Overwhelming Feeling of Doom

[smileypigface]

Hoping it will help if I 'dump' my paranoia into writing...

I am 20 wks today - had an amnio before Christmas and got the results on NYE - all clear - hoorah! No problems at all following the amnio - not even the cramp-type feeling they told me to expect. No spotting either.

But, I haven't yet felt any movement - a few weeks ago I thought I'd felt a 'shifting' type movement and thought it was the beginning of feeling movement .. but absolutely nothing since then. It's my 4th baby so I expected to be feeling movement by now - but my youngest is 11 so it's a long time since I was last pregnant.

I was already overweight before conceiving - 14.5 stone at 5ft 5 tall - and checking the scales this morning I've put on half a stone. My tummy just still feels like a flabby old thing - I was expecting it to firm up as the baby gets bigger.

I've also been having horrendous back pain and have been signed off work by the doctor for the last 2 weeks.

The common sense part of my brain is trying to tell me that as I was already flabby the baby is hidden under the layers of flab - and this is probably making it harder for me to feel movement. Also, having the bad back means your other muscles tighten to try and compensate for the area with the problem - so if my deeply buried stomach muscles are tense to help me move around then that's also not going to help me feel movement.

I've got my 20 week scan on Monday morning so not long until we know for definite exactly what is happening with the baby. I just can't shake off a feeling of doom. Hope you don't mind me 'dumping' it all down here!!

I think most pregnant women have these feelings of doom at some point in their pregnancy, you are not alone in that.

The chances are everything will be fine, but I do understand how worrying it can be! If you really feel that these negative thoughts are having an effect on your health, then talk it through with your midwife.

Don't worry about not feeling the baby yet - some babies just don't move as much as others, and the placenta may be in the wrong place.

Thanks belgo, hadn't thought about the placenta - at the amnio scan they said it was low (but all of mine have been at this stage and have moved up and out of the way as things have gone on) and at the front - so that's a good point.

Monday morning can't come quickly enough for me!!!!

Good luck with your scan - I've just re read my post and I didn't mean that the placenta is in the 'wrong' place exactly, I mean, if it's at the front, it could be harder for you to feel the kicking.

With DD (my second baby) I didnt feel movement properly until she was 26 weeks!! I felt tiny popping movements at around 20 but nothing I could say was a baby - the sort of movements I felt around 14 weeks with DS. I didnt feel a proper kick until 26 weeks and barely felt anything all pregnancy. Even when she was kicking on the scan I couldnt feel it.

She is absolutely fine - a really laid back chilled baby. My madly kicking DS is a hyper fool .

At 20 weeks I have always still just looked a bit fat. I wouldnt really expect a proper firm bump at this stage unless it was a first baby or you were a very small frame or no fat whatsoever.

Good luck with your scan - let us know how it goes.

I'm 19weeks on monday and this is my third, my youngest is 2. Felt movement from at least 16w with my first two but not in this pregnancy. I know my placenta is anterior this time and told that this makes the small initial movements much harder if not impossible to feel. Like you I've had an amnio - mine was this week, and initial results all clear - and I think it makes the lack of regular movements all the more difficult to bear. Good luck for monday.

Thanks everyone - that's reassuring to know that not everyone is feeling movement early on - I seem to remember my first 3 all being 'text book' movers - ie, feeling no 2 and no 3 earlier than I'd felt no 1.

At least Monday isn't long to wait!

Good luck with the final amnio results babynumberthree - great news that the initial results are clear x

i have anterior placenta and didn't feel much until around 19-20 weeks.

am now 26 weeka and feel quite a lot of movement, please don't worry....

I also have an anterior placenta, am 23 weeks with DC3 and really not feeling much at all, just the odd bubbly flicker. I was paranoid too ? at 18 weeks I had a routine m/w appt and no heartbeat could be found, despite her trying for ages with 2 different machines ? because I'd also had an amnio the m/w seemed v concerned, all doom-and-gloom, and for a horrible 30 mins or so I really thought that was it for the baby, until I was scanned and the little thing was bouncing around perfectly happily! Think h/b just couldn't be heard through the placenta.