I am writing to you, at 3:23pm on a Friday afternoon, sitting in my armchair wearing a pair of boy boxers and eating biscuits.
HELLO MATERNITY LEAVE!
Actually, as much as I would love this to be the case for most days, it isn't. I solemnly swear that I have got showered and dressed every day this week.*
*Before 4pm anyhow.
Anywayyyyy. Today is a little different because I didn't sleep at all last night. And it's all to to with the position of my little bubba.
On Wednesday at my midwife appointment she said that although everything is totally fine and healthy - heartbeat strong, good movements and fully engaged (!!) that the little one was just chilling lying on his back. Medically called "Posterior position".
Apparently I need to try and turn him around so that his back is to my tummy.
Now, first time mums who are all new to this jargon and worry dramatically about everything will relate to what happened over the next 48 hours.
I came home got straight on all fours - trying to use gravity to swing my baby round into the optimal position. I asked BNF to call his mum because I needed her exercise ball to do my rotations on to get this baby to move. I broke up with my pregnancy pillow (BIG DEAL) in the hope that changing my sleep position would help. Everytime I felt the baby move I would lean on the closest counter to make space in the bump so that whilst wriggling he could maybe get into the right position. (FYI, not so appropriate on shop counters.) I have done about 70 billion Rolling Cobras.
And actually. Do you know what I found this morning. I'm tense. I'm stressed up like a fricking clam because all I am thinking about is the position of this baby and worrying about it and in fact this stress and tension is counter productive to the 70 billions Rolling Cobras and everything else because my tummy is so tight that
the poor bugger can't move anywhere anyway!
So. New plan.
We do not worry. And we do not stress. I have always said from the beginning - as long as the baby is not in any distress, then I am not in any distress.
Yes there are of course things that you can do to help move a baby from Posterior (lying back to your back) to Anterior (lying back to your tummy). But they do not have to be obsessive and at the end of the day if the baby doesn't move, it's still ok. Posterior babies still come out and are perfectly healthy. The labour might just be longer and more painful - but again as long the baby isn't in any distress, then we're all good in the hood. And also, I read somewhere that 87% of posterior babies turn round during labour into the "right" position - it just takes them a little longer to get there. But hey we've waiting 9 months to meet the little pickle, whats a 3 day labour between family?! *reaches desperately for more chocolate biscuits*
If you're interested in the things you can do to try and turn the baby, my few faves are below along with some links to the best and most helpful (and least scary) websites I've found:
- Forward Leaning
When you feel the baby start to move about, lean your upper body over something - like a kitchen counter, to let your bump hang down low. Breathe into your tummy and make some wriggle room. Probably stay there for about 10 minutes or so.
- Sit Correctly
No lounging on the sofa. No sitting on an office chair with your legs crossed. No lying back on the sofa with your legs up. You need to have your knees lower than your hips (for long legged people like me, I acknowledge that this is hard, but just try it) and have your pelvis tilted forward instead of backward. Our kitchen chairs sit lower at the back, and I find sitting backwards and sort of straddling them (way classy) is a much more comfortable position. Albeit not so appropriate for hosting dinners.
- Exercise Ball
Again, because of my long legs and stupidly small body I find that sitting on the ball my hips aren't higher than my knees, so I have to sit with my legs stretched right out if I want to use it upright. However, I find that kneeling on the floor, with my tummy in front of the ball and my upper body draped over the ball is THE MOST comfortable thing ever. And I can just kneel there rocking myself gently and breathing into my tummy for quite a while. It is particularly helpful if my tummy is tight or if I just don't "feel well". I can even watch the tele doing this. I love it.
- Rolling Cobra
Ah. I learnt this in our Lazy Daisy class. And although it took me a while to get to grips with, I now love it. You need to be on all fours, hands under your shoulders and knees behind your hips (apparently this opens your pelvis up further).
Inhale and arch your back up (like cats pose in yoga), as you exhale push your butt back over your feet, inhale and "roll" your body through close to the floor - chin, boobs and bump, as low as you can get, then exhale and push back up into all fours.
All of these things can be done every day. But don't worry about doing them all day every day.
The links to the websites are below:
Spinning Babies - also really good if you have a breach baby and want to try and turn in order to birth naturally.
HomeBirth - not just for home births!
Baby Centre - probably my favourite go to pregnancy website actually. And the app is really good too!
Health Unlocked - they have an NCT community that has some pretty helpful stuff.
At the end of the day, we have absolutely no idea what is going to happen on the 'Big Day'. And the most important thing and the thing I'm looking to most is finally meeting our little bundle of love. Whatever journey we have to take to get there will just be another one of my life stories to share. But one thing if for certain, gettin stressed ain't gonna help one bit.
Completely off topic, if you still feel stressed - google 'cute baby animals', always works for me :)
Ciao bellas.
Mx
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