When should you start counting the kicks?

[whysoserious]

I'm 23 weeks and started to get very confident about my baby's movements over the weekend as they had started to feel much stronger and more frequent.

Today however things seem to have gone fairly quiet. I have felt the odd lighter movement today and seen a couple of kicks from the outside but haven't had the 'mad half hour' of kicks, flips and twists that I've had for a few days.

Is it normal to have quieter days at this stage or should I be concerned? I'm exhausted and going to bed now, I can feel slight twitches in my tummy as I type so hopefully things will get stronger once I'm in bed

The official advice seems to be at 28 weeks. Until then baby's movements are quite erratic so try not to worry. At your stage I had a few days in a row where I felt nothing, then frenzied fandangoing resumed :o Even now she has lulls and then leaps about madly.

I have been having the same type of thing Whysoserious. Some days frantic movement and almost constant kicking all over the place then some days of very little. I put it down to big growth spurts. I think they are knackered out from growing and sleep more. In a couple of day I imagine they will be kicking away like crazy again.

I had this. My mw said there wouldn't be a pattern till later, I don't recall when entirely although 32 is in my head. It was mentioned in the printed part if my notes. I'm 27 weeks.

I'm 25 weeks and saw my mw this morning - she said i should start counting kicks from about now and they were looking for 10 kicks in every 12 hours. She didn't seem overly concerned that i should start a spreadsheet or anything though, just to be aware. Although i probably will download an app because I'm geeky like that :)
Bean started kicking lots more between weeks 23 and now though, so don't worry too much. Back then I could only feel the kicks in bed but now I can feel them all the time. (in fact, as i'm typing this)

at 23 weeks movement can be erratic and probably won't have formed a recognisable pattern yet so it's probably fine.

I'm not a fan of counting 10 kicks per day because I think it can give false reassurance. If a baby's gone from moving 50 times a day to 10, then that 10 movment pattern is not necessarily OK and should probably be checked out.

What is important is that each woman gets to know HER baby's normal pattern and if there is a change or reduction in movments then she contacts her delivery suite for advice. Even if that means ringing 100 times a week. Your baby's only way to tell you that something is wrong is to stop or slow down her movements, and you're the only person who knows.

From personal experience, 10 movements in one day would have been a very worrying amount for my babies, as from about 28 weeks they moved about 100 times a day I would think.

From experience as a midwife, I would say that nobody minds being asked to check if a baby's ok because it's not moving much, that's what we're there for.

hmm ok, yes i see what you mean, thanks for the advice :)

whatinthewhatnow has just written, rather more eloquently, what I was going to say. It's not about the number of kicks, it's about what is normal for your baby. You will get to know this as the pregnancy progresses. DD was a very energetic baby and would move constantly most of the day and night (and she has carried this on into the outside world). Other mums have quieter babies and that's fine - it's about what is normal for you and your baby.

Again, no midwife or unit minds checking if you are need of reassurance. I went in for monitoring when DD's movements dropped to one kick an hour and the consultant said they would rather a 1,000 women came in unnecessarily than miss the one baby that did need help.

My babies kicks are all over. There is no pattern!

Take Saturday for an example - all day literally from 11am - midnight there was not a hour went by without her doing something crazy.

2 kicks all day Sunday

some movement but not kicks monday

Woke me this morning doing something and a few kicks since I have got up.

I mentioned it to the midwife because I could literally be at the hospital every day if I followed the advice in my book and the advice is worrying me. Midwife told me as long as I feel her at some point try not to worry to much, she is laid funny and I have quite a deep back so all the kicks etc could be going inwards.

I still worry though. Poor thing will be sick of me prodding her.

I was quite relaxed about those quiet days til my 38 week midwife appointment. I'd had every few days the baby wouldn't kick too much but then mw said 'don't wait til they stop, if they slow down get straight to the hospital'. I ended up in the hospital that night cos of the paranoia. There was nothing wrong and as soon as I got there baby started kicking the xxxx out of me but they monitored me for an hour. They didn't laugh at me or anything and advised me to do the same again if it happened again. I was glad I went, it was peace of mind. Chances are everything's fine but, if you're worried, call triage and have a chat.

I've had the same problem - I'm 27 weeks. Baby slowed down a bit on mon so went in to get checked out & when the midwife heard shed moved 28 times tha day she said "oh that's plenty!". Made me feel a bit of an idiot. She's been quiter than normal for the past few days (even convinced myself shed died during the night on Tuesday as I hadn't felt anything until I gave her a good poke). Today however she was moving loads this morning - quieter now. But some reassurance please - there hav been days when she's been moving over 100 times & others when it's only been about 30. The last week or so, it's been approx 50 (or just under) - does hat mean she's now settlin into a routine? This is my firs pregnancy & it jus seems so stressful! On a more funny note, we have a home Doppler & been listening to baby's heartbeat, only to find out from the mw on Monday that we've been listening to the placenta all this time!

Apologies for all the typos btw!

Is this a new thing then? I never counted any kicks and was never told to count them.

I never counted either and only heard about it from forums a few weeks back when the midwife scared me. I'm not sure it's a good thing as my baby hasn't always followed any kinda routine. It will have a routine for a few days, then seems to go quiet for a few like it's tired itself out. Sometimes it goes quiet for hours when I reckon it's asleep. If I'd been counting all along, I probably would have miscarried through stress months ago

I'm 27 weeks. Asked MW at last appointment as I feel him plenty, but no pattern and sometimes he goes quiet. She said there won't be a pattern till 30 something weeks. And it's fine so long as there is some movement

I think it depends on where your placenta is, you can't properly count kicks if its at the front unfortunately

Mine is behind so I get good feisty kicks

Im 33 weeks and still don't have a routine, some days I do not feel her at all whicih can be a worry but I have quite a wide back and wide rib cage so midwife said she could be right back or kicking into my back.

I have anterior placenta ? Off to google!

That's the front one signet. I have a posterior placenta.

Currently 22 weeks and i must say pitty much know my son cycle even though they say roughly around 25 weeks your suppose to start counting your baby kicks and they have a pattern however i recently notice that he use to be active morning and afternoon and night , and recently he not much active in the morning but active in the afternoon or night times i know this is early but i normally count how many times he kicks and sometimes is 5 and in the afternoon 2 and night 1 so i feel as if i cant really count 10 i just wanted to know if this is normal and it is very hard to count 10 especially if a child is either sleeping or has those day

I’m also a bit worried about this. Am about 24 weeks and there is much less kicking then in my first pregnancy. Either this will be a calmer baby or . . . no other cause for concern though so I will just wait for my next appointment.