Decreased movement towards the end normal???

[sk8boarder15]

Hi all I'm getting towards the end of my pregnancy, and have GD that goes back and forth from being manageable, so there have been a lot of times I have had high blood sugar...

Is it normal at the end for movement to slow down considerably?? I'm 39 weeks today and noticed it this past week, he still moves, but only 3-4 times a day do I notice it and its not for very long... part of me is worried something is wrong, but the other part of me is saying this is normal, he's out of space! It doesn't look like I'll be in labor in the next few day (though hopefully I'm wrong) so he has another week to "cook". I had an NST yesterday morning and his heart rate was much lower than I had ever seen it, hovering around 125, but the dr. said he was sleeping and that was a normal sleeping heart rate..Anyway I guess I'm becoming a paranoid mom!

[Llyra]

It's probably fine-- my DD1 barely moved at all the last few days. But if you're worried, I would call and ask for another NST, especially if your intuition is telling you something's up.

[Aliy]

movement slows near the end. but if your worried get it checked

[lunarlady]

It could be that your baby has switched to being in a favorable birth position (facing your back). This can decrease the sensations of movement you are feeling if baby was OP up to that point, since instead of kicking your belly, he's kicking your insides where there are less nerve endings. But if you are worried, just go in and get checked!

[Megan73]

What surprises me about what your doctor said is that,from my understanding, the whole point of a NST is to show heart rate variability in response to baby's movement. When I've had them they wouldn't let me leave until they saw it and would ask me to poke and prod to wake baby up.
Like PPs, I would go back to get checked out. I'd ask for a biophysical profile (an ultrasound where they score babies on movement, practice breathing etc.) which IMO is a much better test.

[dmpmercury]

Movement should never really slow down but it could change towards the end because they are running out of room to really kick strongly but you should still feel movements just as often. I guess I can see how a change in position could cause it like pp said since the kicks aren't toward the belly but a slowdown could also be a warning sign. I would go in and get checked out just in case. It almost sounds like they didn't do the NST test correctly. The are supposed to look for spikes with movement and they should buzz baby awake if they are sleeping.