Ow Ow Ow!
Just two days of trying to get this baby into a good position and bouncing on my birth ball has brought back the SPD three-fold! Everything that ‘optimal fetal positioning’ says to do seems to contradict what they say you have to do to ease SPD… eg. SPD - keep legs closed as much as possible and put your feet up, OFP - Keep legs open so pelvis is wide enough for baby to turn and never lie back or put your feet up!
Now which is more important?!
The nights are worse. After about 3am my hips start to ache so I am constantly changing from left to right as each hip gets painful the more I lie on it. I’ve found a way on being able to lie on my stomach (thanks to Spinning Babies) but can’t sleep in that position ‘cos I’m afraid of squishing the baby! S/he had fun kicking and punching my abdomen this morning when I attempted to get some rest! Yep, definitely back to back!
Anyway, me and Jeff are starting our days with the line “What shall we do today?” and the answer is always the same - “Wait!” It feels as though we can’t move on with anything because we’re waiting, waiting, waiting! Is that normal?
I’m going to try taking a bath with Clary Sage essential oils later… I hate baths but I’ll give it a go then shower off after. Perhaps it’ll help with my aches and pains and perhaps it’ll induce labour… Oh I hope so!
Midwife Appointment Today (& a couple of bump pics)
Today I saw Paquita, another lovely midwife that I’ve seen once before. Julie had spoken to her briefly about my wishes and she mentioned it to me, making sure I still want a homebirth and zero drugs. Everything’s still normal and ok, well apart from one very minor thing but I’ll get to that in a minute.
My BP is normal, Indi’s heart rate is also normal and strong. I remembered to record his/her heartbeat on my mobile phone today, the quality isn’t very good but you can definitely make out the thump thump thumps! Then Paquita had a feel of his/her position and said… “It seems to be back to back”. Oh no!!! I knew it! She suggested doing the hands and knees position to try and ease Indi into anterior and I mentioned visiting Spinning Babies. So you can imagine what I’ve been doing all afternoon and night!!
Just as we were about to leave Carol came into the room (Carol was my original booking-in midwife who has been away for the past four months on another job). Unbelievably she recognised me! She couldn’t believe how big I’ve gotten and then went straight into talking about my opposition towards any drugs and the fact that I want to birth my own baby and have as little intrusion as possible! It seems the midwives have been talking about me… I must be a freak or something, haha! She didn’t have any aggresion, just wanted to make sure that I was sure, all the midwives have been totally cool about letting me go it alone and I’ve reassured them that I do want their presence ‘just in case’. It was nice seeing her again and even nicer that she remembered me, perhaps in a town like this it’s not easy to forget the hippy girl with a long haired husband, 17 cats and a dog! I told her that if she ended up being the attending midwife that we now have two rooms downstairs instead of one and that the animals will be kept seperate from her… much to her relief!
Anyway, all in all it was a good appointment. I’m glad Paquita told me the baby’s position, now I can work at trying to move him/her. Of course this may not work but I have to give it a go!
Oh, and just for kicks here’s two pictures Jeff took when we went for a walk with Skylar yesterday - 39 weeks today (well it’s 2am, that means it’s Thursday now!).
