Phew!

I feel sorry for anyone that knows me well - either in real life or online. For the past couple of weeks I've been totally obsessed with the fact that my baby was still breech. I realise now I've never really understood what it meant when other mums-to-be mentioned it to me, I have a new appreciation for how they must've been feeling now.

A breech baby makes things a little more complicated. It's because the baby is not head down in the uterus like it should be but instead has found it prefers a different position. My little baby was bottom down - I could feel his little lemon shaped head right at the top centre of my bump and I could follow his shoulder and backbone around and down with my hand.

For some, this is no big deal. Often (in NZ) breech babies are delivered by a c-section. That wasn't something I wanted at all after having had 2 great natural births with my other 2 kids. To me a c-section also means being unable to drive for an inconvenient period of time, a husband that would possibly need to take longer than we've budgeted for off work as well as a stay of at least 3 days in hospital...all of which are not ideal considering my other children and problems we'd have then with childcare.

So after picking the brains of anyone who had any experience with breech babies and spending a fair bit of time searching the internet (spinningbabies is great), I then started my mission to get this babe in a more favourable position.

This included various inversion techniques each night (you'll have to excuse me for using other people's pictures...there was NO way I'd be photographed demonstrating each of these as some were FAR from comfortable and difficult to get into with a belly the size of mine!)

But things like this...

And this...

And even this...(and anyone who knows me knows I'm not gymnastically talented)

On top of various positions, I was thinking positive thoughts, visualising, talking to our baby

Then there's been the nightly moxa burning  (which we are still doing actually as the acupuncturist said it 'anchors' the baby into the right position) and the acupuncture.

And we were heading towards an ECV if baby wasn't going to move on his own. The music in this video is quite funny I think - I don't think there's anything pleasant about an ECV, but light hearted music sure helps a you tube video right? This video is probably more like it, it doesn't seem quite so Disney.

So, all in all, I was spending an awful lot of my time trying to be in a good position and worrying about the 'what if's' if our son decided to sit tight.

The GREAT news is that on Tuesday night at 36 weeks he swung around - and so now he's in the perfect position. I knew it had happened, not because I felt him move, but because his little head at the top of my uterus has been replaced with the smooth rounded shape of a bottom and his hiccups were coming from a different spot. My midwife confirmed my suspicions on Wednesday at her visit.

The good news for everyone else is that I am no longer completely consumed by my breech baby. Conversations with friends are no longer just me talking about it.

The good news for me is that I really feel like I can start to prepare and get excited about this baby's arrival rather than dread it. Phew! This baby is to be our last and I was feeling a little cheated that I couldn't enjoy the last trimester of being pregnant (I do love being pregnant!)

And so the countdown begins! Not too long till we meet the 3rd and final addition to my little family.