The many milestones of my pregnancy

Breaking my pregnancy down into palatable chunks has been a big part of making this pregnancy wait more bearable. Clearly I'm in the mood for lists lately!There is so much time that we spend in anticipation, it feels good to cross those milestones. Here have been my milestones - and the ones to come :

Ones I've crossed:

The 2WW

This is the dreaded 2 week wait. It's the 2 weeks after conception where you can check if you are pregnant. Of course if you've done a fertility treatment - this has that much more meaning!

The first heartbeat ~ 6 weeks

So now you're pregnant. If you're seeing a specialist , you might have seen an ultrasound of a cute little yolk sac. The next thing is making sure that you see a heartbeat. This normally happens around 6 - 7 weeks or so. Once you have a heartbeat, your baby has a much higher chance to make it.

The first trimester ~ 12 weeks

This is often the point of exhaling for many of us. After the first trimester, the risk of miscarriage drops significantly. This was huge for me!

Getting my cerclage in ~12-13 weeks

Since I've got incompetent cervix - I of course have had anxiety about somehow my cervix failing me before I was able to secure everything with a stitch. I was so relieved to get the stitch in and to know my cervix had some reinforcement.

20 weeks - the gestational point of my last miscarriage

This is the point at which I lost my first pregnancy. I knew I wouldn't exhale until I crossed the 20 week mark  and had my first bit of proof that I would get further along this time.

24 weeks - Viability 

I really hate this milestone. It's a great one but it's so morbid. It's the point after which the doctors will try to save your baby if they are born too early. Crossing this moves us into the territory of thinking about "when" we have this baby - as opposed to "if" we have this baby.

Ones to come: 

26 weeks - crossing the micro-preemie threshold

A micro preemie is a baby born weighing less than 1 pound, 12 ounces (800 grams) or before 26 weeks gestation. Over 90 % of babies born beyond this date survive (source) .So there's some comfort in that.

28 weeks - 7 months preggers and lower risk of major complications
This one isn't such a hard milestone - but babies born after 28 weeks generally have a 90-95% survival rate and a lower risk of long-term complications.

36 weeks - removal of my cerclage
Once I get here - I'm pretty much golden! The docs will be happy with me going into labor at any point after this :)