Around and around we go

From my perspective as an incubator, the last few months of pregnancy have progressed very quickly.

My outward appearance has changed somewhat, though most people still don’t believe that I’m at full-term.  Maybe the extra padding I had before I was pregnant has helped to cushion the baby’s bump from the world.  I do finally “look” pregnant, though.  (Here are my Flickr photos tagged with “pregnancy“.)  More than once, random strangers have asked me when my baby is due – a sure sign that I have progressed past the point where people aren’t quite sure whether I’m knocked up or just fat.

Inwardly, both Kiwiman and I have gotten more used to the idea that Life Is Going To Change.  Life has already changed; it’ll change again.  The strangest feeling now is waking up each morning and not knowing whether today is the day when it all happens, or whether we’ll get another day’s reprieve.  We are now getting closer to a stage where the birth plan will be taken (somewhat) out of our hands and we’ll just get given an appointment to meet our child.

If you’ve followed my updates on the blog’s sidebar (which come from a variety of places including Ping.fm, FriendFeed, and Twitter), then you’ll already know a little bit about the fact that our baby isn’t turned around the right way for birth – it’s in a flexed-leg breech position with its head under my right ribs and its bottom wedged somewhere in my pelvis.  The head is supposed to be the thing sticking in my pelvis and making me waddle around.  Consequently, I’m not waddling – another thing that makes people not quite believe that I’m ready to deliver this thing any day now.

I’m at 38 weeks (out of 40), and the baby is fully developed and would suffer no ill effects from being born now.  Because we have had no other problems, the doctors here attempted to do an external cephalic version (ECV) last Tuesday.  This involved giving me a muscle relaxant (Nifedipine, an anti-hypertensive also used to inhibit premature labor) and then pushing on the outside of my belly to try to get the kid to turn.  The specialist doc who did this last week pushed so hard in my pelvic area that I was left with severe bruising right where you’d imagine a Caesarean incision would need to be.  Unfortunately the kid’s butt was wedged in so well that no amount of painful pushing helped to dislodge it.  Stubborn kid!

We went back to the hospital today for a second ECV attempt with the same procedure and doctor as last week.  Unfortunately the results were exactly the same.  Fortunately there wasn’t nearly as much pushing as last time, so I won’t bruise.  What all of this means is that unless miracles occur and the kid turns around by itself, I’ll probably be having a Caesarean section in the next two weeks.

Oh – we also found out today that the baby is “pretty long”, so the amount of room it has for spontaneous turning is limited.  Even if I were to stand on my head for a week, the baby might not have enough room to turn around.  Stubborn baby!  Maybe she’ll be an NWBA basketballer or a Silver Fern.

Tomorrow we’re off to see the Wizard obstetrician, who will no doubt discuss scheduling the Caesarean.  Stay tuned for more updates.

I have given Kiwiman a list of places to spread the news when the baby does arrive, and this is one of them – so at some point you may see a surprise guest post from him.