Meet Theo

• Baby Saves

• 07.01.25

“When I first heard of Count the Kicks through my midwives back in 2021, it was my first go around. I was nervous after experiencing a loss prior and was asking about how I can monitor movements. With my second child I knew at a certain point in the pregnancy to start monitoring him at home.

Not long after our 20 week anatomy scan, I could feel my son moving a lot, and the app was a great source of reassurance for me in those moments. I wasn’t consistent with tracking until a few weeks later, but I think the biggest thing was how it really played a part in his safe arrival.

As my pregnancy progressed there were a few times I didn’t feel him move much throughout the day. Sometimes I wasn’t feeling him move for what felt like hours. It was scary, so I would use the app and I would lay down on the floor and drink sugary or super cold drinks to get him moving.*

Around 27 weeks I felt like there was an odd movement pattern forming and paid closer attention. After a particularly busy day, I realized I hadn’t tracked or felt him move since the morning. I called the on-call provider who told me it was nothing to worry about, but I felt really off about it and wanted to trust my gut. I tracked his movements even closer after that experience and he was routinely monitored at every appointment. When I was 39 weeks I really noticed a significant change and started to get nervous because I knew his movements when using the app. My nerves were starting to impact my sleep. I’d wake up and poke my belly, drink something or eat something sweet to see if it would perk him up. Some nights, it’d take him a while to get there but he always did and I always logged it in the app.

I spoke to my Midwife and she ended up giving me a membrane sweep on Dec. 2 with a quick bedside ultrasound and everything was fine, but even she noted that he was sleepy because he wasn’t moving much. With a strong heartbeat and my son otherwise looking great, I went home to wait and see if I’d go into labor. After an uneventful night, I called my midwife again on the morning of Dec. 3 because his movements were so minimal for the past 24 hours. I was 40 weeks on the dot, and was planning to go back to the hospital that day to have another sweep and get my waters broken to prepare for his delivery. My midwife specifically noted it was time due to the movement issues. My water ended up breaking at home and we went to the hospital about an hour later and I labored there.

After he was delivered, we found out that my son and I have incompatible blood types (Coombs positive test). He was rushed to the NICU after his routine blood test to be treated for his high bilirubin. He ended up being jaundiced and spending five days in the NICU under phototherapy lights because of the blood type issue that we had.

Once it was discovered, the neonatologist and my midwife explained that it impacted his movements because it made him extra sleepy. Because of the blood type incompatibility, Theo was much sleepier than my first son. Once I found that out, everything clicked about the movements (or lack thereof).

If I hadn’t been tracking or staying on top of things, I honestly don’t know what could have happened. I like to think he would’ve been just fine, but tracking his movements really helped me advocate for myself. Count the Kicks gave me something solid to point to when talking to my providers so I wouldn’t seem like I was imagining things.

My advice to other moms is that sometimes it seems to be a bit of a chore to count the kicks with life, a full-time job, and remembering to stay on top of everything else in your pregnancy, but do it! Just be as diligent as you can so that if you do notice something that’s different, you have all this great data you can bring back to your provider to help you advocate for extra testing or in my case, get a little help to move things along for baby’s safe arrival. I’m so grateful that I had this app at such an important time in my life.” -Allie P., Theo’s mom

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