To peek or not to peek

I brewed my first batch on Saturday, and American amber ale. Everything went well, and the first 48 hours there was aggressive action through the airlock (fermenting in a bucket). Right after 48 hours the bubbling stopped altogether. I used dry yeast and wasn't completely surprised by that, but my question is should I take a hydrometer reading now or do I just wait another week or so to bother with that? My intention from the start was to go 3 weeks in primary and then at least 3 weeks in bottle, so is there really any need for me to get a hydrometer reading until I am ready to do something with it anyway?

go with your original plan

There may be no need to take a hydrometer reading, but it will not hurt your beer if you do. Just use good sanitation. If you're new to brewing taking hydro samples throughout fermentation can give you a good idea how the yeast perform. You can get an idea of where a specific yeast strain should be on a certain day for a certain recipe. Take good notes, and the next time you use the same yeast or make the same recipe the hydrometer reading will have some relative value. Plus if you take a reading now and realize that the gravity is far too high you can take some measure to help the yeast finish. For example, you could agitate the bucket to help get more yeast back into suspension, or you warm up the fermentor to help the yeast finish their job.

Relax. Don't worry. Have a homebrew.

I'd give it a full week before checking it, but you can check it now if you want.