Revolution

August 18

Folks,

Update, good news. We were, as you might know, concerned over the last few weeks that the baby was still breech. In the U.S., doctors (and even midwives) won't even try to deliver a breech baby; they simply schedule a c-section at 39 weeks. Obviously, this was not our ideal choice. So as we entered the last few weeks of the pregnancy, we were increasingly anxious for the little plum to hurry up and turn over.

Sarah faithfully went through a regimen of (a) chiropractice sessions designed to help stubborn plums turn (b) a bizarre acupressure/aromatherapy technique know as "moxibustion" (c) a fair amount of swimming and wading and sloshing around (d) dangling from things (e.g. the side of the bed, or soft chairs.) She did not, as some sources suggested, hang the pictures upside down on our walls, or put a radio down her pants and encourage the baby to "go toward the sound". The flashlight technique (designed along similar lines) was RIGHT OUT.

Then, last Friday night, she (and in some measure, I) was up much of the night with extreme back pain and vomiting. The pain went away; we had a good weekend. Celebrating my birthday early, we went sailing on Lake Michigan for the first time, and had a nice dinner with a bunch of good friends, including TJ, who came in from out of town.

Today: midwife appointment. After some poking and prodding, and some mutterings about how "not sure there was a . . . .limb . . . there before" and "well, that's certainly round" and "well, if that's that, then what's this?", it was concluded that the baby had -- indeed -- turned HEAD DOWN. (As in the excellent novel "Ender's Game", "The other team's gate is DOWN.") Success!

So was the night of back pain related to the baby moving into a new position? It seems possible. Sarah had had another chiropractice session that same day. She had also swum and waded and sloshed around in a bouncy fashion (I know, because I was there). But we'll never know for sure; maybe the baby just turned on its own because it is SMART. In any case, now that the passenger seems to be heading for the exit, everyone think downward thoughts. In a few weeks, we'll get to see the results!