15 Weeks Pregnant - I felt my baby move!

Weekly pregnancy updates from a childbirth educator, doula and mum to 2 little girls. Come and join me on my journey as I share how I'm feeling, how baby is developing, what I'm doing to prepare, and some favourite resources!

During the week I ran a poll on my Instagram stories asking for votes on when I might feel baby move for the first time. For reference, I said that I felt my first moving at 19-20 weeks with anterior placenta, and my second at 17-18 weeks with anterior placenta (actually I checked my notes afterwards and saw I had noted being unsure if I felt movement from 15 weeks on with my second, but I was only 100% sure after 17 weeks). This time I have a posterior placenta, and I asked if people thought I was likely to start feeling movements from 14-15 weeks, 15-16, 16-17, or 17+.

When can I expect to feel baby move?

This was just for fun of course, since as I also pointed out, when mum feels baby’s movements depends on a whole range of factors, and feeling first movement as late as 24 weeks can be perfectly normal.

What do anterior and posterior placenta mean?

One of the bigger factors involved is the position of the placenta. “Anterior placenta” means the placenta is in front, between your belly and the baby. This typically muffles your sensation of movements and so it’s more likely you’ll feel movement a bit later. “Posterior placenta” on the other hand, means the placenta is at the back, behind the baby, so baby is closer to your belly and doesn’t have the muffling, meaning typically you will feel movement a little sooner. However, the range of “normal” is huge, so it’s better to be prepared to feel it later, and then be happily surprised if you start feeling sooner!

Is it better to have anterior or posterior placenta?

Aside from being a potential factor in when you will first feel baby, anterior or posterior placenta doesn’t affect your pregnancy or birth — neither is better or worse, good or bad. They’re both perfectly fine and normal.

And the poll results were…?

Back to the poll... 55% of participants voted for 14-15 weeks, with 15% each for the other options given. And just two days later... tada!! Sitting down after lunch I felt a slight rolling movement around the lower right of my belly. I wasn’t 100% sure if I was kidding myself, but a few minutes later I felt another movement in the same place and I am now sure I felt our baby for the first time! 🎉

I felt my baby for the first time yesterday but today I haven’t felt anything! Is baby OK?

In all my pregnancies I haven’t felt movement every day at the start, and it’s important to know this is perfectly normal. Baby is still very small and has lots of space to hang out in, so regardless of the position of the placenta it can be a good week or two before you feel movements every single day. It’s nothing to freak out about. “Kick counting”, or spending time being aware of baby’s movement habits, isn’t something to think about till further down the track, when baby is bigger and has developed their own habits and routines.

Anyway, needless to say, I am super excited about being able to feel my baby alive and kicking!! 🥰🥰

What symptoms am I feeling?

Baby moving, yayyy!! 🎉 I’m feeling mostly quite normal, but still just can’t get that minced meat down at breakfast time! It’s a matter of time, I'm fully expecting it’ll only be a couple of weeks or so till I can handle it happily again. Thankfully I haven't struggled with eggs at all, so am still eating those daily. I can normally handle fish or meat fine later in the day, so am getting a healthy protein intake regardless. Besides that, the only other “symptom” I really noticed this week was…

More crazy pregnancy dreams! 😅

Like… seeing an ad for a company that offered a homebirth on a yacht type of experience. You book your room (equipped with birth pool, dim lighting, all the things you’d want), and when you go into labour you just come aboard with your midwife! But honestly… it’s not a bad idea right??! Only I wouldn’t even want to leave my home to travel to the yacht while in labour 😂

I also dreamt I gave birth to my baby and that was so cool! A couple of hours of contractions, not too intense. Then I checked to see if I could feel baby’s head, and suddenly one contraction (fetal ejection reflex) and baby was born into my waiting arms! 🥰 My husband and midwife were in the room but it was so sudden they weren’t even right with me, since they hadn’t seen it coming! Baby was a boy.

I don’t put too much stock in pregnancy dreams of course. I dreamt about giving birth when pregnant with my first. That was also a quick birth to a baby boy (with my husband and Italian midwife but in the house I grew up in in western Sydney 🤷🏻‍♀️), but while my first baby’s birth was relatively quick, she is definitely a girl!

How has baby been developing this week?

Baby’s head is sized much more in proportion to their body now. Average measurements suggest a baby at this stage will be about 16cm long (crown to heel measurement, not crown to rump which we used up till now), and weighs around 115g. There is so much growing happening!

What am I doing to prepare?

I’ve started reading “The Postnatal Depletion Cure” by Dr Oscar Serrallach, which I’d heard recommended by Dr Melanie Jackson (of “The Great Birth Rebellion”). I’m really liking it so far, and I’m pretty sure it’s going to make it onto my list of recommended reads for parents-to-be. Postpartum preparation and support is definitely waaaaayyy underrated, and I know I need some more education on this as much as anyone!

And that’s it for this week! 🌿💛

[Image credit: Baby hand photo by Aditya Romansa on Unsplash]