Weird muscle twitches in stomach...tell me I'm not alone!

[Dillpicklechip]

Okay this is going to sound weird...and before I explain I will say what I am experiencing is NOT the baby moving, because I have been having this weirdness since I was about 6 weeks pregnant.

Fairly often, maybe 8 or 9 times per day, my stomach muscles have this sort of strong twitch or spasm. It's always on the left hand side, usually above the waist, and it always happens when I'm in a sitting or lying position and trying to move--like turning over in bed, or getting out of a chair.

It's not exactly painful, but this twitch or spasm is very sudden and quick and strong and it sometimes make me yelp in surprise. It's normally at the same point exactly, it not over my whole stomach.

What could be causing this? I forgot to ask my midwife at my appt yesterday, which is why I'm asking here.

Any ideas? Has anyone else experienced this at all?

(Oh btw, I'm 18 weeks pregnant now, and the twitches have remained the same strength and frequency.)

[St. Margaret]

Round ligament pain, I'd bet. Sometimes I felt twitches before this baby, and I figured it was my uterus growing and all that, but the pain when you get up/move is totally RL. I would be sitting at my desk at work, jump up, and be bent over in pain as it seized up, yikes.

[rockycrop]

Hmm, I think I get them too. Does it feel like you ran into an invisible (horizontal) pole or the corner of a desk or something? I always look to see what it was I ran into and of course, there's nothing there.
Very odd sensation, I don't remember it with my first.

[Dillpicklechip]

St. Margaret, thank you, but I know it is not round ligament pain. I get those pains like crazy during pregnancy and all the time actually. These twitches are high up around my stomach, and not really painful.

Rockycrop, it sounds like we are experiencing something similar. It does feel a bit like something hitting me. It's not unlike a strong sudden kick from a baby inside, only it's definitely not that!

I wish I had remembered to ask my midwife about this yesterday!

[MaerynPearl]

phantom kicks... no clue why we get them but my old doctors theory was muscle damage during a previous pregnancy causing the twitch.

I dont remember getting them while pregnant but first tri was soooo long ago and by second i had real kicks. Getting them like crazy postpartum though.

Ive had some strong enough to be visible... def. one reason i can see "I didnt know i was pregnant" being possible in women who already had kids.

[TrishWSU]

I noticed something like that in my 3rd pregnancy and still feel it sometimes now (baby is 17 months old!) It's always in the same spot and almost feels like a little electrical shock...and the feeling is from the outside, not the inside. I figured it some kind of minor pulled muscle or something. The only time it really happens now is if I'm laying on one side and sort of lift up sideways (almost like if I was doing an oblique crunch.)