Cletus the Fetus is facing the wrong direction! We have a breech baby on our hands. At our doctors appointment on Tuesday we saw a new doctor (our regular OB is on vacation this week) who wasn't sure the head was still down so she brought in an ultrasound machine and clear as day the baby's head was right up there by my ribs. The doctor said that if we wanted to do a "manual version" where the push on your belly to try and turn the baby around, we'd have to decide to do this by tomorrow (39 weeks) and go in for an induction immediately afterwards... which wouldn't be easy and would probably make for a more difficult birth. Hospitals won't deliver breech babies anymore under any circumstances (Brian's mom had breech twins naturally!) but we are holding out hope that the baby will flip itself around and we'll be able to have a natural birth too. If not, we're looking at a C-section but won't schedule it until I actually go into labor (or at least that is our plan until we talk to our OB on Monday when she gets back).

So we've been looking for ways to make a baby flip! There are lots of "home remedies" online and some the doctor recommended (swimming was number one from both sources). Our favorites are:

1) Flashlight - tracking a light from the top of your belly down to "entice" the baby to move (Claire asked if they thought the baby was a moth)
2) Lots of orange juice = Apparently babies move more after a sugar high
3) Headphones - on the bottom of the belly (actually it said you can put them in "moms underwear 8-10 minutes a day" but that's just wrong and TMI!)
4) A clothespin on the little pinky toe = supposed to be a accupressure spot called "moving down"

What we've tried:

The Bathtub = Last night we went to my parents house and I floated around in the gigantic bathtub in my swim suit while Heff and my mom brought ice bags and frozen blueberries to put on the top of my belly to get the baby to move away from the cold. I looked very silly and told Heff and Jan this was NOT photo material for the blog. Oh Cletus the things I am doing for you already!

The Pool = Tonight Heff took me to actually swim in the Burgess/Menlo Park pool by our house... it felt great! The pool was really warm and had a deep-end so I tried some handstands and "deep water submersion" which is supposed to increase amniotic fluid and help the baby be able to turn. Heff waited patiently at the end of the pool working on some fun legal stuff and I'm sure laughing at his whale of a wife in a bathing suit doing laps and handstands in a swimming pool! (Thanks Skidmores for offering your pool too, we might be coming over:)

We're hoping Cletus flips back around. My belly is "higher" than ever so no matter what it seems like we probaly still have awhile before this baby is ready to make it's appearance.**