You know your own body!
Back in September 2016, just a matter of weeks after our wedding, Cae & I unfortunately lost our first baby. It happened during the first trimester and we were devastated. When I then fell pregnant in January this year with our little girl, I knew I would be a worrier due to my anxiety, which was worse after the miscarriage. Every little niggle or pain and I would resort to Google, which can either be your best friend or worst enemy!
Fortunately, my pregnancy has been pretty smooth and symptom wise, I've been extremely lucky and had a lovely time. As our pregnancy progressed the midwives emphasized the importance of baby's movements and I can remember feeling those first few flutters around 19 weeks which turned into little kicks around 22 weeks.
Our little girl has grown stronger and stronger and she is always extremely active! So it's been easy to establish a pattern and monitor her. She usually wakes me up in the middle of the night (I take that opportunity to empty my bladder) and she's awake kicking about when I wake up in the morning.
However, one day in August I woke up and couldn't feel any movement at all. I left it an hour and I did everything they tell you: drink something cold, lie on your left side etc
But could feel nothing at all, no rolling or anything. I thought I could leave it and see how it goes but then realised I had been asleep overnight as well and hadn't felt her move since the previous evening. Now,I know it's pretty easy to feel like you're being a pain and bothering the midwives. DON'T! It was about 11am and I called the ante-natal clinic who said to go down straight away. So I arranged with my mum to take me to the hospital. They were fantastic and really understanding! They placed me on a monitor straight away and there her little heartbeat was ❤
I was on the monitor for about 30 minutes and 20 minutes in, her littler heartbeat jumped up by 10 beats per minute before slowing and then she started kicking away. My theory is that she woke up and thought what the hell is all that noise!
But I'm glad I went. They were very thorough and checked the fluid around her on a scan and her growth and she's a perfect little baby. She's obviously just a little wench and fancied scaring Mammy. But I imagine that motherly worry will be there for all her life ❤
Now I'm not against Dopplers, I think they are a nice little novelty. But that's all they are. A novelty. So please don't use these for reassurance. Just because you can detect a heartbeat does not mean your baby is well. But even I heard so many conflicting stories that it's natural to feel confused about what to do. I was told things like:
❥ She shouldn't sleep longer than 90 minutes at a time
❥ I should feel 10 movements in a 2 hour period
❥ Their movements slow down or stop towards the end of the third trimester
The best advice I can give, is don't listen to anyone else's advice. You, as a woman and a mother, know your own body. If you don't feel comfortable or happy with the baby's movements, please just call the maternity ward and get seen. It may be nothing, you may think you're worrying about nothing or being over cautious due to a previous miscarriage like myself . Everything may be fine and your baby may just be sleeping like mine was. But it's so important to get checked out.
It's never a waste of time. At the end of the day, the midwives and hospital want Mammy-to-be to be relaxed and well, as well as baby. Your mental health is just as important ❤
