Almost there

This thing is almost over, kids! CRAZY.

I forgot the 37 week photo. Slacker. But here we go anyway:

Pregnancy still feels like a pretty miraculous thing. I went into it refusing to complain very much, since this is literally a privilege that we paid handsomely for, but I've found that I don't really have much to complain about anyway. Do I miss my old feet and ankles, being able to pee like a normal person, and bend over without grunting? Yes! But are these things pretty damn small in the scheme of what we're doing? Absolutely. I'm 25 pounds heavier with happiness, and it feels great.

 

Here's our singular pregnancy drama so far: Baby H hung out for at least a few weeks in the breech position. She was head-down for our 33-week appointment, but that Saturday we were in North Carolina for a family party and my mom surprised me with a "4D" ultrasound tech coming over to the house, who promptly showed us that H was hanging out upright. Eeeek. We spent the next few weeks trying to get her to turn with everything we could throw at her: acupuncture, moxibustion, temperature extremes, light treatment, and a chiropractor. Who knows what worked, but something did... she flipped about a month later at 37 weeks, a few days before we'd scheduled an "external version," or manual manipulation to try and flip her by hand.

 

I'm so relieved that she's head-down now (confirmed again this morning at our 38-week appointment!), but I'm also happy that I have the kind of birthing team by my side that would have let me try to have her vaginally even if she was breech. Natural delivery of breech babies is becoming a lost art, but our midwifery practice is extremely proud of their breech births. As long as I was progressing normally during labor, they were committed to helping me have a vaginal birth if that's what I wanted. Our practice delivers on the L&D floor right alongside OBs, so the risks are small and we're in great hands should anything more than their own expertise be needed. We're back in the camp of normal low-risk births now, and I'm thrilled, but knowing that the other side didn't necessarily have to involve surgery was comfort when I needed it.

 

So here we are... 38 weeks, belly full of an extremely active baby that wriggles a lot but seems cool hanging upside down for a while, and so much excitement about what's ahead. She is ALMOST HERE!