37 weeks, 5 days

This past Monday was J's birthday! We took a mini-trip to a nearby coastal town, had yummy lunch at a super cute bar/restaurant, stopped by a "fancy" Taco Bell by the beach, and visited a lighthouse. 

It was a good day! 

37 weeks

Last Wednesday, I had my first appointment with UCSF (we switched over from Kaiser). Turns out, baby is breech just like J was when he was a little fetus. 

By 37 weeks, babies are usually head down and ready to go, but not ours! We've been trying all kinds of things to turn the baby, but so far, he won't move. I can feel the back of his little head at the top of my belly, he's just sitting cross-legged in there.

So far, I've been spending some time upside-down. Half on the couch, half on the floor.

I've tried putting a bag of frozen berries at the top of my belly to try to get him to move down. 

I've played music on my iPhone and put it in between my legs.

I've shined a flashlight down there to try to get his attention.

As you can see, I'm getting pretty desperate.

After our second appointment on Friday, I went to an acupuncturist and had moxibustion done. It's also supposed to be really effective in turning breech babies. They even sent me home with a moxa stick for me to continue the practice until he turns.

You're supposed to light it up like an incense and put it close to the corner of your pinky toe. Once it gets hot, you move it away, and go to the other foot. 

The radiant heat produced stimulates the acupuncture point that activates the uterus.

 Moxa is said to have a warming effect which promotes movement and activity. Hopefully, this will help turn baby head-down!

If not, we have another appointment on Tuesday to "turn" the baby with an external cephalic version. There's a very, very small chance that I might go into labor because of this procedure so we're going to bring our hospital bags and we've installed the carseat. 

I hope all goes well!

In other news, the weather has been really nice lately. It makes our neighborhood feel extra cheery and happy with all its brightly painted houses.

Here I am with my 37 week belly:

Oh yeah! Aside from finding out that baby is breech, we also found out that he has hair! We saw it on the ultrasound. It was very cute hair.

35 weeks, 5 days

I don't feel big, but when I see myself in pictures, I realize that I have a giant pregnant belly! In restaurants, I still try to squeeze in-between chairs, but then realize that I don't fit and do the awkward, "oops! excuse me, excuse me" thing. 

I still wear non-maternity dresses because they fit, but then I'll look in the mirror and realize that the belly is lifting the skirt up wayyyy too high, and that the dress is now inappropriate for a pregnant lady.

It's so weird how much my body has changed, but I don't realize it. The other night, I ran into the kitchen because I forgot to turn off the stove, and our doula was shocked at how fast I was moving for a person who is 8 months pregnant. 

Because of this, I feel like I need to document these last remaining weeks of the pregnancy. If I can't realize it now, I'm sure I won't remember it later.

35 weeks, 2 days

This past weekend, we had some people over for spontaneous hot pot and a yucky jelly bean game.

It was fun!

35 weeks

My birth plan.

I know things don't always go according to plan, but ideally, these are our preferences.

I wonder how things will eventually turn out.