Babies movements

[sparklekitty]

Do you think baby movements are effected by our emotions/stress levels? I had 2 weeks holiday and felt baby move loads, gone back to work this week and baby movements have reduced. Been a stressful week so far and I'm feeling pretty emotional. I know I don't need to be worried about reduction in movements as I'm only 17 weeks and MW said that they only start getting concerned/need to tell them after 20 (ish) weeks.

Do you move a lot at work?

I found that when I moved a lot, baby had reduced movements (probably sleeping). And once I stopped for the night, she'd start doing gymnastics in there.

Could be you were 'relaxing' on holiday so baby was busy and is now getting his/her rest!

Also, if you're busy at work and its stressful etc you might not be paying quite as much attention to the movements so you might miss some.

Yeah I'm a teacher so I'm always on my feet. I'm sure part of the reason is that I'm busy and not noticing during the day but I don't think baby's moving as much in the evenings as it did over the hold, just wondering if it's picking up on my emotions/stress and staying quieter?

Ants - that sounds like a good explanation, baby def had a growth spurt over hol too as I was barely showing before the hold and now I'm back its fairly obvious that I'm pregnant :)

I have noticed a change in movements since I came back from a week of sitting on the beach. Baby was much mre active in the daytime while on holidays, but being back to work ( also a teacher) I barelynotice movements in the day. In the evening, baby moves a lot.
Because it is restful for the baby to get rocked all day, it is natural that s/he sleeps all day, but in the evening when I am sitting, s/ he wants movement. Unless I am eating chocolate of course, then I get movement!

Yerr big time. When I was stressed or wound up dd would go mental n really thrash around. When I was calm her movement was a lot more tai chi like

Count the Kicks.

I could find nothing on this website which puts a lower limit on when to be concerned. OP: what your MW has said about 20 weeks is not contained in the NICE guidelines.

My friend (who is a Neuroscientist) has told me baby serotonin levels are partly set in the womb, and it's therefore good to keep stress levels down as much as possible. Not sure if stress impacts movement or not and certainly not trying to worry you as we're all going to get stressed from time to time. Perhaps take a step back and think how else your day could pan out, extra help, go for a walk at lunchtime..... I have a stressful office job and tbh just let things wash over me now. Still working hard and want to do a good job but learned to cope differently with the pressure.

Good luck!

God, lois, don't tell me that - I don't think I have ever been as stressed as I was when I was pregnant with DD! Well, moving house at 32 weeks does that...

sparkle, I always had the impression with DD that I felt her move a lot less at work as I was really distracted, but then in the evenings and at the weekend she seemed to move more. Maybe if you spent the day at work deliberately focusing on baby then you might notice more movements (don't mean that to sound as if you don't pay attention now!). Of course if you are worried do talk to your mw, but at 17w, from what I remember, you probably aren't feeling baby move too much anyway so its not as much of a worry as it would be at 36w.

Sorry bella didn't mean to freak anyone out!