counting baby's kicks

[nataliekristin]

I'm 27 weeks 3 days and starting to think about counting baby's kicks as I move into the 3rd trimester.

However I have found my baby's movements have always been very light and usually only for a short time when I'm lying in bed at night. This may be due to me having an anterior placenta.

so if I can't really feel baby moving on a consistent basis and never have (even though everything has been fine at every scan and baby is moving away inside) how do I make sure I count kicks as it says - i.e. at least 10 in 2 hours

If it's normal for you to feel baby at night (even if kicks are light) then at the moment this is what's normal for your baby. If it suddenly changed and you are aware that movements at night stop or slow down then that's when you should be concerned. 27 weeks is still quite early, your baby is still very small with lots of room and your anterior placenta will all be making it less likely to feel big movements at the moment. I expect you will feel stronger more frequent movements over the next few weeks. Of course if you are really worried you should speak to your midwife but it sounds as though your baby does have a pattern. Count the kicks app is good as it helps tune you in to babies movements and you can see if there is a big change in movement one day to the next. It's best to start counting kicks when baby is at its most active ie at night in your case.

You don't actually count kicks anymore, you just keep an eye on the pattern. Some babies wont kick 10 times in 2 hours, some might kick 30 times in two hours, so it's not the best way of monitoring it.

You will get used to the pattern and that what you keep an eye on.