Counting Weeks

As we all know, there are all kinds of common questions in this world:

As a kid: “What is your favorite subject in school?”

As a senior in high school: “What are you going to do when you graduate?”

As a senior in college: “So, what are you going to do with your life now?”

As an engaged person: “When’s the date?”

And as a pregnant woman: “How many weeks are you?”

This last question has been more than a little bizarre to me as I have to memorize how many weeks along I am (or look stupid) and so do something that is completely counter-intuitive.

I mean, think about it, we count DOWN to everything. We count down days to Christmas, days to our birthday, days to when school lets out, days to our vacations and even days to when our taxes are due. Even the Bible tells us to “number our days” because they are evil and we will surely die. Thus, as closely as we are able to figure, we count down to death.

And yet, we count UP when we are pregnant.  I don’t have 28 weeks left, I am 16 weeks pregnant. I add, not subtract. (Which just makes things worse during this first trimester…I would much rather have said a few weeks ago, “I have only 3 weeks of this left!” instead of “I’m 11 long weeks into this.”) I mean, wouldn’t it be much more exciting to hang a paper chain around our spare bedroom (that will be the nursery) and take a link off every week we get closer to this little one arriving? Instead, it’s like I’m adding links and wondering if there’s an end to it.

But maybe it’s just practice. I mean, once the baby arrives the constant question will be “How old is the baby?” And you’ll first add weeks again…and then months…and won’t actually turn to years until they’re two or so because either 1) it sounds so much more important to say 21 months versus 1 year or 2) we get as far as 24 months and can’t remember what number comes after that.

So, several times every week I remember how many weeks along I am into this journey because someone is bound to ask and I don’t want to look stupid because I’m not sure and would rather just say happily that he/she will arrive in April. And while that’s nice, I still think it would be much nicer to tell how many weeks I have left and rejoice that the arrival is getting closer and closer…