Happy baby or grumpy baby?

[Lovemybump1]

Whenever something sits on my stomach or presses against my stomach, baby goes mad. It could be that I'm on my side in bed and baby will be kicking/pushing down against the bed, my kindle sitting on my tummy or even my hands. I'm trying to work out why baby goes mad. Is he/she annoyed at having his/her space taken over slightly, or that he/she is enjoying finding new things to push/kick? What are your thoughts?

 

[charmy28]

Whenever something sits on my stomach or presses against my stomach, baby goes mad. It could be that I'm on my side in bed and baby will be kicking/pushing down against the bed, my kindle sitting on my tummy or even my hands. I'm trying to work out why baby goes mad. Is he/she annoyed at having his/her space taken over slightly, or that he/she is enjoying finding new things to push/kick? What are your thoughts?

Personally I think its a bit of both, sometimes if my LO is in awake and in a playful mood she likes to kick my hand even if its just lightly on my tummy.
If I am in bed though and she feels a bit squished where I am on my side I think she kicks around to get comfy. Also my little one really doesn't like the Doppler and kicks at it to try and get it off. When I told a midwife this at the hospital she told me a story about a woman who used to put her iPhone on her tummy and play the baby music , she thought it loved it cause it used to kick her when she did it. When she went for a 4D scan the baby was asleep so they decided to do it to get baby moving and could see the baby grimacing.

 

[Mum2BKW]

When I told a midwife this at the hospital she told me a story about a woman who used to put her iPhone on her tummy and play the baby music , she thought it loved it cause it used to kick her when she did it. When she went for a 4D scan the baby was asleep so they decided to do it to get baby moving and could see the baby grimacing.

That's so funny!!!

 

[Lovemybump1]

Mine always kicks the midwife and the Doppler. Also kicked the sonographer at our 20 week scan when she was pressing into my stomach. I'd love to know exactly how baby is feeling

 

[Dani_Ldn]

Mine always kicks at the doppler & moves away from it, he also kicks at my ipad or anything I have resting on my bump. I figure that he prob just doesn't like it, I imagine that if someone was perching something on my head that I wouldn't be too happy about it lol!

He does seem to like house & chilled house music though, as he moves around any time my hubby plays it (taking after his parents I think!).

 

[Mum2BKW]

My hubbie has theories about this sort of thing, his PHD is partly in artificial intelligence and the way that the brain forms and learns has been a large part of his research.

He doesn't think baby can actually 'feel' in the way that we can - it doesn't 'feel' happy, angry, sad etc. All that it does at the moment is test the environment around it, learn what response it gets and then that part of the brain forms stronger links which is the basis of learning. So all it's doing is randomly kicking and moving - if something different happens (like it comes across an object that feels different to what it's familiar with) it will explore that object further (hence the additional kicking at the iPad/hands etc) but it's not because it does or doesn't like it.

That's his way of thinking about it anyway - me personally, I like to imagine that my baby has more developed emotional responses than that, but then I also talk to my car so maybe I should stop projecting personalities onto things!

 

[Lovemybump1]

That's an interesting theory. I'm loving seeing in my head this little baby full of personality already, though

 

[beachgal]

Mum2bkw- that's a pretty good theory!

 

[Fortune Cooki]

I just finished up a childhood development and psychology class. Babies that smile before 6 weeks of age are doing it as a reflex, not because they are happy.

 

[Lovemybump1]

So the grimacing (sp??) baby was only doing it as a reflex?

 

[Fortune Cooki]

Yup, the 'social smile' develops after six weeks.

 

[rowleypolie]

Lol on the main topic. I feel like baby is exhibiting some of their personality. Dd2 was very picky on how I laid or what was touching my belly. She is 2 now and it all fits into her "spit-fire" personality. She has always been stubborn and difficult (but still loving and adorable) I now understand how people can fall in love with difficult people because her personality is so strong I am just drawn to her even though she drives me crazy

About the smiles, I have heard the research on how babies don't know they are doing it, etc. and I honestly don't agree. Dd1 would mimic my smiles and because she saw how happy it made me she smiled all the time. Her first real smile was at 4 weeks.