Each of my babies has had distinct movement patterns while in the belly and amazingly, those patterns have persisted and even allowed me to predict what kind of babies and children they would be.
Honeybun was what I imagine a “normal” baby to be. She moved fairly frequently in my belly but her movements were generally smooth and subtle. As a newborn, she was extremely calm. She was very observant, spending most of her awake time looking around and taking in her world. Though she sat, crawled and walked extremely early, she was not an overly active baby. She didn’t flail but instead seemed to have very early control of her muscles and movements. Even now she is generally calm. She likes playing and doing more calm activities and whines when she’s tired from doing too much physical activity.
Sugarplum was a completely different sort of baby in the belly. She was constantly moving and not in a smooth or controlled way. You could watch my belly and see her moving from one side of my belly to other constantly flipping and changing position. As a newborn she was extremely active. She started rolling from tummy to back at 18 days old and has been in constant motion since she was born. Even now as an almost 3-year-old, she rarely stops moving. She’d rather be running and flipping around than sitting and watching TV. Even when she is doing calmer activities like games or puzzles she usually avoids sitting and moves around while playing.
Doodle was somewhere in the middle. While he wasn’t unusually active like Sugarplum, he had much more intense movements than Honeybun. He loved to stretch himself out. He moved into a head down position before 24 weeks, staying there until delivery, and loved to stretch himself out. I often felt his bum on my left side and could feel all the way down his outstretched legs to his tiny little feet on my right side. He didn’t often flip flop, usually only at night when I laid on my right side (he preferred to be back down rather than tummy down). I knew he was a tall little bugger based on how far he could stretch across my belly (at 22 inches long, I wasn’t wrong!). Now out of the belly he is also very active. He is constantly stretching and wants to be held sitting up so he can look around. We shall see how his activeness plays out into his personality in the future.
