26 Weeks? Is That All?

For the love of God this pregnancy may stretch out for all eternity!

I mean, mostly I feel like the holidays will be here before I know it, then the baby will be due. But that’s only if I can get out of this Twilight Zone which seems to be the tail end of the 20-something weeks.

At yoga yesterday during show-and-tell time, once again all the other mothers-to-be were able to show off their ability to retain how far along they are. (Show offs.) And when it was my turn I just decided to ‘fess up. “Um, I’m not really sure how many weeks I am,” I said weakly. “Maybe, um . . . 28?”

In the tub last night I decided to flip through some of my old pregnancy books. You know, nurture an interest in this developing child in order to maybe foster more healthy fetal development. You know, try to muster up the fascination that I had with the whole process when I was pregnant with Kate. You know, fake it.

But it’s like the “Your Pregnancy Week by Week” book was written just to mock us second-timers who have no sense of what week we’re in. I just skimmed the 27 to 29 week range and figured I had it covered. I read about some of the horrific things that can happen from “What to Freak Out About When You’re Expecting” and thought to myself that I should remember to tell Mark the crown to rump length of the baby at this point, so I could alleviate any guilt he might have about not reading anything this time around either.

Finally this evening I remembered to go BabyCenter.com to learn how far along I really am. What I don’t know, The Internets will tell me! Thank God.

Well, it turns out that after using their handy dandy pregnancy calculator thingy I discovered I’M ONLY AT 26 WEEKS. This seems utterly impossible. Wasn’t I 26 weeks along about a month ago at my last midwife appointment? Did I slip into some reverse coma where instead of losing the last few weeks, I feel like I’ve experienced them but time has really stood still?

For all I know I could get a BabyCenter email newsletter next week telling me that I’m at 21 weeks. I mean, at this point I really wouldn’t be surprised.

Well, given that I am where they tell me I am, what I learned is that the nerve pathways in the baby’s ears are developing now. And that if it’s a boy–which I’ve been feeling lately like it is–his testicles are starting their epic descent into his scrotum. It’s “a trip that will take about two to three days.” You know, a nice weekend-length itinerary.

Learning a tidbit like that helped me to realize what I’m missing out on by not closely monitoring each stage of this baby’s development. Or maybe what I’m not missing out on.

This time around, looking down at my belly every once and a while and commenting to Mark, “Yep, I’m getting bigger alright” might just be all I need to do.