Enjoy Those First Kicks

There’s a good reason for each flutter and flip. Find out what triggers them, what they mean, and exactly what your womb-mate will be up to next.

- Gina Bevinetto Feld

DURING my two pregnancies, we’d pass time at family gatherings by waiting for the baby to kick. “She’s moving!” I’d yell. But as Grandma Rozzie hustled over, the feeling would pass. “Don’t worry,” I’d assure everyone,“Once I eat, she’ll probably start again.” More often than not, though, the baby would be unusually quiet during get-togethers, perhaps mesmerized by the outside activity.

When I think back, I can almost feel those kicks again. Few things are as magical as the baby in your belly letting you know she’s there, well before you meet her face to face. “At five months, I only had a slight bump, so the pregnancy wasn’t totally real to me yet,” says Gina Bartnik, of Brooklyn, US. “But when I felt movement for the first time, I thought, ‘This is really happening. There’s someone growing inside me.’ ” Not only growing, but stretching, somersaulting, and so much more! It’ll be good if you get to know all there is to figure out about those prenatal moves.

The early flutters

WHEN YOU FEEL THEM You’ll usually detect your baby’s first movements, known as quickening, between 16 and 22 weeks. It may be just a tiny quiver, but it’s tremendously exciting. With those first few stirrings, your baby transforms from being someone you can only imagine to an actual person who is distinguishing himself.