When Can You Feel The Baby Move?

In the beginning, the question "when can you feel the baby move?" was the last thing on your mind. You were too busy -- patiently enduring scheduled sex, waiting outside the bathroom door while she took that all-important pregnancy test, and helping her to get through those first miserable weeks of morning sickness. Now, you are ready for your turn. When do you get in on the action? When can you feel the baby move? Well, the answer is a qualified: it depends. 

Your progeny has actually been swimming around his amniotic hot tub since around week seven to eight of pregnancy. You may have even seen him doing tiny loop-de-loops on the ultrasound screen. But he's still too tiny and protected by too much of that amniotic fluid for you to feel just yet. It'll be some time before his movements can be felt by anyone else, pregnant woman included. (That's right, your partner is probably asking "When can you feel the baby move?" even more loudly than you are.)

First-time moms generally report feeling those first movements at between fourteen and 22 weeks, with veteran moms who know what to look for noticing the movements even earlier—thirteen weeks in some cases. As for what they actually feel like, most women compare the early movements to "bubbles", "butterflies fluttering" or gas.

So, you hunker down, and make several more late-night ice cream-craving runs. You're getting impatient. How much longer? When can you feel the baby move? Just keep trying, it's bound to happen sooner or later. When you can feel the baby move from the outside depends on quite a few factors: your partner's body composition, the position of the placenta, and the size of your little offspring. Some people are able to feel gentle movements from around week twenty, while others have to wait a few more weeks until week 25 or so. But rest assured that it will happen. In fact, before you know it you and your partner will be sitting in front of the television marveling at her amazing shapeshifting belly!

It'll happen: you will feel the baby move. In the meantime, take heart: the earlier it is when you feel the baby move, the sooner you'll have to face it: your life is about to change.