Counting The Kicks

[heylottie]

Used to think I was a fairly non paranoid pregnant person, but recent monitoring due to high-ish bp has made me a bit neurotic about baby movements.

They always say 'and has baby moved a lot?' And i think, well I THINK so. Whats a lot? And then I start to doubt what is 'normal for me' if that makes sense. I think baby is awake mostly at night, because sometimes I am awake for it, sometimes not. Sometimes, like last weekend, baby moved a lot during the day. Monday, hardly at all.

Yesterday I was in for monitoring for bp so they checked because I was a bit blank face about movements and baby is fine. But I can't go in every day, or every time the baby is a bit quiet.

I know the cold drink, lie on side for two hours thing but with a toddler thats not always possible. And one midwife said as long as you count ten movements in a two hour period you don't have to count again for another 24 hours.

I don't know, I don't seem to be able to relax into this at all. Am 32 weeks. I counted ten kicks at 6am, but nothing much since.

I am going to be a wreck!

I think the new new advice is NOT to count the kicks. The key is to try and be aware of what is and (more importantly) what isn't normal for your particular baby.

I was told that as long as I feel 10 movements in 24 hours then that's fine - but not that those 10 movements had to be in such a short time frame of 2 hours??

I'd be more worried if I felt 10 kicks in 2 hours but then felt nothing for another 22 hours.....sounds a bit odd to me?

My baby has phases throughout the day of being quiet and active and I'm more attuned to that now as opposed to counting specific movements. He is definitely more awake during late evening and into the night.

I've also heard 10 movements in 24 hours - not from my own midwife (who gives very vague information and tells me to just go up to the hospital if I'm worried - I did go once but was made to feel a bit silly for doing so) but via friends on antenatal threads' midwives.

I'm not really keen on the advice about 'what's normal for your baby' because my baby's patterns have changed enormously throughout the last ten weeks of pregnancy. At the moment she seems to be in a pattern of two quiet days/one active day. But if she'd had two quiet days, say, a fortnight ago, I would've been extremely worried. Similarly, for a long time she was very active in the morning, but now it seems to be the evening...it does chop and change though.

I've been keeping a spreadsheet since Week 27 where I make a note 4 times a day (post breakfast, during the daytime, post dinner, during the night) of the types of movements I'm feeling, if any. It has helped me to keep a vague eye on things though there have been lots of days when I've been a wreck too :)