Monday, January 26, 2009

Fruit, Anyone?

There is a trend out there that I simply do not understand, and that is the practice of comparing the size of a baby growing in the womb to various fruits and vegetables. As the growth of your fetus progresses, you are cheerfully told - it's now the size of a lentil! Ooh, now it's as big as a pineapple (quite the growth spurt there)!

Now, I feel there are several flaws in this system. First, it may just be me, but it seems that comparing your growing child to something you ingest just seems wrong. The baby is already inside of you, do you have to start thinking of it as if it were something you ate? "Oops, I ate a poppy seed and over the course of forty weeks it has gone from poppy seed to blueberry to lime to squash to oh my gosh it's a baby!" Weird. But maybe that's just me.

On a more universal area of complaint, any one who has ever been through the produce section of their grocery store, regardless of whether or not they consume fruits and vegetables, knows that the size of produce varies. Sometimes greatly. There are farmers out there growing strawberries the size of your hand, and there are those little tiny wild strawberries you find that are the size of your pinky nail. I mean, we're not really talking about a standard system of measurement here.

On top of that, they have chosen some rather obscure fruits and vegetables for you to compare your fetus to. Your child is now the size of a kumquat. Who in the heck has seen a kumquat, much less eaten one? I for one don't have a clue how big or small a kumquat is? Others making the list of obscure fruits and vegetables: fig (I mean, we've all had the newtons, but have you ever actually eaten a fig?), turnip (you hear about them, but they are sort of mystical), rutabaga, jicama (I doubt I ever would have seen a jicama if it weren't for dear Shelly and the vegetable experimentations of '04), and crenshaw melon. Yes, at 36 weeks, the baby is the size of a crenshaw melon.

I talked to a friend at work about this, and he suggested that they set up this system because women have a hard time getting a visual when they hear something like "two inches" or "almost an ounce." I found that vaguely insulting, but he may be right. I suppose it's nice to get a visual, but still... could they not have chosen something a bit more appropriate, consistent, and - heck - at least commonly known to give women an idea of the size of the little person inside them? Anyone have any suggestions? We could revolutionize the whole industry of baby-measurement-comparisons.

In any case, ours is the size of a lime.

13 comments:

Faith said...

So are you officially and publicly announcing you and James are having your first baby? Congrats! I wish you the best of luck :)

Tracie said...

Teehee. Giggled throughout this. Yes, it was strange when the fruits used were obscure. But I like the fruit measurement better than numbers. I can't picture inches or ounces. Maybe they should sports equipment instead? Or random objects that are usually standardized in size? (Your baby is now the size of a whistle.) :D

MM said...

ahhhhhh! that's fantastic, and what a great way to announce "it"...congratulations!!!

Carolyn said...

Congratulations :)

ajrienne said...

Joy suggested that you compare them to the size of alcoholic measurements: one shot glass, double shot glass, martini glass, half pint glass, pint glass, 40 oz, wine jug... lets hope it never gets to be the size of a barrell. That would work for the non-mormon father-to-be for sure. ;)

Unknown said...

might cause the non-mormon mother to go a bit insane though, what with all the not drinking she's forced to do on top of all the other things she had to give up.

Hailey said...

I love limes! Congrats.

Katie said...

Congrats!! We are so excited for you!! Give me a call! We need to get together before too long!!

At one of my appointments, My dr put a little doll thing in my hand and said, "that's how big your baby is and how much it weighs,roughly" maybe they should just have a little doll thing for us to hold in our hand for each appointment, that shows the size and weight. I liked it, but he only did it that one time!!!

Monsivais Family said...

I was thinking when I was reading your post called "fruit, anyone?" that it was going to be a very round about way to say that she is pregnant. what do you know I was right. lol...congratulations..
when is your due date?

Shauna Malia said...

YOU'RE PREGNANT?!?! CONGRATULATIONS!!! That's SO exciting!!! YAY!!! That kid is so blessed!

Christian and Jennifer said...

Ahhh, you make me laugh, my dearest. We are so happy for you and your lime and can't wait until it's more like a watermelon and we can play with it. After it's born, we mean. Otherwise, that's weird.

Lex said...

YAY!!!! I squeeled so much when I read this! You're gonna be mommy and daddy west!!! WOOHOO!!!! Love you guys and miss you SO much!

David said...

well, how about turning to the animal world for a visualization? your baby is as big as a chipmunk. a squirrel. think of all the warm fuzzy images you'd get. though i guess you'd have to start with microorganisms and proceed through insects before you got to the fuzzies.
Congratulations Charity and James! I'm happy for you and wish you luck with the whole process.