Emily, it doesn't look like I'm gonna get chili made. Just so you know...

Wait, I don't get it. Isn't the baby inside the placenta? How would it not be between?

The baby is inside the amniotic sac thinger. The placenta is the disposable organ that provides the nourishment and stuff, and it attaches to to the wall of the womb (and to the baby via the umbilical cord). IIRC, it attaches most frequently up towards the top. It can also attach in the rear (posterior) or the front (anterior). In my case, it attached in the front, and was initially down a bit low (thus the ER trip and the bedrest). Now it's just a normal anterior placenta, but it does tend to muffle things a bit.

Do you think your pregnancy went quickly? To me, your pregnancy has seemed long. I suspect it will 'til the Ticky Box is here.

It's been quick and also not quick. Time is flying and crawling.

Gotcha. I think I never really differentiated between the placenta and the amniotic sac. And, thankfully, it's not been an issue for me.

I always thought they were the same thing, too.

My new fact for the day!

(Besides learning how to say "I know what you just said" in Spanish.)

Plei, does that mean you feel more movement deeper inside?

Nope. It means more that all feeling of movement is muffled. Though at 30 weeks, obviously, there's only so much muffling that can be done. I wasn't certain about feeling movement, period, until 18 weeks.

Where it really comes into play for me is other people's ability to feel the movement from the outside. It's just in the last week or two that Paul's been able to actually feel the kid kicking.

I hope you've been kicking him yourself in her stead. It's only fair for him to get the experience too, you know.

The placenta is attached to the uterus (attachment sites vary, as Plei can tell you, but are generally in the upper back section of the uterus), and the baby is attached to the placenta by her umbilical cord. The baby's not inside the placenta.

Edit: or, What Plei Said.

So it's like an extra layer of insulation between the uterine wall and the tummy, and the outside? It'll stretch thinner in the next two months though, right?

I remember seeing the baby kick on my friends' stomachs close to their due dates (boy, that's freaky) but they didn't AFAIK, have sac location issues.

The placenta is attached to the uterus (attachment sites vary, as Plei can tell you, but are generally in the upper back section of the uterus), and the baby is attached to the placenta by her umbilical cord. The baby's not inside the placenta.

Hey, Jen, I've been meaning to ask: is there any truth to the notion that back labor's more common with an anterior placenta? I ask in terror.

Mother, bless her, was quite cheerfully (if it's medical, cheerful is her default state, curse her RN self) describing her back labor with my sister, and it sounds most ooky.

When we had our birthing classes, the nurse described her three labors (all natural). The back labor sounded really painful.