When do you feel movement? Slightly paranoid

[ManchesterMummy2b]

Morning

21 weeks now and a few kicks (I think?) here and there but other than that nothing much. I know the baby's okay (20 week scan last week and Friday had to be monitored for a while as I had a fall) but everyone keeps suggesting I should be feeling more now. I think this is probably a case of well-meaning folk trying to scare the living daylights out of a first-time mum (you all know the type...) but I'm now worried something's amiss.

Notes say anterior placenta - have Googled that and think that might be why - is that right?

Anyone?

Ta

I was about 22 weeks until I felt something I could definatly say was the baby. Before that I think I had felt the odd strange bubbly feelings but that might have been digestion!I didn't really get a bump until I was 5 months and spent weeks terrified as everyone kept telling me I should be showing by then so don't let anyone scare you -everyone is different.

Don't worry about it at all. With my first it was contant movement, with my present one it hardly anything. Similar to my friend - her first never really moved, her second won't stop summersaulting!

Some don't even start to be felt until 20 + weeks

Yes, anterior placenta might explain why you can't feel as many movements as you would like. You tend to feel the movements at the front of you and if your placenta is also to the front, it will be acting like a cushion between you and the kicks.

Try not to worry about it, but if you do, you are in good company. I fretted through all 4 of my (perfectly healthy) pregnancies about the number of kicks I was feeling. I was reassured in my fourth pregnancy when I went for my 20 week scan and could see the baby bouncing around even though I could feel nothing.

Thanks beckmo - that's reassured me! I have a small, compact-looking bump at the mo (and don't look pregnant from the back - ha! I know that won't last!) and last week someone said "you're not very big for five months are you?"

What is it with people?!

Dont worry about when your baby moves, I had butterfly feelings in my tummy for ages and then felt the odd kick but it wasnt until I was about 24 weeks that I felt anything regular. Unfortunatly all the books say from wk 20 you should be feeling xyz but our bodies and the babies tend to work to their own schedule.

Also beckmo be grateful you dont have much of a bump yet I was desperate to get a bump and wear maternity clothes and then I got a huge bump and am now 39+5 and am staring wistfully at all the clothes that dont fit me even some maternity ones. ;)

Good luck to you both.

Ah - so Googling's worked!

At least all scans and checks have shown that things are okay and that's the main thing. Expect the baby takes after it's father, the king of procrastination. It'll kick me when it's jolly well ready!

I vow that I will never, ever say stupid things to pregnant ladies when I'm done.

This sounds totally normal, I didn't feel any kicks until about 22 weeks with my first. Second time was a lot earlier - from around 14 weeks.

i know how you feel. i am pg second time and so many books/articles/people told me i'd feel kicks earlier than last time that when it hadn't happened by 21 weeks i got really scared. a mumsnet search calmed me down. what is 'usual' or 'average' isn't necessarily what you will experience!
try not to worry (er, the mn search i did was at 0300 so you can see how calm i was!) but if mn doesn't do the trick and you're getting anxious you can always ring your hosp and explain to them. i'm sure they'll either talk you through it or ask you to come in so they can check things to put your mind at rest. good luck!

Thanks everyone! Feel miles better now. Thing is I don't know who to contact outside the hours of 9 to 5 Monday to Friday (they just won't tell me!) and my community midwife really isn't very nice - very abrupt and doesn't let me ask questions (my next antenatal appointment is with someone else).

So I feel a bit alone - but thank goodness for this website I say!

hmm, they haven't given you your handheld notes (numbers should be on there). if you want to contact them out of hours i'd either ring switchboard and ask to be put through or post on here and ask if there is another mn-etter who is at the same hosp who does have numbers.
or do a websearch..?

You're a first time mum, you probably have really strong stomach muscles. One of my friends didn't feel her baby kick until she was about 28 weeks which I know is unusal but can happen.

Thanks Juliewoolie -am actually 38 weeks now and believe me no one says I'm looking too small now!

I felt a variety of movements but not necessarily kicks a lot of the time when I was pregnant. People who knew perceived a bump at 5 months but lots of people at work only learned at 6-7 months and I only got offered seats on the tube regularly at about 35 weeks, finished work at just over 37 weeks. Due to inability to eat properly through most of pregnancy, my weight was pretty static throughout - one person who knew said I'd lost loads of weight (!), and with a 3 week old baby I'm 6 kg or 13 lb down from my pregnancy and pre-pregnancy weight though that doesn't make me slim. Don't get paranoid, the effects of pregnancy vary enormously. There are many things other than kicks that feel pretty weird which are really the baby moving around inside you, was my experience.

Are you seeing others as well as the midwife? How's your GP? On that, I've met nasty health professionals in the past but seem to have been lucky during pregnancy. Have you had chances to listen to baby's heartbeat? I looked forward to that at appts with midwives, GP and hospital doctor, I could never get too much reassurance that baby was still alive and well if not noticeably kicking.

Hi ManchesterMummy2b

Have been having similar concerns, so pleased to see your thread - 22 weeks day before yesterday (first one) and haven't really felt anything (although I suspect hiccups last night, but that's the first time - and could be wind!). Mentioned it when I had my scan last Weds and got told that it was nothing to worry about, and was reassured to see it wriggling around on scan. I got told anterior placenta too, so that tallies.

Good luck!