The entry for Week 18 states:
This is an exciting week for pregnancy Land-ers. During their first pregnancies, many women feel their babies move for the first time right around now. If you haven't felt anything yet, drink a glass of cold orange juice - both the coldness and the sugar are known to get babies kicking - and lie down. Give your heart a chance to slow down. Breathe deeply and relax. Feel any butterflies? How about gas bubbles? You may not be nervous or gaseous - that fluttering and bubbling could be your baby on the move!
Slightly disheartened and a little bit nervous, I lamented to Hubby that I hadn't felt anything yet. Well lo and behold, the very next day, I felt what I can only describe as a little pop rock exploding in my belly, or like a quick tap or twitching from the inside. Could that be the baby??? To be honest -- and I'm a little embarrassed to admit this as it sounds really non-maternal -- it felt weird. In fact, I didn't like it at all.... it felt like something was wrong! It felt like popping corn, or like a little explosion. What about the magical butterfly feeling I'd read about??? Butterflies don't sound as scary as this first felt!
I went to bed nervously, wishing I knew there was a way to verify for sure what I was feeling. But, as I felt it again on Christmas Eve and then again later in the week, I started to accept that maybe those are healthy movements and maybe that is our baby in there saying hello! I turned to Google and found that others described their baby's first movements very similarly to the "popping" sensation I'd experienced, so I breathed a momentary sigh of relief...
By now, I'm getting used to the feeling and have started to worry a little bit when I don't feel the pop rocks for a day or two. {Ah, the anxieties of being pregnant after losing a pregnancy never end, do they?!} If what I read is true, soon enough I'll be feeling movement more regularly and hopefully then I can relax a little bit. Until then, I'm anxiously awaiting our 20 week check-up!
