After entering the 3rd trimester, I noticed there are changes to the fetal movements of my baby.
With her body keep growing, there is less and less room in the uterus for her to play. Therefore, there are less kicking, punching and knocking. Instead, swirling, turning and rolling are increasing.
Sometimes I can feel her foot or fist rotating; sometimes she seems to turn her head 180 degrees; sometimes she turns her whole body to another angle. Once a while, she will still kick or punch, but the force doesn’t feel as strong as before.
The message sent by her movements are the same. When she is hungry, she will turn and wiggle, trying to catch my attention. At night, in particular, she tries to wheel around big movements, pushing me to get up to eat something. As soon as I eat something, she will immediately calm down and go to sleep. This has happened so many times that we seem to reach a tacit agreement (see Understanding fetal movements, part 1).
She still wants more space when I am sleeping (see Understanding fetal movements, part 2). Every time when I lie on my left side, soon I will feel her protesting movements. Some nights she was so quiet and still that I think I could sneakliy change my position back to the left side. Not by a single fluke did my attempt escape her attention!
She still enjoys rubbing and patting, unless she is fed (see Understanding fetal movements, part 3). As to noises, I don’t expose her to politics any more (see Understanding fetal movements, part 4). One thing worth noticing is she is a little bit excited when other people are around. M explained that she was happy to see so many people coming to see her. Grama has a different theory: she might get alarmed and alert when strangers are beside.
Message 4: I don’t like noise
Nobody likes noise, either does my baby.
One night, I washed dishes near the sink. The clashes of dishes, glasses, silverware, and pots struck up an unharmonious tune. I didn’t notice it until I felt baby moving restlessly in my tummy. I didn’t notice her movements when I washed dishes during the daytime. Probably the noise was more noticeable at night. Since then, I began to pay attention not to let noise bother my baby.
I try to lower the volume of vaccume, shredder, dish washer, or other household electronics. If I have to use those machines to do the housework, I try to add some intervals, rather than using them unstoppingly for a long time.
I only listen to soothing, soft and beautiful music. Each time I tune in a comfortable volume and only listen for no more than 20 minutes. When I watch TV with M, I always lower the volume and we only watch soft and funny programs. We deliberately avoid horror movies, rock music, or those noisy silly reality shows.
One time, I remembered it was the peak time of competition between Democratic candidates Hilary Clinton and Obama: both of them were fighting for the support of big states like Texas and Ohio. Everybody on TV was rattling on who was going to win, its consequence to Democatic party and the whole election as well, and the voting results were reported every 10 minutes. I was interested. So I turned on the volume a little bit in order to hear what they were saying.
Soon, I noticed my baby begin her actions in my tummy. She turned, rotated, pushed and kicked, all indicating she was not happy.
Did it mean my baby didn’t like politics? Obviouly, according to her categorization, politics means noise too…
Finally, I gave up and turned off the TV and went back to listen to the peaceful, melodious and non-political music.
Related posts:
Understanding fetal movements, part 1
Understanding fetal movements, part 2
Understanding fetal movements, part 3
Message 3: I like rubbing and patting
Since I felt my baby’s first movement, I have been noticing she likes rubbing and patting. When she is agitated, anxious, or restless, rubbing and patting always calm her down, or moderate her movements.
Along with rubbing and patting, sometimes I talk to her, telling her what I am doing, my best wishes for her, how happy to welcome her, and etc; sometimes I let the music on, enjoying the soothing Mozart melody with her; sometimes I dance my fingers on the tummy along with the rhythm of the music; and sometime I draw circles or 8-shape lines on my tummy. She seems to like all these combinations, being tranquil and peaceful, only poke my tummy once a while.
There are only two exceptions: when she is inflamed by my mood and when she is hungry. As to the former situation, if I don’t calm down myself, she is stired up, even rubbing and patting are not good enough. (thus why I learn to control my own emotions, see Maternal emotions & fetal movements)
I learned about the second situation through personal experience too. About 2 months ago, one morning at 5am, I felt her increased movements in my tummy. At that time, I didn’t quite understand the meanings of her movements yet. I gently rubbed and patted my tummy, as usual, hoping she would go back to sleep.
But she kept rolling and knocking, and became more and more irritated. I put my hand onto my tummy, trying to figure out what was happening. Suddenly, I felt something bubbling up between my fingers, and then disappearing immediately.
That was quite interesting! I thought it must be her little fist. After I got up and ate a bowl of cream of wheat, she quickly stopped attacking and returned to sleep.
Related posts:
Understanding fetal movements, part 1
Understanding fetal movements, part 2
Understanding fetal movements, part 4
Posts
