Fetal gymnastics

Yesterday at work I felt a massive lurch in my belly, and I thought, Uh oh, that sure felt like a baby flipping upside down. Sure enough, when I did my kick counts last night, I felt all his kicks down in my butt, and something rather like a head moving to and fro up at the top of my belly. Bad baby! That is not where I want your head to be! The real tell tale sign of position (for me) is hiccups, and I haven't felt any since the suspected somersault, so hopefully I will feel some down low soon.

And speaking of kick counts, my OB has me count for 30 minutes a day. Last night I counted 119 movements! To give you some idea of what they look for, most OBs will say there should be 4 per hour, or 10 in 2 hours. 119 in a half hour is overkill, little man! Goodness gracious this boy might be a handful.

Due to concerns about his size, and now the specter of a heads-up breech babe (though he still has lots of time to turn again), I've been trying to mentally prepare myself for the possibilities of either induction or C-section. I'm not trying to get anxious about it, but the opposite - I think it will be easier to accept if I come to terms with a non-natural birth ahead of time. Though I have many reasons why I want a natural birth, I know that my ultimate desires are for a safe delivery and healthy baby. If I can't get there with a natural birth, that's just the way it will be and it will be okay.

You would think the third trimester would be "safest" feeling time, since the baby is now well into premature viability and his chances of complications go down with every passing day, but of course I can still find ways to freak myself out. Someone on the Bump made a comment that measuring ahead could indicate too much amniotic fluid, so off I go googling and then panicking. Some of the causes of high fluid levels could be birth defects, like kidney issues or the frustratingly vague "neurological problems," which more googling finally revealed to be neural tube defects. However, rationally I know that I have already been screened multiple times for these issues, via blood test and ultrasound. And in about two thirds of the cases, high fluid levels have no particular reason whatsoever. Not to mention the fact that I don't even KNOW if I have high fluid levels!

Yes, I am crazy. Be glad you aren't married to me.

My family - the dad, stepmom, and sisters half - have scheduled their visit for next winter, in late February. It's already been over a year since we last saw them and I'm so excited for them to come here for the first time, meet the baby, see our house, and to see them. I know I'm going to be bowled over by how much older my sisters have gotten - 18 months is a long time for schoolchildren to grow. They are getting a hotel room, which is good because we really don't have the space or the furniture to host that many people. I'm not sure yet when my mom plans to visit, since she was just here in April, but I assume she will when she can.