My Child Is Head-Butting Me! Plus, Babycenter.com Update: Week 36

We went to the doctor today to check on Spike. She is definitely breech. In order for her to turn, she'd have to flip backwards about 270 degrees--she's gone forward as far as she can. In fact, she is head-butting the placenta (and me!). I'm not a candidate for a version (the procedure to try and turn the baby) because of my previous uterine surgery (with my "artistically-shaped" uterus) and the fact that an inversion probably wouldn't work because of the position of the baby. So, it looks like we're on the c-section path. We've tentatively talked about sometime between August 15-20, unless I go into labor first. I'm going back next week, and we'll talk it through again then.

I go back to the perinatologist tomorrow for another checkup. I'm pretty sure it's just a procedural thing to take a closer look at the baby and make sure all is well. Tomorrow night is also the last "baby basics" class at the hospital. Then, we wait!

And here's something interesting about how much water you can retain while pregnant: Between my blood pressure check last Thursday and today, I lost six pounds! So that should tell you how swollen I was last week...

Here's this week's update from www.babycenter.com:

Your baby is still packing on the pounds — at the rate of about an ounce a day. She now weighs almost 6 pounds and is a little under 19 inches long. She's shedding most of the downy covering of hair that covered her body as well as the vernix caseosa, the waxy substance that covered and protected her skin during her nine-month amniotic bath. Your baby swallows both of these substances, along with other secretions, resulting in a blackish mixture, called meconium, that will form the contents of her first bowel movement. At the end of this week, your baby will be considered full-term. (Full-term is 37 to 42 weeks; babies born before 37 weeks are pre-term and those born after 42 are post-term.) Most likely she's in a head-down position. But if she isn't, your practitioner may suggest scheduling an "external cephalic version," which is a fancy way of saying she'll try to coax your baby into a head-down position by manipulating her from the outside of your belly.