Difficulty Auscultating Apical Pulse

[tfudz12]

I'm in my first semester of nursing school and I'm having trouble listening for the apical pulse. I'm able to find it on myself, but when I try to find it on my mother and grandma who are both bigger with larger breasts I have a hard time. I lift up their breasts, but its not as loud as when I hear it on myself. I also hear bowel sounds as well as the pulse when I do it on them, is this normal or does this mean I'm listening too far down/in the wrong place?

[MotoMonkey, BSN, RN]

It sounds like youre listening too far down. If ever you head bowel sounds in the chest cavity that would be an emergent problem.