Notifications?

I was just completely shocked to find that I had comments on two posts that were over 4 days old! I have been kinda waiting for a comment from somebody....anybody really, just to see if there was actually somebody reading this stuff. Then lo and behold, as I was saving a draft for later this week, I discovered comments! Shouldn't I have gotten some kind of notification telling me that they were there? I mean, I guess it's possible that there was one that I missed, but I honestly didn't see the comments until they were there for four days. So my question is, if there's no notifications to tell me that I got one, how do I sort the new ones from the old ones when I have several? A little insight from a seasoned pro, please?