How do you differentiate baby movements vs. gas, growing pains, etc?

I definitely knew the difference. If you’re feeling something you’ve never felt before, chances are it’s the baby. How exciting!

Each baby is different, of course. Some are so active, you would not even wonder, but mostly it’s a guessing game, anyway, for us. The doctors have enough experience to make better guesses.

I always had a hard time telling the difference until I neared the third trimester.
Funny thing is, now that I’m old and have no uterus, I sometimes have gas that I could swear was a baby rolling around. I want to look at my belly and watch for the kick!

Around 16 weeks, I thought the movement felt like a tickle. By 20 weeks I was getting movement. I would never have described any of it as a hard kick, except once my daughter stretched up into my diaphragm as a I was yawning, and knocked the wind out of me. I have pictures taken at a wedding where my belly is in different places in all 6 photos.

Usually, you’ll feel more movement at night, when you’re still.

16 weeks is not too early if you’re sensitive to it.From what my wife says, you are more likely to mistake movement for gas than to mistake gas for movement. You know your body better than anyone, even if it’s suddenly not all yours, so if you think it is movement, and there’s no real reason to think it’s not, then it’s movement.

I don’t know anything about the topic, but congratulations!

I’ve been feeling this pregnancy since around 10 weeks, and I’m not exaggerating. I started feeling my first pregnancy around 13 weeks.
Flutters are an interesting feeling. Sort of like a butterfly is twitching near your pubic bone.

You first feel it very low, close to your pubic bone, but as your uterus grows, you will feel it somewhat below your belly button.

I’m 19 weeks and I’m actually able to feel the movements from the outside, so is my husband, and we can see the baby moving…large movements, sort of like when they get bigger. I’m sort of freaking out that this baby is bigger than my son..but my son was always huge as a fetus but came out as a normal sized baby lol.

At 16 weeks, I’d say you are feeling the baby move…as long as its a low feeling.

The literature says women who are pregnant for the first time usually have “quickening” first awareness of movement at 18–20 weeks and women who have been pregnant before at 16–18 weeks. At one time, folks believed that the baby wasn’t really alive until quickening. Now because of ultrasound, we know that babies are moving in the first trimester.

Women who’ve been pregnant before feel sure of it earlier because they know what they’re looking for. Women tend to describe it as a butterfly wing flutter, or like you’d imagine it would feel when a fish makes a sudden movement in water. Oftentimes, women notice it at night when they’ve just gone to bed – they’re tuning out from all of the outside world stimulation and might be more aware of a subtle sensation.

I’ve had patients who felt sure they were feeling movement as early as about 12 weeks, and I’m inclined to think that some women are just more self aware than others, and some babies are bouncing aganst the walls a little more vigorously than others.

My midwife was very clear. She said there is nothing else where your baby is. So if you feel fluttering (that is what you feel at first before the kicks) then that is baby!! The only thing that is sometimes confusing is gas bubbles but those typically occur very high in the stomach. So if you are feeling it lower, at this stage under the belly button (or perhaps right around it) then it is very likely your little bub!

Are you getting excited? I’ve had three, and I remember very well that feeling. There really aren’t words to describe it. You’ll get more familiar with the differences between your own body functions and the baby as you progress. I remember my second child would start just under my ribs and flutter-punch all the way down behind my bladder in a line. Congratulations to you and good luck!