Midwife's Appointment: Getting Him in Position

At our Wednesday weekly Midwife's Appointment (we had the same midwife we checked in with last week) we told her that I have been having some wee sciatic pain in my left glute, but it doesn't shoot down my leg, thankfully. She gave me 3 things to do.

1. Get on my hands and knees and get Mike to massage my butt. Yay!
2. Lie down on my back, bend my knees and put the soles of my feet together. Once I'm in that position I should press my feet together, 10 seconds at a time,  and I will feel tightening in my lower back and glutes. This is supposed to be good for sciatica. 
3. Lie down on my back and have Mike gently pull the opposite leg (in my case, the right leg). She demonstrated this and it felt really nice. I could imagine her being my midwife on the big day. She was gentle, yet firm. Perfection.

I told her that his movements seemed mellower. He's not karate chopping so much and she said it's because there is less room for him to move around. So there's more squirm and less kick.

She checked his heartbeat and it came in between 130-140 beats per minute which is normal. She also measured my uterus from pubic bone to the top and it came in at 40 centimeters which is on target. When feeling around for his position and learning where I feel most of his movements she believes that his back is facing back/side left, or posterior left. She said to start doing some cats and cows (pelvic tilts) to get his back to my front! I am on it like a bonnet, because no one wants to have an ultra painful back birth! She also felt for his head and she said she felt his hands up by his face. Aw, that sounds adorable. She said to put an ice pack there to get him to move his hands so that his head can drop lower. I am on that too! Gotta get him in position. So, my job tonight and every night is to ice down there near my pubic bone, get into head to chest position, and do some cats and cows to help turn the little one over.

Mike asked his usual question, "So, do you have any predictions of when the baby will come?" I love this question now, where before I thought it was silly. She said that because I've been having some regular Braxton Hicks contractions that she is thinking on time but that you just don't really know.

She also told me that at next week's  appointment, if I am indeed still pregnant, that they will do a vaginal exam to see if the cervix has begun to dilate and check for it's ripeness. Pray for a ripening cervix!