Meet Esther

• Baby Saves

• 12.01.25

“I first heard of Count the Kicks with my first son through social media. I was super comfortable with it and used it everyday in the third trimester. He came full term with no problems. When I was pregnant with my daughter I started using it again in the third trimester.

One thing the app does really well is explaining that it is more than just the kicks but also the intensity and really knowing your baby’s typical movement patterns. My daughter was very active. Every night she would hit them within a couple of minutes and her kicks were very intense.

At 29.5 weeks I was having a day where I was not noticing a ton of movement and it just felt off. I knew you guys did not recommend doing this, but I ended up eating something sweet to try to get her to move.* I laid down only feeling a couple slight movements and I decided to just head into the ER and get checked. They hooked me up and said that her fetal movement was normal and sent me home. 

I came home that night and I was just in a funk because I still felt like the fetal movement was off and not her normal. I did another kick count that night and it took her maybe an hour when she normally would take 5 minutes. My husband assured me that everything was fine and I had already gone to the ER that day and they told me it was normal. I went back to bed and my family and I went to the pumpkin patch the next day.  

At the pumpkin patch I just started sobbing and told my husband that I need to go back. It was only 10 minutes away and I would be back in an hour. I just needed to insist on getting an ultrasound to clear my mind. When I arrived they hooked me and told me that her movement was normal and that she was reaching the 10 kicks in 2 hours. I insisted that they do an ultrasound. I told them that I knew my baby and I have never felt her this lightly and never takes this long. 

They did an ultrasound and the nurse looked at me and told me that I was 6 centimeters dilated and in active labor. I called my husband to get a neighbor to pick him up because I had left him there and that I was laboring. It all happened so suddenly. I wasn’t even at my normal hospital and they would not let me take the ambulance there.

I gave birth to Esther, and because I was able to be proactive, she was able to get both rounds of lung steroids shots and was able to start treatment for an infection. My pathology test came back and it said there was an infection in my placenta that caused the preterm labor. Because they were able to start us both on antibiotics so early, she was able to kick her infection rather quickly.

The Count the Kicks app is free and so easy to use. I would advise others to make this part of your routine and learn your baby’s normal movement pattern. Without having this data it can be so easy for someone to talk you out of your concerns. The visual will help support why you are there and helps allow the doctors and nurses to take you seriously. Every nurse after Esther was born asked me how I knew something was wrong and I had the app to show to them.

She is 32 weeks today and is doing so well, and it is 100% because of Count the Kicks. I don’t know what the outcome would have been without it.” -Lydia C., Esther’s mom

Editor’s Note: Research shows that fetal movement is best monitored without interventions like juice, candy, or drinking ice water.