Patterns of movement - your experience?

[Vida32]

Sorry for the long post. I'm really confused about movement. I'm 24+4 and despite having a high anterior placenta have been feeling lots of movement for a good while now. I'm trying to work out what the pattern is so I can know when movements are reduced but I'm really struggling.
After some super active days earlier this week, for the past couple of days I've been worried it didn't feel the same but I've still been getting movement and, as I say, I find it hard to work out exactly what baby's pattern is anyway.
For example, I thought that normally I get some when I wake up but didn't have any this morning, only one or two here and there over the course of the whole morning and then a good 10 or so kicks straight after lunch when the middle of the day, I thought, was their quieter time. Sometimes they kick after eating or a cold drink, sometimes they don't. Sometimes they kick when I lie down, sometimes nothing.

To add to the confusion my pregnancy booklet from the hospital says from 24 weeks that if you're worried about movement you should lie on your left side and see if you get 10 kicks in 2 hours. This is what I did yesterday when I was worried and managed to get up to 10 in 1 hour. But Kicks Count says not to do this and that the 10 kicks advice is now outdated.

I know it's still early but I can't help getting worried when after a few days of plenty of strong kicks the number and strength does seem to change. At the same time, I suffer from anxiety, so I need to find reasonable ways to manage and assess what's going on without getting myself worked up. My community midwife never gets back to me the same day so I would have to ring MAU if I was really worried and I don't want to do that when I don't feel like I even know what's normal and what's not.

What are other people's experiences of working out their pattern? Did you manage to work it out by this stage?

If you've gone in for reduced movement how did you make that decision? Was it for no movement at all or fewer or weaker movements? Did you do the count to ten thing?

It would really help to hear any experiences. Thank you so much!

I'm 38 weeks and there's never really been a pattern, and if there has been one then it's usually changed just as I figure out what it is. As long as I feel some sort of movement every few hours I'm happy.

I thought though that it was generally from 28 weeks the asked you to keep track of movement a bit more rather than 24 weeks? Perhaps it differs between areas?

either way try not to worry too much, it's about raising awareness of how to recognise if things don't feel right rather than an expectation that unborn babies will always develop a specific pattern of movement and causing huge amounts of worry for everyone when that doesn't happen.

I could have written your post. My baby doesn't seem to follow a pattern and when I was kick counting I was getting really stressed and upset every single day. Also my midwife never replies to me on the same day. I would be up the hospital every day if I called them every time I worried. I try and think if I feel her every couple of hours she'll be fine x

Thanks for the helpful replies. I think my problem is precisely that I don't trust myself to know "when things don't feel right". Because of my anxiety I am not always a reliable judge of how worried to be about something and what a proportionate emotional and practical response looks like.

I try to stay off google but when I succumb I end up reading posts from people on forums where they say they wished they had trusted their instincts or where they get told off for waiting four hours to call the hospital to report reduced movement and only just made it in time for action to be taken. This doesn't help me feel less anxious.

When people say "you will know if something's wrong" I just don't believe I will. This is partly because I've got in a right state over things that weren't a problem in the past and I also once nearly didn't seek attention until it was too late for an actual life-threatening problem (before I was pregnant).

On the 24/28 weeks thing my hospital info says call either midwife or MAU from 24 weeks and they will check the heartbeat and not to wait till the next day.

Literally just come home from the hospital now for movement. I have an anterior placenta but have felt my son move every day for about 5 weeks. Im 25+3, and it has been every day since about 20 weeks. Since yesterday afternoon, i didnt feel much. Like flutters or muffled kicks. Yesterday lunch time he was kicking away and then it went muffled and different. My baby normally kicks like crazy in the morning and at night time so when i didnt feel him, i panicked and no amount of ice cold water made him kick. When i didnt feel him when i woke up, i went into panic overdrive. I went in and they said everything was fine. They said literally nothing about why he wasnt moving as much or anything but they monitored the heartbeat and it was beautiful - their exact words. Im still a bit panicky even after the reassurance but they said there was no worries. I dont think we're supposed to have a pattern yet, it is a bonus if we do like i have. Maybe go in and get the reassurance or phone your midwife x

I'm 38 weeks and there's never really been a pattern, and if there has been one then it's usually changed just as I figure out what it is. As long as I feel some sort of movement every few hours I'm happy

Exactly this for me. I went in with reduced movement as about 30 weeks because by 5pm I couldn't recall having felt anything all day, and lying on my left after a cold drink and a biscuit did nothing, and Baby woke up the minute they put the gadgets on!

Thanks both - really useful. Baby has been active this afternoon and evening. Back to some proper kicks, so that's good.
I'm seeing my midwife on Monday anyway so if baby keeps moving well over the weekend I'll wait until then to talk it over. I've not got much confidence she'll have any advice to give me though. I'm not sure what she can say.

Besides I've only seen her for 5 minutes in the whole pregnancy (booking appointment was with another trust) and the time I did phone for advice about something else someone who wasn't a midwife rang me back.