How would you describe your baby's pattern of movement?

[EffinIneffable]

I must admit I am totally confused about this. I feel movements fairly frequently, but there really is no discernible pattern. Some days are very quiet, others very energetic. Sometimes big jabs that take my breath away, other times smooth swooshing motions (31 weeks now). We're told not to count numbers of kicks, etc, but without doing this for a few days, I don't know how I would even begin to discern what my baby's pattern is. Midwife seems very surprised by my lack of knowledge on this!

I'm not actually worried (though perhaps I should be??), and whenever I've had any concerns, a lie down, drink of water, and doing my pelvic floor exercised result in baby making himself felt.

I know everyone will have their own unique pattern, but I thought perhaps if other people could describe their baby's pattern I'd have a better chance of understanding what my pattern might be.

I'd describe mine as non existent. I am 31+3 and yesterday baby was going mad most of the day. Today fairly quiet. Definitely moving but much much quieter.

I did kick counts every hour for a few days last week and there was no pattern at all. I ended up going in about reduced movements and had a scan where all seemed to be fine

It is all very confusing. My hospital told me only need 10 movements a day, which I think is outdated advice, and all anyone else will say is 'whatever is normal for your baby.' Even though I tell them there is no 'normal'. I think i just have to accept there is no pattern to this baby.....

I've had a difficult time with this myself recently, as I'd had a pattern (i.e. movements at fairly regular times) but suddenly as soon as I got to 28 weeks movement slowed and changed, which worried me a lot.

I ended up going into hospital after not feeling her move for quite a few hours, despite drinking a frozen smoothie but her heartrate and movements were what they considered absolutely normal, which was a relief but didn't explain why I wasn't feeling them as often or as strongly.

All the midwife could say was to make sure that I felt 10 in a day (which my own personal MW said was outdated info) and that if I was still worried I should come back for more monitoring. She also said it could be that the baby is growing and has less room, but I'm sure that space issues don't happen until nearer 34 weeks. She was perfectly nice about it and I apologised profusely for wasting their time, but I'm still keeping a close eye on movements just in case.

Around the same time, I noticed that I'm bigger than before and that she's shifted and is definitely balanced on my bladder - I'm not sure if that makes a difference?

She has definitely been moving more today than yesterday but - argh! It's so stressful trying to work out if all's okay. I will NOT Google anything about movements as there are so many people out there saying that the worst happened to them - though I know it's a possibility I'm trying to be vigilant whilst not scaring myself witless.

Don't know if that helped or not OP. Re: patterns, it is the time of movements they care about rather than the strength. So if you know that at 12pm, 3pm and 6.30pm he/she is always moving, then one day they don't, then that's when you're to worry - or so I was told.

Thanks both, glad I'm not the only one confused about this. Guess I should try tracking what times of day I feel movement and see if I can figure out some vague sort of pattern. Thing is, I don't really have a standard daily routine myself, which I think confuses things.

I'm pretty sure the 10 a day thing is thought to be outdated now, weird that people are still giving that advice out.

Time of day means nothing to this baby! Last night at this time it was squirming all over the place now just the odd kick...

The 10 movements things is very outdated advice. I have certain times of day when I feel most movements generally after mealtimes (if I'm paying attention), late evening and 2-3am if I'm awake. If you are worried you have not felt much movement they usually advise to have a cold drink and a snack and lie down or in the bath for 30 mins/an hour and see what you feel, then if you are still worried contact your midwife.

Yep, that's the thing, I'm not worried at all as I usually feel some sort of movement, and if I don't I can trigger it with the usual tricks. But if I followed the guidelines about changing 'patterns' to the letter, I'd be up the hospital every other day, so I'm trying to work out how to tell if I should be worried.

Something I read said that if you need to provoke movements (i.e. With a cold drink or something sweet), it's not helpful in determining whether the baby is ok. I think it might have been the Count the Kicks website, but not sure.

If you spend a couple of days really paying attention to when he/she kicks, you might be able to discern some kind of pattern, even if it's only after you've eaten etc. I find that when I really focus, that's when I'm best able to work out patterns and then I use those days to work out the rest as to whether she's being quiet or her usual self. Good luck OP, I hope that you figure this out (and tell me how you do it!!) ;-)

I'm 34w+5d and I'm exactly the same. Trying to spot a pattern is driving me nuts! A few weeks ago she was variable day to day, some really busy days, some rather quiet, then she had a busy week (which was lovely and I loved the random interruptions - it was like she kept popping up to say "hi mum"), then this week she seems to be having a quiet week, with just the odd wiggle here and there, and mostly needs to be provoked, apart from once a day when she pokes her bum right out the top of my tummy which then takes itself for a mooch. I can't make up my mind if I should be worried or not, and every time I think "should I be worried?" I get a little nudge off her and decide I'm not worried. Like I said... driving me nuts!

It's almost like the information on the CTK website is confusing, anxiety-inducing and unusable, isn't it?

I've said it before here, but what exactly is a pattern supposed to be? Are you supposed to be able to set your watch by movements? Are they supposed to always happen in response to some stimulus or other? What about strength of movement? The definition of 'pattern' is too vague to be useful IMO and I've only ever seen it lead to anxiety in pregnant women, myself included.

I also find it completely useless to give information that the NHS doesn't endorse - like increased movements should be checked out. I once had a massive increase in movements that I had linked in my mind to a painful twist I'd done in the shower. I phoned up triage and they said baby wasn't in distress and refused to see me. I then remembered about the gallon of Diet Coke I'd drunk without thinking at the cinema - I'd just caffeinated him by accident! All was fine the next day. So what's the point of scaring women like that? IME, they only see women for reduced movements.

I work(ed) from home, so I have always had plenty of time to focus on movements. He sometimes has a pattern, sometimes doesn't. Some days he's more active, sometimes he's less so. Now, at 37+4, when he's supposed to have run out of room and kick less, he's given me some proper hoofings! He also seems to respond to what I eat/don't eat. If I eat less, he moves less and vice versa.

For me, the best advice I've been given is by a MW - they tend to sleep in 40 min to 1 hour bursts in later pregnancy. So in a space of 2 hours, you're supposed to have around 10 movements. This gives them time to wake up and move about - 10 movements per 2 hours is not vague and makes actual sense. MWs will also give you cold, sugary drinks to wake baby up when you're on a trace, for example. So yes, provoked movements do count too.

Sorry for rant, this topic just winds me up something chronic!

I think it's just a trust your instinct type thing, if you feel something is wrong then go get checked, if I'm not worried that tells me there isn't anything to worry about. I went in for monitoring once with ds1, I'd been decorating and realised at the end of the day I hadn't felt him move (or more likely hadn't noticed), I left it a couple of hours had a lie down etc but still nothing so I went in - had I felt a good few movements in those couple of hours I wouldn't of worried.

Haven't been concerned in this pg because he keeps me up most of the night head butting my bladder

When they talk about 'pattern' I take it to mean rough times of day when baby is most active, although some days you might feel them move less it can depend on their position as well as how late in pregnancy you are - as times goes on and they run out of room they don't move less as such but the type of movements can change.

I'm glad other people are also finding this stressful (not glad, you know what I mean!) as the advice is making me really anxious.

The issue is having no pattern so not knowing when to worry. Last night I couldn't sleep all night - feel horrendous today - because I realised at about 11pm that I hadn't felt the baby since about 7pm. Usually baby makes its presence at least somewhat known in evenings. So then I felt absolutely panicked up until it started kicking me around 3am. I didn't go in to the hospital because I have been 3 times already with reduced movement and had a scan Friday which showed everything was okay - so I had to assume it still was.

Saturday baby was so active all day it didn't stop, yesterday really quiet, today so far, somewhere in the middle. And there are definitely no 'times' of the day that it focuses on as last night demonstrated. So when do I worry?

Trust your instinct is a hard one for me too - I am a natural worrier, and health anxiety is always top of my list so my instinct is somewhat skew-whiff here! I'm always convinced of the worse!