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Pregnancy

Talk about every stage of pregnancy, from early symptoms to preparing for birth.

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Original poster

baby movement

19 replies

Dragonfly73 · 30/10/2009 10:04

i am 18w today. have been obsessing watching out for the first signs of movement from my baby. The problem is that i dont know what i am looking for. My midwife said it was like a gas movement but without the accompanying fart. I am not sure i believe her frankly as she was all of about 12 and has no children.

Can any of you more experienced mothers and mothers to be help me out here and tell me what it feels like and what i should be looking out for.

I have felt the occasional pressure in my abdomen that does kind of feel like gas passing but then there is no fart at the end of it. It is hard for me to beleive that that is actually my little girl. it just feels so ordinary.

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ActivityApple · 30/10/2009 10:58

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Sarahlou8 · 30/10/2009 11:09

Hi, I'm 12+5 with my third baby and although I haven't felt anything yet, both my others I felt at week 14 and 15, so I'm watching out for it now.

Try lying in bed on your tummy and propping yourself up on your elbows (so there's a bit of pressure on your tummy). It feels like it does sometimes when you can feel a pulse or muscle twitching but without the regular rhythm.

It was a good 2 or 3 weeks after week 14 that I could feel it while up and about, but felt it every night doing this, I obviously had a night owl!

Give it a try!

sonsmum · 30/10/2009 11:21

the suggestion of 'gas movement without accompanying fart' is actually pretty accurate.....until you can actually feel a distinct poke or prod, it does feel a little like 'popping' or a a 'bubble moving'...which you can't attribute to trapped wind or stomach rumbles.
Also sometimes you may feel a sensation of a large mass sweeping from one side of your abdomen to the other. (admittedly this does feel odd when it happens!)
You may feel this and think 'was that the baby?'.....then a few weeks later you will feel a poke or prod, and will know that that popping etc early on was the baby.
When/if you have dc2 you may recognise this 'popping' much earlier....i noticed at 16wk this time.

jellybean86 · 30/10/2009 11:21

At about 17 weeks i felt lik i was being tickled inside with a feather. Felt it a few times but then it stopped. Then the day before i felt her kick, it was like a was flicked from the inside! Strange but wonderful! xx

HappyBump · 30/10/2009 11:22

I didn't feel strong movements with my first until about 23 weeks. After that he didn't stop kicking!

This time round I felt more obvious movements at around 18-20 weeks.

The first flutters feel very different from the strong kicks, pokes, jabs and hiccups. Your midwife isn't too far off what it initially felt like for me, but I only know that now with hindsight!

It will come try not to worry (so much easier said than done). It is so lovely when you do start feeling movement.

angfirsttimer · 30/10/2009 11:25

I agree its like bubbles popping or like gas as your midwife says in the beginning which soon develops into definate kicks. If, like me your placenta is at the front rather than the back (i.e anterior - (you will find out at your 20 wk scan) then it makes it harder to detect movement as the placenta cushions the movements apparently.

iateallthecreameggsyummy · 30/10/2009 12:23

exactly as most people say like bubbles my babies first movement was 16+4 quite low down and was like 2 little bubbles, exactly a week later this turned into kicks and now he kicks me all the time!

humanfraggle · 30/10/2009 13:42

at first the kicks / punches / somersaults felt to me like a muscle flickering - don't know if you ever get it but for example like a flickering in your eye?

That's probably really hard to understand if you don't get the same kind of muscle flickers as me!! But that's exactly what it felt like to me (but in my belly, not my eye, lol)

Mama2b5 · 30/10/2009 22:39

mine felt like little butterfly fluttering then later turned into more like a bird and now wow just punches, kicks in the ribs and hiccups!

callmeovercautious · 30/10/2009 22:46

I felt her first at 16w when I bent over to pick something up off the floor - she must have been objecting It felt like a pop in my lower abdomen, nothing I had ever felt before

hoops997 · 30/10/2009 23:19

dragonfly I'm exactly 18 weeks today aswell and I'm sure I felt junior move this morning, was like a bubble bursting on the inside, thought it was wind at first, was lying in bed, waiting for alarm to off when it happened

LifeOfKate · 31/10/2009 14:27

Yep, I would definitely describe it as like wind at the beginning. I just started to wonder why I was really windy (but lack of farts) until it just got so often that it had to be the baby!

BellasYummyMummy · 31/10/2009 19:02

i didnt feel my first until about 20 weeks, and like a lot have said it was like feeling bubbles.

MummyToucan · 31/10/2009 20:27

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

alana39 · 01/11/2009 16:05

And don't worry if you feel nothing for quite a bit longer - I didn't feel my first until about 23 weeks, and although you're supposed to feel subsequent babies earlier, with this one (3rd) I have an anterior placenta and at 20 weeks saw my bump move all over the place without feeling a thing. Took another couple of weeks before the baby was big enough for movement to be felt around the edges.

chubbychipmonk · 01/11/2009 18:37

You'll konw it when you feel it . . I was sitting on the couch and felt a rippling sensation across my lower abdomen (about 19 weeks). Then I lay down on the carpet on my back and started prodding my tummy and felt it again! I agree with the earlier post, it feels like the twitching that you get in the muscle below your eye but in your tummy! . . .then before you know it its foot is in your ribs!!

MadameDuBain · 01/11/2009 18:41

It is very hard to tell at first - but the most accurate description for me is like a bubble popping against the inside of your bump, or sometimes a flutter like a leaf landing there. Then progressing to more definite prods like someone poking gently with a finger.

Meandacat · 02/11/2009 11:16

Thanks for this thread, Dragonfly. I feel a little reassured by it. I'm 19+1 and am beginning to feel anxious about not having felt anything yet. A friend is two weeks ahead of me and has felt her baby move. My pregnancy was such a surprise I'm still having trouble feeling like it's real. I can't wait to feel that first flutter. But I don't need to worry at not having felt anything yet, right?

Thingiebob · 02/11/2009 22:20

I didn't feel any movement until about 21 weeks. At first I didn't recognise it. I had such a strange sensation really low down on the top of my bladder. It felt like my bladder twitched or had relaxed so for the first few times I assumed it was something to do with my bladder and being pregnant. I rushed to the loo each time. Then it happened in the middle of the night and I realised that it was more of a 'popping' sensation and it was the baby moving. It increased then I started to feel twitches higher up.

Now I can't sleep at night for elbows and knees poking out of my tummy!

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