I was reading an article the other day about "cryptic" or "stealth" pregnancy. It's where the mother has no idea she's expecting a baby until halfway through the pregnancy or even, in some cases, until she goes into labour.
Monday 6 June 2022
Surprise, baby!
I was reading an article the other day about "cryptic" or "stealth" pregnancy. It's where the mother has no idea she's expecting a baby until halfway through the pregnancy or even, in some cases, until she goes into labour.
It's more common than you'd think - apparently 1 in 2500 pregnancies are completely unknown about until the baby is ready to be born. You know how you occasionally hear those stories where someone went to the hospital with stomach pains and turned out to be in labour? Well, I've been reading about it and the odds shorten the earlier in the pregnancy the mother is. At 20 weeks, the rate of cryptic pregnancy is 1 in less than 500.
You might be wondering what prompted me to look this up. 10 weeks ago, our daughter discovered she was pregnant. That's right, our little Cavegirl, who was all of 11 years old when I started my blog back in 2013, is having a baby of her own!
This news was exciting enough, but then she had an ultrasound a week later and discovered she was nearly 30 weeks along! We've been joking about her "stealth baby" ever since, but it's only since learning more about cryptic pregnancies that I've realised the fun nickname we came up with is actually correct for our daughter's situation. She had very few symptoms - all were easily put down to other factors at the time - and she didn't put on any tummy weight until the week before taking the test.
Regarding the pregnancy, it really is something we are all thrilled about ... now that we are over the shock! It was very unexpected - certainly not something our daughter had planned. She and her boyfriend were actually going through a breakup at the time they learned about it, so that added an extra complication and gave them both a bit to work through. They seem to have settled into being friends now and supporting each other through this situation, even though their romantic relationship is currently on hold. They were together for over three years, so there is a bit of history there, and they know they have the support of both their families whatever the future holds for them.
So now, with only one week until the due date, our house looks like a giant nursery thanks to all the baby items around the place. This baby, who we know is a girl, already has more clothes than anyone else in the family. She's not so stealthy now either - our daughter is definitely looking much more heavily pregnant than she used to.
Hopefully all will go smoothly and my next blog post will be about our busy life with our beautiful new granddaughter!
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