Now that I am in the 3rd tri, one of my pregnancy apps recommends counting baby kicks once each day to make sure they reach 10 in 2 hours (though it's typically much less time.) I have never heard of doing this. Did you count baby kicks?
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My dr told me to, and i was diligent with E. I am slacking with #2. But honestly, he makes his presence known (and he is punching the shit out of me right now), so i don't feel the need to.
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I never counted kicks.
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Haha no. I don't know anyone who did unless there was a time that they thought it had been a day or so since they'd felt something and it worried them.
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Kind of? He was always moving so I would get my recommended 10 kicks an hour in about 3 minutes. Haha
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I didn't count kicks DD Was pretty mellow, but I would be aware of her normal behavior
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No but he moved constantly.
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If he's been quiet for awhile, I'll count kicks or drink cold water to make sure that he's moving in there. When his brother plays, he's pretty quiet. Once I sit down and watch tv at the end of the night, he's plenty active.
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I rarely go 20 minutes without feeling 10 or more major movements. I only count/pay attention to it if I realize it has been a few hours since I last noticed movement.
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No, neither pregnancy. And my doctor never said to. She focused more on decreased movement not a specific number of kick counts.
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I can go all day without feeling movement, so whenever I get nervous I usually start a kick count. My midwife said 6 in 2hrs is good. Everytime I've done one she's made the count but sometimes there will be 45 min between kicks even drinking while drinking cold juice. Hiccups don't count either apparently (my baby hiccups most days sometimes more than once).
I went for a NST once and my midwife found she's moving a ton I just can't feel most of the movements. I had assumed a lazy baby but really I think my placenta is blocking a lot of movement.
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Nope since he moved a lot. If I was concerned and didn't feel him move, I'd drink something so that he would to gain reassurance then went about my day.
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Don't plan to make a big deal of it unless she's not moving much. But I'm curious (and will ask my midwife) whether the arbitrary number in a set time matters as much if she's usually WAY more active. Right now she can do 10 in 5 minutes. Should I be concerned if she suddenly won't do much for a while, even if she's making the official cutoff?
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No, my doctor asked me to with my first and I didn't. I'm pretty sure I didn't even put a mark on my kick count card with my first. This time around they sounded even more strict about it but I couldn't even tell you where my kick count card is. It just seemed like busy work to me.
If there was a real baby movement question they would send me in for a non-stress test immediately, not based on my kick count card at a routine appointment.
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My midwife said if I noticed I wasn't feeling much to THEN start a two hour timer and make sure I felt 10. A couple times I thought I hadnt felt much and would lie down and feel about 20 kicks in 10 minutes.
Basically if you notice a lack of movement, drink some water and sit down and pay attention to make sure you feel some movement over the next couple hours
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My midwife said to do it only if I felt like I wasn't feeling as much movement as usual. The only time I ended up counting kicks was during the NSTs with the clicker thing.
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Yes. I always just sort of stayed aware. But LO was a mover even in her sleep.
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My doctor asked me to but I really don't. This baby moves more at night so that's when I really pay attention if he's being quiet. It makes me nervous that he's going to be a night owl!
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Anytime I thought about it, I could usually get 10 in 5mins or so. Baby was super active both inside and out!
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I never have. In fact, while pregnant, I hardly paid any attention. Obviously I would feel the kicks when they happened, but I didn't ever notice if it had been X amount of hours since the last time I felt the baby. HOWEVER, I think that might change this time around. I will start paying closer attention.
A dear friend of mine was pregnant with her third child (fourth pregnancy), but had a miscarriage at 16 weeks during her most recent pregnancy. So, she was pretty "paranoid" in her own words, and paid a lot of attention to baby kicks. On a Tuesday, at 31 weeks, she had an appointment and got to hear the baby's heart beat. Everything was looking good. On Wednesday evening just a day later, she noticed he wasn't kicking at all. By Thursday morning, she hadn't felt a single kick and insisted she go in and have a last-minute ultrasound. Turns out, something happened to the umbilical cord and he was getting very little oxygen. In just a matter of hours, she could have lost the baby. She went in for an emergency c-section and the baby was born about 60 minutes after her ultrasound at 3 lbs, 1 oz. He was in the NICU for 5 weeks, but tomorrow she gets to bring home her healthy (but very little) baby boy.
That was kind of a wake-up call to me that maybe I should pay more attention!
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@Rainbow Sprinkles: Oh wow, amazing story. So glad she was paying attention and that they were able to save his life. Thanks for sharing!
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Yeah- around 28 weeks my midwife had me do a fetal activity chart and bring it into my next appt
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@Rainbow Sprinkles: oh my gosh!!! What a scary story! That's amazing she caught that.
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I have been on an irregular basis. Most days baby girl is plenty active, but if I haven't felt as much movement I'll do an actual count.
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My midwife told me I should count once every few days. I usually was aware of her movement - I even had an app where you could just tap the screen every time the baby moved, and it buzzed when you hit 10.
There was once where I couldn't get 10 kicks in 2 hours, and I panicked. The midwife was going to have me come in for an NST, but asked me to drink some cold juice and lie down. Sure enough, she started kicking up a storm. -
I only counted once with my first pregnancy because I thought that I hadn't felt much movement that day. Besides that I just kind of know baby's active time and see if she moves when I expect her to. If she doesn't one day then I will count.
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Yes I did both pregnancies, but especially the second. I know many women from my infant and late term loss support group that lost babies and only went in after they didn't notice movement for a while. Some of them believe if they had noticed the lack of movement earlier that the result may have been different.
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Yes! I have worked in NICU for 8 years and you would not believe how many times a Mom has saved her baby's life by promptly noting and reporting changes in movement. I looked at it more like a trend though. If my kick counts usually took 10-20 minutes I would have gotten checked if they took an hour or more. I always followed the same "procedure" for my kick counts as well.
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@MsMini: When is the best time to do your daily check? When the baby is most active?
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Nope - my anterior placenta means that I don't feel her move very often or regularly. So she would "fail" any kick count I attempted but that doesn't mean that she isn't just fine!
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Yes....unfortunately while I was in my second trimester I attended the funeral of a friend's 38-week stillborn
. She didn't feel kicks during kick counts and went into the doc and....I know how rare that is, but you better believe that I was all but prodding my baby on a daily basis until I felt him move if I hadn't in a while as a result of that. Of course you don't want to be paranoid, but I think it's pretty important to be aware of movement.
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@simplyfelicity: Just saw you ask when is best....according to my doc in the evening is when baby is typically most active. I would always do it between 9-11 P.M. Fortunately my guy was super active so I got to 10 counts within a few minutes:-). He also "got up" in the morning when we did, so I'd always do it first thing in the morning, too.
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@simplyfelicity: I just chose a time I could do it every day, for me, I chose the evening usually, either before or after I went to work (I work day and night shifts). I would drink a glass of water, lie on my side and kick using my kick count app, it kept track of my times so I had a good record of time to achieve 10 kicks. I think using a "more active" time of day would be best in general. Baby #1 was a kick monster for me and baby #2 was a mellow little belly-dweller, so each took a different amount of time to get to the 10 kicks, but specially with #2 I didn't mind the dedicated rest time
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Yes, my doctor told me to start doing it at 24 weeks. She said 10 movements in 1 hour and if I didn't feel them, call ASAP.
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In my first pregnancy my midwife said to only worry about counting kicks if i hadn't felt him in awhile. But honestly he was so active (even with an anterior placenta) that I never did. This time this baby is so active, I don't think I'll have to either.
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I never did. I always felt DS1, and pretty regularly, so I felt like that was enough. If I worried, I paid closer attention to it, but I don't think I ever sat and counted every kick.
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Here we are told not to count them but just to be vigilant, looking out for any changes in movement patterns. So, no, I didn't count.
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My ob said to count kicks. Then I switched to a midwife and she told me to just be aware if her movement because it would br obvious to me if it was wrong. So then I stopped and just made sure I felt her moving as normal
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no, i just kept general tabs on whether there was movement that day.
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My doctor tole me I didn't need to count kicks, just to report if the babies normal activity level changed.
. She didn't feel kicks during kick counts and went into the doc and....I know how rare that is, but you better believe that I was all but prodding my baby on a daily basis until I felt him move if I hadn't in a while as a result of that. Of course you don't want to be paranoid, but I think it's pretty important to be aware of movement.
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41 comments