Sometime during the second trimester you will begin feeling your baby move. The first movements will feel more like butterflies in your tummy, or light tickling coming from the inside. As your baby gets bigger you will start feeling light taps and kicks letting you know that your baby is awake and is playing inside his little world.

As you go through the third trimester, the movements become more definite and more detectable. You are able to detect a kick from a punch as well as feel your baby flip and roll. As the baby gets bigger you start to guess what it is you see moving along your belly. Is it an elbow? Is it your babies foot?

Eventually the baby gets too big to do the flips and rolls, so he tried to stretch and play in other ways. He may start head butting you in your bladder, making you have to visit the bathroom constantly and find that nothing is coming out. He may stick out his elbow, poking you in the side as to say, “Mommy, I am here!”

If he is head down you might feel him stretching into your ribs, using his feet to push against your bones and muscles. You might feel pressure at the top of your uterus from the baby pushing on the inside. If you put your hand and push back you may feel a little ball. It makes you have to ask, is that his knee or his heel? You can start playing a game with your baby because he will probably move this body part to another position in your belly, which you can follow him and gently push back. You will be telling your baby, “I know you are there, I am here too.”

The movements of your baby are definitely the best part of pregnancy and as they get stronger in the third trimester, they make up for all the aches and pains you may have had in the first trimester from the morning sickness and fatigue you probably felt. The movements are normally the first thing a woman says that she MISSES about being pregnant, if not the only thing.

As your baby grows and learns, they will begin discovering all the new parts of his body. One part of his body he will probably discover by the time he is about three months old is his hand. Every time you look at him you may see him sitting there with his hand in or near his mouth.

Now, for a while your baby will be fighting and trying to work that hand all the way in, however he will probably fail as his mouth may be smaller than his hand. This can lead to frustration and fussiness in your baby.

While discovering his hand is a normal occurrence for all babies, it can also be a sign of teething and a way that a baby begins to sooth himself when tired or fussy. If there is a lot of excess drool, it probably means that your baby is starting to teeth and that they are putting pressure on their gums with their fits. If this bothers you try getting a teething toy for your baby to chew on that will help their gums.

If your baby begins putting his hand in his mouth, and then you discover that it has gone from his hand to just his thumb or a couple of fingers it means that your baby has found a way a way to help calm himself down. You should be happy about this as it means you may have some more free time on your hands.

In most cases, unless your baby has been crawling around in an unsanitary environment or outdoors, you don’t have to worry too much about cleaning your baby’s hands constantly. If you keep your floors vacuumed and mopped and your house pretty clean, then there shouldn’t be anything on the floor that could hurt your baby. What you would need to watch for is your baby picking something up off of the floor and putting it in his mouth. If you really think him putting his hand in his mouth is bad, wait till he discovers his foot….