37 weeks pregnant - FULL TERM, trying not to stress, & early birthday date night

So I am 37 weeks pregnant which means I am now considered full term. That is a bit of a relief but I still want him to stay in there a bit longer. I am so excited to meet him and I really think I get more excited to meet him each day but I know in my heart that it is better for him to stay in there until he is ready. I also know that he develops a bit more each day so it is definitely the healthier option. As far as symptoms go, some days I get a bit more back pain then others and on Monday I was pretty nauseous in the morning. Not sure why...

So for those of you that have read my blog the last couple weeks, you know that at my 36 week ultrasound and midwife appointment our little guy was still breech. I was stressing out pretty bad. I called to get into a naturopath, osteopath, and the chiropractor. I also told my midwife to go ahead and contact the hospital about an ECV (External cephalic version) which is where they manually turn the baby. I wasn't able to get an appointment with the osteopath or chiropractor in time but I was able to get an appointment with the naturopath for Tuesday. However, I thought things over, did a bit more reading, and kind of changed my perspective. Instead of seeing all of these specialists and trying all of these techniques at this point, I still want to give him a bit more time to turn on his own. During the later part of last week, I was trying not to stress out about it so much. Don't get me wrong, I really want a natural birth and to avoid a c-section but I was reading that most babies will turn on their own and I definitely feel that this is the better and safer option especially in comparison to the ECV.

Even though I have opted to put off seeing these specialists for a bit, I have still been doing a bit of the home remedies. I have been sitting and bouncing on my yoga ball, swimming and doing handstands in the pool, hip rotations, various yoga poses, pelvic tilts etc. I also read that if your baby is breech and you always sleep on one side then it might be best to try sleeping on the other side for a couple of nights. Anyway, for most of my pregnancy, I have been sleeping on my left side so for the last few nights I have been trying to sleep on the right side. I find it a bit uncomfortable to sleep on the right but then on Sunday night I felt a pretty big movement while sleeping on my right side so I was hoping that it meant he turned around. 

Well I had my 37 week midwife appointment today and while my blood pressure, the baby's heart rate and my fundal measurement were all great, it appears that he is still breech. However, this is just based on the midwife and the midwifery student feeling my belly and not an ultrasound but it did get me a little down in spirits. I was really trying to be positive and I thought there was a chance he turned but I was still feeling kicks on the lower left side of my belly which is where I have been feeling kicks for weeks. So even though I was trying to remain positive, I wasn't entirely surprised he was still breech. They also think he is posterior at the moment. They showed me on the doll what they were guessing his position to be which looked more like a complete breech and last week at my ultrasound he was "frank breech" but again this was just based on them feeling my belly. 

At my midwife appointment this week I also had my group B strep test and I will get my results back from that at my next appointment which is next week. We also discussed the option of having a C-section if he stays breech. As I may have mentioned before, the thoughts on c-sections for breech births is changing in the medical community and more doctors are doing breech vaginal deliveries. In fact, at the hospital I plan to deliver at there is a breech team that specializes in breech deliveries so we aren't scheduling a c-section at this point. However, should I go into labor, they will do another ultrasound to see if he is still breech and if so, I meet the criteria for having a breech vaginal delivery. The ECV was brought up again. I really do not want to take this route but the midwife and the midwifery student still thinks it is a good option. They will be contacting the hospital about it. If I do end up scheduling it, I am going to try and schedule it as late as possible in order to give the baby the most time to turn on his own. I was trying to state how nervous I was about it and hint that I didn't want it but they just kept trying to reassure me. The midwifery student had a successful ECV at 38 weeks so she seemed to push it as a good option. I know that they will do an ultrasound before the procedure to make sure he is still breech but I still really want to avoid having it done. I kinda feel like I should have stated specifically that I didn't want it instead of trying to hint that I didn't want it. If it comes up at my next appointment, I might try that approach.

So even though my birthday is not until the end of the month, Mitch took me out this past weekend for my birthday date weekend. We went to Fat Tuesday's which is a New Orleans style restaurant in the market, to the casino, then we stayed at the Brookstreet and had a nice brunch at Alice's Cafe in Carp the next day. It was a great weekend and fun to get dressed up. It might be the last time that we get dressed up and go out for a while so I definitely tried to make the best of it. Oh and we both won a bit at the casino which made it an extra good night. Here is a pic below of me at 36.5 weeks pregnant. I still fit into my regular little black dress but those are the only tights that fit me at this point:

baby bump measurement: 38.75 inches