Lack of movement - please help a first timer at 20+4!

[ImpatientMissW]

I'm having a bit of a panic and think i may just need some perspective - please help!
I'm 20+4 with my first. I've been feeling quite a bit of movement over the last couple of weeks, fairly small at first (like little flicks in my stomach) but much more last weekend and Monday I even saw a kick on the surface of my stomach.
My problem is i've felt nothing since then. So I've worked myself up into thinking I'm going to go for my anomaly scan (which is tomorrow) and they're going to find something terrible has happened. It makes me feel sick. I know I'm still early to be feeling movement with my first, and my bump has got bigger over the last few days so it may be that it's swimming about in so much water it doesn't touch the sides anymore, or it may have turned around and i can't feel it. However much i tell myself these things, it's just not helping.
Like i said, i think i need someone to tell me to stop worrying, or at least give me an idea of what to do? Please!!!!

I had such a panic at exactly the same time as you. I didn't realise how little they are at 20 weeks and I think he'd just turned around or something and I went 3 days with barely feeling a thing. Had the scan and all was fine. Then after about 21 weeks the movements started to change - less solid kicks and more full body movements as he grew. Now at 28 weeks I get a lot more shifts and wriggles than kicks and pokes. When I spoke to my midwife she said don't count anything until 28 weeks and even then it's only a concern if I don't have 10 movements in 24 hours! So you're a long way from that. Hope you see lots of wriggles at your scan : )

Congratulations. Unfortunately I find the worrying of parenting never ends. From the moment you know you've conceived there are just things.

A day isn't too long to wait but to save over stressing you could call your midwife and see if theres a drop in clinic where they could put a doppler on you so you can hear that reassuring heart beat.

I found a long soak in the bath created lots of visible movement and remember being able to see movements I couldn't always feel because of ripples on the water. But as already mentioned your baby is still relatively small and depending on which somersault position they're in you may just see nothing. I can't actually remember if this worked at 20 weeks.

When I had my 20 week scan I was amazed to see how much the baby was moving - and I wasn't feeling anything!

from 19 weeks I'd felt occasional movement but not every day. Only at 22 weeks has it started being every day but I can easily go an entire morning without feeling anything - I think the baby keeps moving and in some directions is just kicking into the middle of me and I'm not feeling the sensation.

I had the same experience as Hamster: NOTHING could be felt as I saw the 20 weeker on the screen clearly wriggling! :) They can easily move back so they can't reach the outside of your uterus and move without you feeling it at 20 weeks.

Try drinking some very very cold water. That sometimes works.