baby's in-utero activity level correspond to their personality?

[caedmyn]

My 2nd was definitely my most active...and most opinionated...in utero. Once born he was the baby from hell, spending most of his first year screaming and, once, he started crawling, climbing everything. His toddlerhood wasn't much better, with lots of screaming and impossible to toddler-proof well enough to keep him from getting into, climbing onto, and destroying, everything. Forget sleep...I spent a few hours a day for his first few months bouncing him to sleep while he screamed. I calculated that by the time he was 8 or 9 months old, I'd spend a cumulative month of his life bouncing him to sleep. Even once he outgrew the bouncing and screaming it took him at least an hour every night to fall asleep (accompanied by getting out of bed about 100x/night), no matter what, for years.

 

Well I'm 20 weeks and I think this one has him beat by a long shot. This is one very active, very vigorous baby. (And yes only one baby and my dates are accurate.) I'm starting to worry that we're going to have baby-and-toddler-from-hell, part 2 here. I'm hoping to hear some stories about babies who were super active in-utero...and calm, laid-back babies once born!

[EKS]

Sorry--my active child was active from the get go, and the less active one was more average in his activity level when I was pregnant with him.

Edited February 26, 2018 by EKS

[MEmama]

Mine was super active and he's totally chill. He was an easy peasy baby, toddler, young kid and now teen.

 

I would be highly skeptical about any connection. It would make for an interesting study though.

[Junie]

I have had six babies and I have not seen any correlation between activity before birth and after.

 

:)

 

Best wishes!

[lexi]

My oldest was pretty active. She was never super active as a child but she was very emotionally intense.

Baby 2 was very chill. Still super chill.

The rest I don’t remember the differences. Lol!

I’m not sure they’ve all correlated with activity level.

Baby 7 is crazy active so we’ll see once she’s born.

Maybe your little one will get all the activity out now and be super laid back!

[Ali in OR]

The only thing I remember about in utero activity is that it took me longer to feel my third moving. I asked my doctor if that was because the placenta was attached in front and she said it was--harder to feel early kicks. Other than that, they all felt similar. Oldest is decidedly innactive (disabled) and that harder-to-feel third kid is most active. So I vote for no correlation.

[maize]

The positioning of the baby and placenta can impact how much movement you feel; it may be that this one is just positioned in such a way that you feel every movement ;)

[Critterfixer]

I had one bouncy and never stopped moving, and the other was quiet and rarely restless. Both of them had colic for almost seven months, went about two years before DH or I got a full night's sleep, and are still very active today.

[sassenach]

IME, yes. My crazy active, hellion toddler, was also the baby who contorted my stomach so badly that I took video saying, “I hope he’s not this active once he gets out of there!†He was.

[gardenmom5]

my physically active baby . . . was very active.  it rubbed off on my during my pg.  boy was I energetic!  I got a lot done.  I wish I had that much energy!  my 'tell' with her was my first clue I was pg was especially bad pms . . . it lasted until she was weaned. .. .she screamed when anyone looked at her . . . . she laid transverse and loved to stretch out.  I have muscle damage from her.  I used to put my hand against her foot and push back.  

I'm convinced she hated being a baby.  she had things to do and places to go and a body that wouldn't do what she wanted.  she loved her johnny jumper.  (the ONLY one who did!)  she had the brace bar on her feet.  she walked at 9 /34 months.  she never used furniture to pull herself up.  she walked into the middle of the room, and just stood up.  she hated to be held. - this is the one who is pregnant now . . . .

 

my 2nd most physically active. . . was as placid as 2dd was high-strung.  where she hated being a baby - he loved it.  he did love to climb . . . fell 18' out of a tree when he was 10?11? . .  "there was no blood.  I didn't break anything." :svengo:  (he did.  he fractured a vertebra in his spine that pinched a nerve.  took a long time to figure out what was going on.)

he loved to be held, loved to nurse  my dr was concerned he wasn't rolling over, etc. so had me do exercises with him to teach him how . . . .- walked at 9 1/2 months.  thanks a lot.
ok - now you can chase him.   (2dd loved to chase him - and she was very fast. - she'd tell how no one wanted to play tag with her at recess.  'cause she was faster than everyone else.)

[BlsdMama]

I don't remember all the absolute details, but Liv was my calmest pregnancy and calmest baby.  We always joked how apt her name (Olivia Serene) was for her.  (Less so as an elementary age kid.)  My super busy girl was so in the uterus.  Same with the toddlers - one busy and one calm.  

 

I've said that my pregnancies mirrored my babies very closely.  Babies who were calm and active were so on the outside too.

 

My daughter is really hoping for it.  She had a busy little boy first and her current pregnancy is so calm it alarms her sometimes.  She's hoping for a calm little snugglebug. ;)

[Guinevere]

I have had six babies and I have not seen any correlation between activity before birth and after.

 

:)

 

Best wishes!

That's funny. I was about to type the 6 babies part, but say I definitely noticed how their personalities corresponded! I guess we cancel each other out, lol.

[klmama]

Baby 1 was very active and turned out to be a high-intensity person all around.

Baby 2 was so quiet I often laid still to feel if there were movement.  That one was a very quiet baby, but by age 2 moved constantly.

Baby 3 was in between the other two.  That dc has always been very athletic, but very, very calm.  

 

 

[Zinnia]

My first pregnancy...that baby was so sluggish! You know how they ask you to do kick counts aiming for 10 in an jour? I aimed for 10 in a day, before 6pm. Most of the time, he did it. :D. So, so sluggish. Today? He is 11, and he is SO INTENSE. He never stops moving, and he acts like he's driven by a motor at times. I wonder what what was up with that pregnancy. So weird

[bethben]

My third baby was the most active.   He is the most mellow kid now - always has been.  My guess is that he just wanted his own space and was trying to move to get his own alone space.

[purpleowl]

DD#1 was active in utero. She would get particularly active when there was music. I would have to pause my singing of hymns to whisper to her, "Child! Stop dancing in church! We are PRESBYTERIAN!" Anyway, she does enjoy dancing nowadays, but she was a happy, laid-back baby and is a pretty calm kid on the whole. :)

[PeacefulChaos]

Hmmm... no, not in my experience.  

 

I honestly don't remember the first one's activity level.  It was a long time ago lol, and I'm not a person who loved being pregnant (aka I hated it) so I sort of erased some of it from memory lol.  :D  I remember he had hiccups a lot, which drove me absolutely insane.  He's 14 and can be a little intense, but that's more emotion-wise than anything else.  He was the little kid with the perpetually serious face.  I didn't get that kid to crack a smile til he was like 4 months old. :lol:  He still has 'one of those faces' where people are like 'What's wrong?' and he's like IT'S JUST MY FACE.  Which I get, because I'm like that, too.

Second one, can't remember.  He was chill as a baby.  He has two speeds - on or off.  No in between.  The biggest thing I remember about him in utero was that he hadn't dropped when I had my c-section (which was only a couple days before his due date) so when they pulled all 9 lbs of him out, I took a big deep breath like YES I CAN BREATHE AGAIN.  He was right up UNDER my lungs.  

Third one, she moved like crazy.  Seriously.  I swear my insides felt like they would bruise.  You could see her flipping and everything in there, through my clothes, everything, if you looked.  It was insane.  She was pretty average. Sort of in between the other two, but I never did have a particularly fussy baby.  Now she's kind of in between, too.

 

 

ETA for clarification.

Edited February 27, 2018 by PeacefulChaos

[happypamama]

Well, my two who were active enough in utero to flip themselves to breech late are the two who were very active toddlers and children.