I signed up for an account at babycenter.com, which sends you weekly emails about what to expect in your pregnancy this week; and facts about your baby. (This week… our baby is the size of a blueberry. Next week… a lima bean! The week after… a large grape.) Kind of odd—I’m not sure if we’re having a baby or a fruit salad.
At first I thought the site was broken because it kept showing my wife 2 weeks farther along than I thought. Well, silly me. I’ve been counting the number of days my wife has been pregnant. So, to me, she’s 4 week’s pregnant. Well, as it turns out, I guess that’s wrong (at least in the good ol’ U.S. of A.). They say I’m supposed to count the days since her menstrual cycle began. Apparently in Europe and the rest of the civilized world, they count how long you’ve been pregnant as “how long you’ve been pregnant”. What a weird concept. (Said dripping with sarcasm.)
Each week babycenter.com sends me drawings of what my baby, er… zygote? Fetus? Anyway, they sent me drawings of what the thing might look like. Which means someone took the time to painstakingly illustrate them week-by-week. That’s a thankless and … let’s be honest here… somewhat creepy job. I wonder how realistic it is, or is it up to the artist’s imagination? Like when you see drawings of the universe shortly after the big bang that are accompanied with disclaimers that say, “artist’s depiction of what things could have looked like.” Are the pictures in my inbox of big-eyed salamander flipper zygotes realistic, or just someone’s imagination? (And if it’s the latter, did they have first drafts where someone had to reject it, “Uh, I don’t think we should include the top hat in the week 5 illustration.”)
I started this blog on Day 1, being the day I found out she was pregnant… But at that point she had been pregnant for 2 3 weeks… by European standards… but 4 5 weeks by U.S standards. So, now, when you see Day 11 in my blog, I guess I should say that it’s really say Day 39 46 in the U.S., and Day 25 32 everywhere else.
Maybe I’ll start to preface each post with “Days into her pregnancy,” rather than, “Days since I found out.” Such as:
Days Pregnant: 39 46 U.S., 25 32 Europe
Posted by Manchild 