Wondering how early you can assess your child’s Type?
So many things to look forward to when you’re pregnant—including the discovery of your little one’s Energy Type!
We regularly receive questions about how early you can determine a child’s Type. The answer is: from the beginning. In this episode, you’ll hear how each Type tends to move in the womb, and how pregnant moms tend to respond to carrying babies of all 4 Energy Types.
This episode’s Parenting Practice
No, this week’s practice is not to get pregnant! This week, notice evidence of your child’s Type. Take a step back and ask, “Am I trying to correct too much of their tendencies? Or am I working with them?” Reflect back on your pregnancy to reconfirm your child’s Type.
Transcript of podcast episode
Anne: Your kids are showing you every day, from the beginning of conception, their life, who they are.
Carol: Welcome to the “Child Whisperer Podcast.” I’m your host, Carol Tuttle, author of the best-selling parenting book “The Child Whisperer.” I’m with my co-host, Anne Tuttle Brown.
Anne: This week’s question is, “My daughter-in-law is pregnant with her first and the baby has been elusive in utero. Early on, whenever they used a Doppler to listen to the heart beat, he would move away from the pressure. At full term, he will stop all movement if mamma’s belly is exposed or if daddy touches. Her tummy, even in the sonograms, he tends to move away from the instruments. Is there a particular type that reacts this way? I’m thinking he may be a Type 4. Can you tell in utero what type the baby is?”
Carol: I think so. It’s movement and we have many, many, many stories from our own family, from other mothers saying they saw definitely a distinct expression. They were feeling a movement in utero and an effect on themselves that was being influenced by that child’s type. I know each of you have had a sense. Both you, my daughters-in-law and your sister, you all had a sense based on what you were experiencing in-utero. Share some of your insights that you knew your baby…you were pretty confident even before they were born.
Anne: Yeah. Well, before I get into that, I’ll just say definitely yes. Like you said, it’s movement and you can tell. And it’s not the amount of movement. It’s the type of movement. It’s what is being expressed. And even from conception through pregnancy, all the way up through the day they’re born and how they’re born, will give you clues into their Type. And I’ve seen this true with my children. I have two Type 3s and a Type 2.
And when I was pregnant with my Type 3—it was also my first, so I didn’t really have anything to compare it to—but looking back, I was much more active. And we got pregnant with her faster than we had anticipated. That’s true for both of my Type 3s. My Type 2, it took us much longer than we had anticipated to get pregnant for no foreseen reason, but it was over a year and I think it’s just Type 2 taking his time perhaps.
And my Type 3, my third child, he was a complete surprise and just boom, bang. And so, I knew from that moment when I found out I was pregnant, when I was in the doctor’s office about to get a UTI and found out I was pregnant, it was very like abrupt. And I thought, “This kid is definitely a Type 1 or Type 3,” because this is high movement. And so I went with it, you know. And then the amount of movement, like I said, it’s not always the amount of movement because we have our Type 1 and Type 3 who are higher movers and our 2s and our 4s who are the lower movers.
But my Type 2 had a higher movement, the amount that he moved, than my Type 3 daughter. But the way they moved was very depictive of their Energy Type. My Type 3 daughter had a more deliberate movement. It was more jerky, like I felt like her elbow was kind of jabbing a lot, where my Type…
Carol: More abrupt.
Anne: More abrupt, determined and had kind of a result in mind. Where my Type 2, he was wiggling a lot, squirming and kind of burrowing down and getting comfortable.
Carol: Trying to get comfortable. That’s how your dad is when he goes to bed, I’m like, “Gosh. Like, really? It takes you five minutes to find your position?” I have to hold my covers right up to my chin because they’re going to get moved. I know it. I’m like, “It takes me one move, one move to find…” I’m on my back. “Okay, I’m going to sleep.” And he’s like…
Anne: No, I have heard from many moms of Type 4 children that they’ve actually even gone into the doctor and been like, “My baby has not moved and I’m worried and concerned. Can we check for heartbeat?” And it’s fine. It’s a Type 4 kid. They’re just being very, very still.
Carol: What’s the point? There’s nowhere to go. Type 4 would be like, “There’s no reason to move.”
Anne: And then, the Type 1 would be…
Carol: Well, let’s go down…
Anne: Well, let me talk about Type 1 before you…
Carol: Yeah. Let’s actually go down. Start with Type 1 to Type 4. What are some qualities of movement in utero you might notice?
Anne: Look at the keyword in “The Child Whisperer” book and line it up. So Type 1 is random, animated, light, buoyant.
Carol: I think there’d be a fluttery kind of quality to it.
Anne: Yes. I think you’d even be able to feel them earlier on moving and a light kind of bubbles and burst of movement. Type 2, just like a squirming and like a rhythm to it, creating a flow. Type 3, definitely more deliberate.
Carol: Abrupt and deliberate.
Anne: Kind of like punches. And my son’s a 3, secondary 1, so a lot of high movement. I felt him the earliest, as early as 12 weeks, which was so early for me. And consistently he was always moving. And Type 4, I think would have a more deliberate quality as well with less movement or very, like, rhythmic as far as like happening at the same time of the day.
Carol: I’d hear where a baby will get in a position and not move and it might cause distress or issues, back issues or whatever, and it’s like they’ve attempted to try and get the baby. The baby’s not moving. “I’m not moving. I’ll stay right where I am, thank you very much.”
Anne: I have a friend that just had a baby, who was a Type 4 and was breach. And it was like, “Okay, this baby does not want to move.” And so, she just, you know, she was stressing out but it worked out. The baby flipped and everything was okay.
Carol: So let’s review then the effect on the mothers’ kind of demeanor.
Anne: Yes. Because it will definitely affect the mom as she’s carrying the baby.
Carol: So the Type 1 baby, what might the effect be?
Anne: You’ll want less structure in your life, that more carefree, open quality, and you may become more social. You may be more active. And if you’re…
Carol: Lighten your load is what comes to mind. You just don’t want to weigh yourself down.
Anne: Keep things light, yeah. And if you are the same type of that baby, it will be over-amplified. Type 2, everything will just be a little bit more elongated, prolonged. I was drawn to so many comfort foods when I was pregnant with my Type 2. I had morning sickness like four weeks longer than with my Type 3 daughter and…
Carol: I think there’s sort of a nesting effect also. Like you want to stay home, stay cozy at home.
Anne: I also, as a Type 2, being pregnant with a Type 2, I was very emotional. And leading up to his birth, there were a lot…I had an emergency C-section with my first. So with my second, there were a lot of kind of like fears that were bubbling up and working through all that emotion, it was amplified.
Carol: Your worrying tendency got… Yeah. It was on overdrive. And Type 3.
Anne: Be more active. When I was pregnant with my Type 3, I just was…I stayed active. I was snowboarding till I was five, six months pregnant, safely. And, you know, just being active, being outside, swimming. I think also, my sister, she was pregnant with her Type 3, eating a lot. She was pregnant with a Type 3 boy so just like, you’re going to go big. You may be on a…
Carol: She had a robust appetite.
Anne: Yes. You’ll be sleep hard, play hard, eat…
Carol: I mean, she had to watch it.
Anne: Yeah. You’re gonna go big, you know. And I think if you’re pregnant with your Type 3 and you’re a Type 3, you might go on overdrive and burn out. So just give yourself the rest you need when you’re pregnant. And Type 4, you may find a need for just less social experiences.
Carol: More structure.
Anne: And more structure.
Carol: Maybe you’ll get things really organized in your world. In fact, Kalista, our Type 4 Dressing Your Truth Expert, her most recent child is a Type 4 and she commented, being a Type 4 pregnant with a Type 4, she had to watch taking everything so seriously and overanalyzing everything. She goes, “Wow. I’m like on overdrive with my Type 4 tendencies.” That’s a fun thing about Energy Profiling in the experience of child birth is nowadays, you can all know the gender.
See, that was the big reveal when it kind of gave you something to look forward to in the birthing experience because we didn’t have the technology to know your gender.
Anne: So now we get to know the gender. The Type is the gender now.
Carol: Now, we add the Type thing in. You can know your gender, you go, “What Type is my child?” So it brings back a little of that anticipation because the last, at least the last month of pregnancy can get a little overwhelming and you’re like, “All right, I’m good. I’m ready for this to happen.” So there’s that factor of just knowing the Type that keeps you enrolled I think to go, “I’m looking forward to this.” There’s this Type reveal at birth.
Anne: Yeah. And I think definitely you can pin down, it’s a high movement, it’s a low movement. You just get that sense. When I found out I was pregnant with my Type 2, I just felt this really calming quality and I knew this is a 2 or a 4. So I was able to narrow it down. Type 2 or 4 and, like I said with my other son, a Type 3 or a 1. And as the pregnancy continued, I saw more signs and I just trusted it and allowed it. I just had fun with it. I didn’t get to, you know, I had to be sure or not and I just kind of went with it and noticed the movement that was going on.
Your kids are showing you every day, from the beginning of conception, their life, who they are and their gifts.
Carol: In fact, you may wonder, “Well, what’s the practice? Are we all supposed to get pregnant, see if we know what our baby’s type is in-utero?” No. The real broader message in this is exactly what Anne just shared. Your children are giving you evidence every day in communicating to you in unspoken ways, “This is who I am, mom. This is who I am, Dad.” What are you not seeing? What are you needing to see?
So to make this applicable to everyone listening, notice this week evidence of your child’s Type. There it is. That’s them saying, “This is who I am.” And then take a step back in your own perspective of them and say, “Am I trying to correct too much of that or am I working with it? Am I getting behind that and helping if it’s something that needs some level of modification?” Rather than change it, stop it, work with it. Work with it so it becomes a value to them rather than try and shut something down that is inborn, innate in us.
And every day, your children are giving you that evidence of, “This is who I am. Please support me and help me develop my natural tendencies into skillsets that create a successful life.” That’s really all you’re doing. It’s what you’re doing as a parent. And your children will just adore you for it well into their adult years.
Anne: In addition to that practice, take some time to reflect back onto when you were pregnant with your children and the experiences that you did have and the movement that you felt to confirm or reassure their Type.
Carol: Thanks for listening. For more support, go to thechildwhisperer.com where you can purchase the book, subscribe to our weekly parenting practice email, and find a transcription and audio of “The Child Whisperer Podcast.”
Anne: If you’re listening on iTunes, thank you for leaving a review. If you have a parenting question, please send it to [email protected].
