Counting fetal kicks - Not for the faint of heart

A big thing in the past few years is to do something called 'fetal kick counts' a couple of times a day. You are suppose to start doing this around 28 weeks and count twice a day. The idea is that if it takes more then 2 hours to feel 10 movements from your baby then you need to call your doctor and go in to get checked out. When this process was first explained to me I automatically thought to myself, "Wow, that sounds stressful!" But I really havent had to worry about it as our little guy is usually pretty active. There have been a couple of times however (today included) where he has had a quiet day; most likely due to a growth spurt. Because of the importance they put on this though it causes me to go into freak out mode when I don't get those movements within a few minutes.

Today for example I realized around 2pm that I hadnt felt him move since I had woken up this morning. So I had a snack and a drink of juice and sat down just waiting for the sugar high to 'kick' in. But I got nothing. Odd, I thought. So I give him a few pokes and expect him to do his usual punch back. Still nothing. Matt suggests I put on some music as he loves a good beat and I manage to get two tiny little movements. Good start, but still not good enough to calm mummies panicking nerves. I proceeded to talk to him in a very stern voice and tell him that he is scaring his mummy and he needs to wake up and start moving. Yeah, there is a visual. Crazy pregnant woman pointing at her very large tummy and demanding it to move. I drink another cup of orange juice and sit and wait again. Finally, after what feels like hours he wakes up a bit and moves enough to give me my 10 (it was only half an hour by the way.) Sigh of relief... and 15 minutes later hes moved at least 20 times for me. But I was honestly THISCLOSE to calling the doctor and rushing off to the hospital to have them check with a doppler and ultrasound! This whole being a mommy business is scary stuff. Its crazy how concerned one can be about the health and welfare of their baby before they have even officially 'met' them.

Anyways, what I am trying to get at here is basically that I really dont like this whole 'kick counting' thing. It causes someone like me way too much anxiety. I dont know how often mothers do go to the hospital when there is a lack of movement in 2 hours and find out something is wrong... Maybe I dont want to know. But I do know that there are actually studies being done right now to decide whether this is an accurate, effective and healthy practice for soon to be mothers to be doing. Im interested to hear what the results are on it.

PS - Wanna know how I eventually got him to do all that movement later on? WICKED soundtrack... might have a broadway baby after all (Im so sorry Matt.... ;)