First pregnancy – Am I feeling the baby punching me or is it a Braxton Hicks contraction?
ByI am feeling since yesterday that my baby is pushing up on my lungs and fundus causing it hard for me to breathe in my lungs and diaphragm. I feel the whole area is crowded. When I walk on treadmill I feel fine. But since yesterday sitting on a chair at my office desk or even at home when I can recline back on the sofa, I am feeling the pressure on my lungs and having to take short breaths just to feel relief. My husband told me to try Lamaze techniques and I have been but I cannot seem to go for 15 minutes. I have to breathe in and out within like 10 seconds. I guess its normal.
Today I am also feeling my baby kick around my fundus and sides, then at other times I feel like he is punching me or making a fist and giving it to me in a bundle over on my ribs or left side. I am not sure I feel it harden like a bunch and then release within few seconds. Is this my baby or the Braxton Hicks? These movements and feelings are all painless I should say but I just want to know?
I am now at 32 weeks and 2 days.
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13 Comments
April 25th, 2010 at 4:54 am
Braxton Hicks will feel like it is all getting tight, not small jabs, and after it is tight it like loosens slowly until its gone
April 25th, 2010 at 4:55 am
THE BABY IS JUST RUNNING OUT OF ROOM. IT DOES NOT SOUND LIKE CONTRACTIONS.
IT IS JUST CROWDED AND THE BABY IS UP NEAR YOUE LUNG/RIB AREA SO YOU ARE GOING TO FEEL THE JABBING IN THOSE PLACES.
April 25th, 2010 at 5:41 am
B/H contractions feel like a tightening of your entire uterus, then a release. No pain. I don’t know if that describes all the punching and such but that’s what they are. They shouldn’t make you feel short of breath since your fundus clamps downwards during a contraction not pushing upwards into your lungs. Some are probibly your baby stretching and others are B/H.
April 25th, 2010 at 5:50 am
Your baby is just running out of room. Very common. The feeling of pressure on your diaphram is just that. Soon your baby will “drop” and a lot of that pressure will subside.
Hang in there
April 25th, 2010 at 5:59 am
WELL NORMALLY BRAXTON HICKS ARE PAINFUL SO MORE THAN LIKELY ITS JUST YOUR BABY REMINDING YOU THAT HE IS STILL IN THERE. NOTHING YOU CAN DO ABOUT THAT AXCEPT FOR ALTERING YOUR POSITION EVERY NOW AND THEN.
April 25th, 2010 at 6:12 am
My guess is that your baby is just getting big.
When you sit down the baby is pushed up higher, that’s why you feel like that in your lungs. I’ve never had BH’s so I can’t help much there, I was always told they feel like contractions and what you describe sounds like your little one trying to get comfy.
April 25th, 2010 at 7:06 am
Braxton is a tightening like a cramp and then releases and is never in the same pattern of time. They come and go. It’s just your uterus’ way of preparing you for labor.
April 25th, 2010 at 7:35 am
It’s your baby! Braxton Hicks is like tightening. What your feeling is the baby trying to get comfy and stretching while using your body to do it. Your baby is also running out of room cuz it’s getting so big! Feeling out of breath kinda like winded is normal near the end so don”t worry you’ll actually miss it after it’s all over. Braxton hicks kinda hurt at least for me they did. Good luck and congrats!
April 25th, 2010 at 7:50 am
It’s the baby taking up all that space and making it uncomfortable. Everytime he moves you are going to feel it and it will only get more uncomfortable. Braxton Hicks feel more like contractions but are usually painless. You will feel more of a tightening feeling in your belly.
April 25th, 2010 at 8:22 am
What you are describing is not Braxton Hicks. Sounds like the baby has taken up alot of space and is very active.
April 25th, 2010 at 9:02 am
I’m pretty certain that what you’re experiencing is just your baby moving around. From experience throughout my pregnancy, my baby would often push up against my ribs and into my organs to stretch and move around, and it was always very uncomfortable for me, and sometimes even painful. By about 35 weeks I was actually gasping in pain, because the baby was head down and her feet would jam right into my ribs and push so hard I thought I’d faint from the pain. And for some reason it ALWAYS happened when I was driving (dangerous, huh?!)
My Braxton-Hicks contractions have occurred mostly since about 34 weeks and they’ve felt painless generally. They just feel kind of odd, like my entire belly is hardening.
Here’s some clues:
When I’m not contracting, if I press my finger into my belly a few inches over my belly button it feels like the tip of my nose – squishes down until you meet what’s underneath it (in your belly, the placenta, in your nose, the cartiledge)
When I’m having mild contractions, I can feel a very significant change. When I press my fingers down onto my stomach, the stomach feels hard, like my chin – there’s no give anymore when I press down, like my nose.
When the contractions are strong, I press my fingers onto my stomach in that same place, a few inches over my belly button, and it feels like my forehead – hard, I can’t press the skin in at all, it feels like it’s the skin on a drum, stretched very, very tightly.
Braxton-Hicks contractions happen to tighten all across your abdomen, not just in a small fist-area on your side – but, if that tight, hard stomach feeling stretches over your entire abdomen, it might be contractions.
If you feel a hardening, tightening in just one area, I can guarantee that’s your baby.. if you lift your shirt up and pull down the waistband of your maternity pants, you should see the movements through your skin by 32 weeks – you’ll see the area raise a little bit or bump up with a kick.
April 25th, 2010 at 9:47 am
I have had 2 children and it doesn’t sound like Braxton Hicks to me. You baby is probably kicking your ribs. I am very small and short through the torso. If you are short you baby really has no room to move. Even if you aren’t short the baby is still crowded in there. Braxton hicks will feel like your whole stomach tightens and you can actually tough it and feel it get hard. Then, after a few seconds, it goes away. Don’t worry, hang it there!
April 25th, 2010 at 10:41 am
Braxton hicks are like a period cramp x 10…all of a sudden everything tightes up for a few minutes then goes away.