Kickin' It (or my trouble with Kick Counts)

Ten years after I moved to NYC, my sister did the same.  Of course, I've been long gone from the Big Apple, but it's still neat that she is experiencing her own relationship with the city a decade later.  (If you've been reading, you'll remember that I was in a bit of an emotional tailspin when Hurricane Sandy blew through, hoping she'd be ok.  And she was, thank goodness.)  I bring this up because last night she went to see The Rockettes for the first time.  It's the show's 85th anniversary and I've been a few times, in my time.  In fact, the first time I met Dan's parents was when they came up for the show and we went with them.  My mother-in-law says she knew upon that meeting that we were going to be in this for the long haul.  She was right.

Thinking about those kick lines got me to thinking about my own little tiny dancer that keeps Christmas-Spectacular-ing in my belly everyday.  His kicks are getting stronger and more dependable.  By that I mean that he has his patterns and I can pretty much plan my day around when he'll be the most active.  And he doesn't seem to be much of a morning person!  Sure, he'll move around and adjust as I wake up but he rarely goes on a full-out dancing spree.  If I may indulge in wishful thinking for a moment, perhaps this lazy morning routine will continue post-womb.  Ok, fine.  I doubt it too.  I said it was wishful thinking!

So what's with all this kick talk?  I've already talked about kicking on here before.  Yawn.  But! I haven't talked about "kick counts."  And that's what I'm really thinking about today.  At my 24 week appointment my doctor gave me a little kick-count journal and said I should start keeping track.  I thanked her and decided not to worry about it much.  I mentioned it to my mom and she was like, "Kick count? What is that? We didn't have to do that."  I explained that if your baby hasn't been too active, you should count kicks and if you don't get to ten within an hour, you're supposed to call the doctor.  It's supposed to lower the risk of complications within the womb, especially the risk of still-borns.  For a more medically-sound explanation, you can read all about it here. I also explained that the idea of kick-counts makes me feel crazy.  It just seemed like too much!  Am I supposed to panic if I don't feel him moving around for awhile?  Doesn't he sleep in there?  If he has an especially active few days, doesn't it make sense that he's a little less active in the following days?

At our last appointment, the doctor mentioned the kick-count journal again.  And then today I became officially 29 weeks along, which means all my pregnancy apps updated with new info.  And my daily tip from my What to Expect app was this:

"Counting Baby's Kicks
Have you counted your baby's kicks today?  Once you've passed week 28, you should be counting them everyday."

Then it went on to explain to count twice-a-day and how to do so.  And on my BabyCenter app there's actually a Kick Counter tool where you start the timer and click the "kick" button.  It'll count up to ten kicks then you're done and it records the date and the amount of time it took to reach the ten-kick-goal.

So...I guess I should start counting kicks?  The few times I've used the tool on BabyCenter it hasn't taken more than three minutes to reach the goal.  And the entire time I've been writing this post, Baby Boy has been having a dance party near my ribs.  Of course, I am at Starbucks and just finished a decaf Peppermint Mocha which may have something to do with his dance moves...

Anyone else feel crazy when asked to do kick-counts?  Or am I just being a sensitive pregnant lady?  I feel with all there is to worry about, this just seems like piling on.  I agree that it makes sense to be aware of your baby's movement...but counting every day?  Twice-a-day?  Are we too overloaded with information?