Feeling Hearbeat on my belly

Hi all, As you can see from my ticker, I'm just 1/2 through my pregnancy. My question is that over the past week or so, even though I'm not that big, I ca feel my heartbeat quite severly in my tummy. At night, when I'm lying on my back (before going to sleep) I can feel it really clearly, and if I hav my hand on my tummy, I can feel it too! I'm wearing jeans today, and they aren't particularly tight but while I'm sitting I can feel it too. Has anyone else got this? Its not causing discomfort, its just really distracting! Any thoughts would be helpful... Thanks sue

I'm only 12 weeks along, but can clearly feel my heartbeat pulsating in my belly at night. Mind you, I can also feel it pulsating much more strongly in my jugular, and I've had a couple of nights when I can't get a wink of sleep because I can hear my pulse loudly beating in my ear! I checked with my doc & she said that it's all perfectly normal. I can usually only feel it in the evenings, though - never during the day. Perhaps it's because you're further along.

The placenta requires quite a bit of blood to keep it healthy - basically it's the blood surging into the placenta and uterus that you're feeling. As your uterus gets bigger, it gets closer to the surface of your belly - when you lie on your back, your belly lies flat against the uterus, but as you get bigger the uterus starts to push out and get closer to belly surface when you are upright during the day, and that's why you eventually start to feel those 'heartbeat' feelings during the day as well as night. I feel them occassionally throughout the day... but eventually you see past them once you start feeling baby kick. HTH

Hey ladies, thanks for your responses (and apologies for all the typo's, didn't notice them till I went in to see your responses). Olshue - thanks for the detailed explaination, its fantastic to know that I'm not just imagining it, cause at times it bugs me. At least I know why its as strong as it is, and know that its actually a good thing! :-) Sue