Can you teach me how to palpate my uterus?

[Spark]

I've been trying to palpate my uterus and I'm just utterly confused. I'm 15 weeks pregnant with my 4th babe. I'm keep measuring larger (7 weeks ahead now) so I think my womb occupant has room to roam around.

I can clearly identify the top of my uterus (verified by MW). Then, I feel a whole variety of things going on.

1. At the least, I feel total squishiness until about midway between my belly button & pelvic bone. There to inside my pelvis I'll feel something firm & solid that moves. It's about the size of a soft ball, but a little more oblong. (but, if I lay down for a while or incline myself I can a bunch more firm stuff to come up out of my pelvis as referred to in #2)

2. At the most, I feel something firm & solid all the way up past my belly button a bit & stretching in a variety of positions down to my pelvic bone with some squishy spots here or there along the sides, but sometimes not. It's much more than the size of a soft ball. It's more like those 32-oz wide mouth water bottles, although sometimes with a kink in it.

I just can't make sense of this all. I'd really like to bond with my baby through palpating (no U/S or heartbeat yet), but I'm just confused. Any tips on palpating?

Thank you!
Signed,
The woman pregnant with a water bottle

[BirthFree]

Lol!
Well I'm no expert, but aside from measuring larger as the weeks go by, I feel the same baby local as you've described. I've considered it to possibly be placenta+baby or placenta and baby. I'm 99.99% sure I have an anterior placenta this time. I'll be interested to read the other replies...

[Charmie981]

At 15 weeks, I'd be feeling about the same thing you're feeling! I would say the lump the size of a softball is baby. Remember that at this point, baby is about the size of the palm of your hand, cupped. It would be nearly impossible to discern head, butt, legs, etc at this point.

[Spark]

Ooh, BirthFree, so you're feeling the same everything full in there thing, too? Not all the time, but some? I thought I might have an anterior placenta, but it's since moved. So, I guess that wasn't placenta!

Now, Charlotte, that's really good validation that the softball is the size of my baby size. So your professional opinion is that I'm not pregnant with a water bottle, then?

Can we play what if for a moment? What if it were more than one baby - then I'd have just baby/baby wall to wall with no extra room, right? None of the hanging low with room at the top some times, right?

[Spark]

Oh, I was just thinking, maybe my placenta is the low firm thing and then the baby just floats up while I'm laying down for a while? That kind of makes sense. I need to go empty my bladder & see if I can make sense of the palpating. Off to find my little softball or palm sized baby.

[Defenestrator]

Hey Spark --

If you want, we could meet up and I could show you some of the things that I did when I was palpating my own uterus.

One thing that I found to be helpful, especially when the baby was a little bigger, was to cup one hand and press into the uterus and then try to feel the baby with the other -- essentially nudging the baby into the other hand so that it was more on the surface and I could feel better.

Peeing before palpating is essential. Otherwise you just feel your bladder.

Good luck!

[Spark]

Oh, Stacia, thank you so much for offering! I have a MW appt on Monday, so I'll babble to her about my confusion. That's a great tip about cupping & pressing. I think you're right though, I think I'm just so confused at this point I need someone walk me through what I'm feeling!

Thank you!