Today's scan revealed that Little Monkey has cleverly lodged himself in my pelvis in the best possible position for labour... as do hundreds of babies all the time. He's currently facing my back and bum, his spine is to my left... this is the best and easiest position for him to move gently down the birth canal during labour. Your doc will probably tell you your baby is in the anterior position. Look what this lovely article says, says right here (and I quote), "Labour is nearly always shorter and easier if the baby is anterior." YES!!! I'm all for shorter and easier labours!!!
However, some babies go down their pelvis with the back of their heads facing their mum's spines, this is the posterior position. I'm surprised to read in the same article that western women are more likely to have posterior babies compared to women who work in traditional ways such as bending over in fields or cooking pots. This is because in a western lifestyle, women sitting down get into positions where the pelvis tips backwards. When this happens, the baby's head, which is the bulk of his weight, will tip back as well.
Erm... I don't go out planting paddy in the fields or stew rabbits in a pot for Dear Hubby to eat and I pretty much lead a western sort of lifestyle ie in front of PC or telly on couch. But I automatically sat with my knees lower than my pelvis most of the time, propping myself up on cushions if needed. I didn't know there was a good reason for doing it. All I knew was that it was far more comfortable for me to sit that way. Nice to know it helped the baby get in the right position!
I have put on 20++kg now. Sigh. I picked up some groceries at Carrefour on Monday and by the time I got to the check-out counter, I was absolutely exhausted. As a friend put it, "Of course you are! It's like carrying weights around all the time!" The shape of my belly has changed as the baby has dropped. It's now hanging lower and when I sit on a chair without sufficient padding, I feel like I've got a bowling ball somewhere down there. Because of this change in belly shape, I misjudged the space I required while out shopping at Hero supermarket yesterday and got stuck between 2 shopping carts. How terribly embarrassing.
Dear Hubby is currently in KL for work and will be back this weekend, in time for the Chelsea game. He was very worried about leaving me alone but I assured him that we had good neighbours who would help if I should go into labour and that I was feeling pretty okay. Besides, I had a list of things that I wanted him to get from KL! He calls a few times every day to reassure himself that I'm fine and I try not to sms/call him unnecessarily because I know he'll just break out in cold sweat if I do, thinking the baby's come.
Doc assured me first babies will take their own sweet time to make their way out and that I would have plenty of time to get to the hospital, even in the horrendous Jakarta traffic. I'm to make my way to the hospital if I...
- have a bloody show, which is brownish-blood tinged mucus discharge
- have contractions lasting 1 min that are timed 5 min apart and lasting for about an hour
- break my bag of waters
I repeated those mentally to myself on the ride back home. Given my Mummy Brains, I knew I needed to drill that into my head so that I wouldn't go rushing for my baby books and flipping frantically through it each time I think labour's starting.
No pics of Little Monkey this time. :(( Since he was facing my back, it was quite difficult to see anything at all. But hey, I figured I'm going to see him for real quite soon, so it's okay to miss out on a picture now.
Next check up will be next week. It's either that or a birth announcement! So excited now!
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