Knock, knock! Who's there?

Top Monkey finally felt his son kick for the first time last Thursday. I've noticed that Little Monkey likes to have a fiesta inside me around 11pm and he was kicking about quite strongly that night. So I took TM's hand and placed it on my belly. There was nothing at first but I said to TM, "Wait."

Sure enough, the little one gave me a huge boot in the belly and TM was delighted, "I can feel it!" Little Monkey gave Daddy a few more kicks as if to say, "Hi Daddy, it's me!" and then the kicks subsided in strength. I could still feel him jiggling around in me but if you put a hand on my belly, it wasn't obvious. Now that TM knows his little boy's kicks are strong enough, he's taken to putting his hand on my belly at random times of the day, especially when I report that the baby is kicking around.

It's kinda fun to have him moving around. For one thing, it reassures me that he's doing all right. A friend of mine told me to chart the baby's movements in the womb and to be particularly aware if he doesn't move for some time. For example, she said since I knew he had a tendency to wake up and kick about at 11am, I should monitor him closely if he doesn't do so as usual. If he doesn't move in two hours, she advised me to call the doctor.
Her advice to me was rooted in her own experience with her baby. Four days before her check-up, she realised the baby wasn't moving much and her gut feeling told her something was wrong. So she went to the doctor and when they did a scan and checked the baby's heartrate, they discovered the umbilical cord had wrapped around the baby's neck and his heartrate was too low. They wheeled her in for an emergency C-section that very day. Her little boy is now a healthy, bouncy 4-year-old but she's never forgotten the terror of that day.

What I've done is noted down the times when he's particularly active and I check on his movements during those times. So far, Little Monkey has been right on the dot... he's very punctual with his kicks and jabs. He's also discovered that my bladder makes a very lovely squeeze toy. Sigh. I was kinda hoping he wouldn't discover that till much later.