Where's your uterus? AKA... fundal height!

[Peppamint]

So I just realized that when I palpate to feel my fundus through my fat roll that my finger ends up in my belly button. Wow.

So that makes me curious where y'all are at. My mw will probably measure my fundal height at my next prenatal which is sometime the week after Thanksgiving.

I'm still under my pre-pg weight but I look so lumpy sometimes and other times my belly looks round and cute. What gives!

[ellymay]

How far along are you?

[Peppamint]

I'll be 15 weeks on Wednesday. Look at my belly pics in my siggie. I'm starting to worry about twins when I look at my belly pics. LOL

[strawberryprincess]

I'm 14 weeks, and my uterus is just below my belly button. i've read that it should be *at* your belly button level at 20 weeks. so i kinda think mine is a little high already, but maybe my belly button is low my belly seems to keep changing shape also. over the weekend i was really gassy andbloated feeling,a nd i looked 6 months pregnant...now the gas is gone, and i barely look pregnant at all...somedays(even without gas) i look bigger than others. pregnancy is weird

[alexisyael]

The last time I palpitated (last week) my fundus was just about an inch or two past my bikinni line. (I have a really high belly button, so it's very far away from that!) That was about where my Spiritual Midwifery book said it "should" be.

It's grown a bit since then, but it's still nowhere near my belly button.... but like I said, I have a higher than normal bb.

(I'm 13 weeks, 4 days today).

[Happypants]

mine is about an inch below my bb. i'm 12 wks and 2 days today. at my 11 wks mw appt, my fundal height was 12 cm, and it's definately higher now. i'm really curious where it'll be at my 15 wks appt!

[dshields]

Still can't feel mine at 14 weeks

Oh ye of tilted uterus, did it take long for you to feel it? It cracks me up as i've got one big belly popping out. I read somewhere that it corrects itself at 12 weeks, and somewhere else that said between 16 and 18 weeks. I have my next appt. Thursday so I'll ask my midwife what she thinks. Might I just not know how to feel for it?

[alexisyael]

I have a tilted uterus and I can only find mine *sometimes.* I read somewhere that it is easier to find it after lovemaking or orgasm, and that is true for me. (My uterus is also leaning to the right, and I knew that because my osteopath had told me before... if I'd gone looking for it in the middle only, I don't think I would have felt it at all.)

It's pretty amazing feeling (I had my DH feel it, too, cause it was so cool, and he agreed with me). Just this little lump that wasn't there before. REALLY NEAT!

[ChattyCat]

Mine is about .5" below my belly button. I'm very short-waisted. It cracks me up when I look at the diagrams of how your uterus grows, and at 12 weeks, it's barely peeking up over the pubic bone. Mine's most of the way to my belly button by then.

I haven't really popped yet with this pg, which is very weird to me. With the last babe, I popped out almost immediately. I had a noticeable lower abdomen bulge. This time, my uterus is getting higher and higher, and I'm just looking fat. I figure that I've got to pop out soon. I mean really, how high can my uterus get and push all the organs around, without moving forward.

Oh, and my uterus is tipped too, but I don't seem to have a problem finding it when I'm pg. If you're having difficulty, try with in about 30 minutes of having an orgasm. Your uterus should feel harder then and be easier to differentiate from the fat and other organs in your abdomen. HTH.

[ellymay]

I can only feel mine sometimes the u/s tech said that my uterus was retroverted but
that it kind of flops back and forth so sometimes I can feel it and it is about half way
to my belly button but sometimes I can't feel it at all except really low down. Definatly after and orgasm I
can feel it real good.

[KatSG]

My uterus is usually tipped, too, but I'm so short waisted--my ribs are 1 inch from my hip bones--I'm all popped out and my uterus is at my belly button. But what's really weird is that I'm all popped out at the top of my belly, which must be my intestines and other organs, and I have a flat spot below that, like I've got half a pregnant belly, and only on the top. Gotta get on those belly picks and then I can show you what I mean.

[Peppamint]

Hmm... so I wonder if I have a high or low belly button.

Teehee, gotta love how pregnancy makes me analyze my body so much.

We're all so different!

[merrick]

I can't feel mine either. I have a tilted uterus as well, so that's probably why.

[zonapellucida]

Me either....I usually can't feel it until about 17 weeks

[alexisyael]

Kat, that's exactly what mine looks like (except that my lower belly is also pooched out now, too, just not as big as my intestine-filled upper belly)!

The reason I know my belly button is higher than most is that I am a belly dancer, so it is not unusual for me to see LOTS of different belly buttons on a regular basis (when teaching, when performing etc...). Mine is higher up than most of the ones I've seen.

Oddly enough, I am also rather short waisted (measuring from the bottom of the ribs to the pelvis) even tho it looks like I am not -- it's an optical illusion, since I have really long ribs!

[Throkmorton]

Mine is almost to my belly button, I think. It's hard to tell thanks to my post c-sec "fat shelf" that makes it hard to feel a good part of my lower belly. I am 15 weeks

[newmainer]

Hmmm ... i haven't really tried to feel for mine, but last week at my appt. (14 wks.) midwife said it was about an inch or so below my belly button. what is the best position to try and feel it in...laying down? Last time at about 15-16 weeks it felt really hard, but this time not so much...I agree with whoever said that one day you look preggy and the next not at all. weird.

[alexisyael]

yes, it's definitely easier to find when you're laying down... you need to have your head flat, too (or at least I do -- I have crazy-strong abdominal muscles and if I am upright or have my head up, they're too tight to feel anything in my abdominal cavity!)

[Momto1and1ontheway]

I went in for an appt. today and my uterus was like busybusymomma's right at the belly button. I was shocked. I thought at this point it would still be right above the pubic bone. Is it normal to be this high now? Sorry to be so dense....

[Peppamint]

momto1...- I'm not so sure it's "normal" but they are always mentioning the "each baby grows differently, even in the womb" clause and it does seem like we have a pretty wide variation of height going here just in this thread! Between feeling my fundus so high and being sooo much sicker this time around I had wondered about twins but I don't think it's likely- the idea is romantic and terrifying at the same time!

I measured right on my last two pregnancies so I'll be curious to see what the mw measures my fundal height as at my next prenatal (about two weeks from now). I think I'll dig out my soft measuring tape- I'm pretty sure it has cm on it and I can try to measure my own fundal height if my arms are long enough.

PS- when we did finally zero in on the heartbeat at 13w it was about an inch below my belly button so I guess I'm not imagining that my uterus is high up right now. I was starting to wonder if I'm kooky or something.