Every mother overflows with joy when she hears the beating of her developing baby’s heart for the first time. The first time she feels the subtle fluttering movements of the fetus in her womb, it is like a sweet caress to the soul.
Around the ninth week of pregnancy, your baby starts making her first movements. Those movements are probably visible with ultrasound, even though they can’t be felt for several more weeks. By 13 weeks, your baby may be able to put a thumb in her mouth, although the sucking muscles aren’t completely developed yet.
Fetuses also react with motion to their mother’s actions. For instance, ultrasounds have shown a fetus bouncing up and down when the mother laughs. Watching this on the screen, moms-to-be often laugh harder, and the fetus starts moving up and down even faster!
Second or third children may have more stretching room in the womb than first babies because a woman’s uterus is bigger and the umbilical cord longer after her first pregnancy. These children usually get more motor experience in utero and tend to be more active infants.