Getting Closer!

October 28 (38 weeks 6 days)

Baby update! Okay, so I am still slightly behind in my blogging… only need to catch up on 3 appointments, so here we go…

On October 14, at 36 weeks 6 days pregnant I had the scare of my life when the midwife happily announced that the baby’s head was engaged deep in my pelvis. WHAT!!!! Okay, so I have done a little reading (gotta love Google search) all in an attempt to prepare myself for the big L&D that was starting to plague my every thought and I was certain I read that with 2nd babies engagement doesn’t usually happen until just before delivery. Out of panic, my response to the midwife was “please make it stay in a little longer”… I still had 2 weeks of work left, a bunch of organizing and cleaning to do and of course lots and lots of baking! She laughed, promised me that it didn’t necessarily mean that the baby would come early … but she seemed to me to have a look of doubt as she casually mentioned that she didn’t need any 37 weekers because she was busy enough with all the 40 weekers. ANYWAY, engagement explains why I have shooting pains down my groin and it feels like the baby is poking me in places I didn’t even know existed. Ahhhhh…. I do love being pregnant though! Oh ya, the baby’s heart rate was 145 bpm… girl?

The October 21 appointment went much the same as all the others. Everything was good, baby’s heart rate was 140 and baby was still engaged. Work was coming to a close end as I decided to take off 1 week earlier than expected, midwife approved and wrote me a note. The day after this appointment was my last day and thankfully so because the Braxton Hicks contractions were CONSTANT, some causing my back to ache and I felt that I just really needed to be close to home! I planned on sneezing this child out and there was NO WAY I was going to have this baby at work!

Today I had another appointment. All is still good except for the fact that baby’s limbs still seem to be at the front of my belly most of the time. I look down and see huge bumps moving around and poking a good couple of inches out of my belly. It looks a little creepy but is really quite fascinating trying to figure out what exactly it is… a knee, foot, leg, hand??? I am so amazed that something can actually live and grow inside my belly. I am also amazed that this child hasn’t broken through the bag of water or my belly button with all this movement. Anyway, the official title of the baby’s position is “posterior” and posterior babies tend to cause long and painful back labour because the hard part of the head presses on the mothers back –great. My wonderful midwife suggested a few exercises to get the baby to rotate, one of which is to get down on all 4’s and let my belly hang for at least 20 minutes 3 times a day. I thought, okay, easy enough… and since I plan on sneezing this child out I better get cracking.

As soon as I got home I got down on all 4’s. It was fine for about 3 seconds until my almost 3 year old 35 pounder saw me, came running full speed ahead, jumped on my back and yelled “giddy up horsey!” It was all fun and games for the rest of the day. Oh ya, and 20 minutes on all 4’s is impossible, even without the 3 year old cowboy.