When can you feel baby kick from outside

Feeling your baby move for the first time can be exciting, but it can also be, well, kind of confusing. Is that my stomach rumbling...or is that the baby?

We promise that, eventually, there’ll be no question about baby movement—the kicks will be so strong you won’t even question it.

Later in pregnancy, the feeling will be so distinct you’ll be able to do kick counts to monitor your baby’s well-being.

Here’s the full scoop on when you can feel baby move, how to know what you’re feeling is actually a kick and how to do kick counts once those little jabs are unmistakable.

When can you feel your baby move?

For first-time pregnancies, baby movement is often felt sometime between 18 weeks and 25 weeks.

(Though your baby will actually start wiggling around a lot earlier than that.)

If you’ve been pregnant before, you may feel baby movement sooner. Studies show it could be as early as 16 weeks, says Dr. Jennifer Lang, a Los Angeles–based ob-gyn and author of The Whole 9 Months: A Week-by-Week Pregnancy Nutrition Guide with R