Full term today!

Today I'm exactly 37 weeks pregnant. It's very hard to believe! I'm so glad we are nearing the end though. It's been an incredible journey that we are even at this point, but I'm looking forward to getting to the new phase of a family of five and feeling back to my old self.

Last week things took an interesting turn. I had my regular doctor's appointment (which was actually with the nurse practitioner this time). When she asked about kick counts (how much I'm feeling the baby move) I admitted it has slowed down and that really, I've never felt all that much movement. That seemed to concern her, and coupled with my fears about there being a reason for the baby being breeched, I finally agreed to have her send me to the hospital for some monitoring.

They started with an ultrasound. I informed the nurse that she was breech before we started. She looked at the screen and said, "She's not breech! She is head down now!" Literally that morning at the doctor's office I could feel her transverse - head on one side and butt on the other. In the intervening 3 hours she had gone head down - I was floored. The nurse said she didn't think she would turn again at this point and since then I'm pretty sure she has stayed down. I'm absolutely floored by this as I was all geared up for a c section, but to be honest have been elated that I can try for the vaginal birth now. Not because I want that experience, just because I know recovery will likely be so much easier. Everything looked great - I had more than enough amniotic fluid, baby moved all the time, had the right heart rate, etc. I hardly felt anything while she was moving on the monitor, so that answered my questions; the nurse said I'm one of the rare people who never feel that much - probably because I have a lot of amniotic fluid and an anterior placenta combined.

I was also having contractions every 10 minutes with a lot of intermediate "irritability" (small contractions). She said that would cause me to not feel as much movement too, because I have so many small contractions all the time.

On Friday I had a TON of contractions - almost constant. I thought maybe that was going to be it. But they eventually subsided and I've not had too many since. I must admit that it's a bit more exciting now wondering when labor will happen rather than waiting for the c section. Before I was SCARED of labor starting before the scheduled c section but now I can look forward to it. Interestingly I don't feel the fear I did at one time about going into labor. I think I can handle it much better than the c section at this point. My how my perspective has changed! lol

I have a doctor's appointment tomorrow and I'll post an update after that.