

[momasana]

My date of conception for DS was one week past what the wheel said. I argued and argued and finally they believed me (or pretended to). But then DS was born a week early, on the due date according to the wheel so of course everybody had to say "Looks like you were wrong about your dates!"

So yes, this time I just told them my LMP was 14 days before my date of conception.

[bri276]

I did it with this last pregnancy. I added 10 whole days later than my real LMP. We only had unprotected sex once, didn't get a + hpt until several days past when I thought my period should be due, etc. My first u/s at 10 wks confirmed what I'd calculated exactly to the day. DD2 would have been considered 6 days "overdue", instead she was 4 days before her EDD.

[MrsBone]

so lets say you do know when exactly you ovulated..how do you calculate the due date based on that date rather than your LMP? Just curious. I've never known when I ovulated, so I've always had to base my due date on the wheel.

[WifeofAnt]

Ovulation becomes day 14. Then you find the new 'day 1' by counting backwards. This is now your fake LMP. Add 40 weeks. This is your due date.

[Llyra]

I used a fake date with my last pregnancy. That's because early on, I had the expectation that we were trying for a VBAC, and I was concerned that if I was labeled "overdue," that I'd be pushed into a repeat C. I went early with my other two, so I had no reason to expect to go overdue, but I wasn't taking chances with my VBAC. So I fudged it by a week, and planned to decline early ultrasound.

[~Amy~]

I did with my first pregnancy. Didn't have to this time because I've pretty much had 28 day cycles since DS was born. Not sure I O'd exactly on day 14 but close enough.