Is my baby practising breathing??

[MrsVZ]

I'll be 34 weeks in a few days and tonight I had a weird sensation that almost feels like baby practising breathing movements, is this a thing and has anyone else had this? The best way I can describe it is like a very gentle pulsing feeling and I can actually see my tummy rhythmically rising and falling slightly. It's not hiccups cause those feel completely different and are low down. When I put my hand on my tummy it's exactly the feeling as if I put my hand on a small baby's chest just quicker.

I remember at my 32 week scan the sonographer gave a few prods saying she wants to see if baby is practising breathing yet and we saw a couple tiny chest movements. But haven't heard ever that this would be noticeable to me.

[MrsKraft]

Yes I had this with my daughter. Her back was up against the left side of my belly for most of the third trimester and I could see her quite often rhythmically breathing. Completely different to hiccups. Was very cool to watch.

[MrsVZ]

Saw my GP yesterday so I asked her and she was not 100% certain but said she supposes it's not impossible if the baby's back is pushed right up against my tummy. Doesn't sound like it's common at all but have done a bit of googling and mostly comes up with ladies who are thin/small framed so perhaps we are more likely to notice something so minor that some others wouldn't. I saw a blog post about someone whose doctor said it's not possible but then it happened while she was at her check up and they did an ultrasound because the midwife was fascinated by the movement and they wanted to be sure it was nothing to worry about and it turned out she was right and it was practise breathing movements. The midwife had not seen this once in 22 years of her career.

Very cool feeling yes!

[BB77]

Yes! I got this a lot towards the end of my pregnancy. We saw the rise and fall of my ds's chest at a 30-something week scan. My belly would often rise and fall, my parents and dh could even see it. Much slower than hiccups. I googled it too, apparently not that common.