Roll Over

Over the past couple of weeks Spud has become a lot more active, and predictably so. I’m writing this in the mid-afternoon and she’s just started up on her 3pm kick-boxing workout.

So far Spud hasn't succeeded in kicking the cats off me"

First thing in the morning she likes to have a little stretch to wake up, and T and I have taken to setting our alarm slightly earlier so we can lie in bed and feel her going through her morning yoga routine. Then in mid-morning she likes a spot of gymnastics, using my bladder as her crash-mat. During the afternoon I feel as though she has a couple of little naps either side of her 3pm kick-boxing session then at around 7pm she wakes up for a ballet class, pirouetting around and falling forward to the bottom of my stomach. It’s during this session that, if I’m at home, I like to recline on the sofa and use the kick-counter on the Ovia app; I’m finding that it varies from day-to-day how long it takes to reach ten kicks, but it’s always less than four minutes. Spud usually settles down before I head to bed, but occasionally nudges me awake during the night, as if to check that I’m still listening out for her. Do babies follow a similar sleep-wake routine when they’re born, or is it purely coincidence that she seems to have set times for wriggling?

All of these movements are still totally odd and a little bit alien to me, even though mommas tell me that, for them, it’s the most wonderful sensation, Do the kicks and punches begin to feel like actual feet and hands during the third trimester? At the moment they usually still feel like butt-bumps! I’m also getting a fluttery feeling too, although ‘flutter’ is far too delicate a word for it – it’s more like the feeling of cycling over cobbles, or falling down a flight of stairs; a quick flurry of very quick bumps that often actually makes my stomach quake!

What did your Spud bumps feel like? How would you describe the sensations?