Our Dr.'s appointment on Thursday went well. The baby is still growing, I'm fortunately still slowing down in that respect, everybody has a strong heartbeat and my test for Group B Strep came back negative which means no need for automatic antibiotics through an IV for delivery -- yea! The only downside is the baby's downside -- it's in position to give the Dr.s a full moon upon delivery. That is, baby is in frank breech at the moment. 
There's always a chance the baby will turn head down on it's own before delivery, but it's a small chance given how far along we are and how little room there is in there to maneuver these days.
Ideally, baby would be head down facing my back like this:
We're trying to tempt the baby into this position on his/her own by putting my body in strange positions (on hands and knees, head down, bottom up; knees on the edge of the couch, hands on the floor; legs up on a chair, lying on the floor, pelvis tilted up, etc. -- basically anything to put my body at an incline and make more room in the uterus for baby acrobatics), putting cold packs near the baby's head and hot packs at the bottom of my uterus (apparently babies don't like the cold), playing music at the bottom of my uterus -- all kinds of fun stuff. I don't think baby has turned head down yet, but he/she seems to have scooted down a bit (probably from the cold packs....) and maybe rotated a bit. It's hard to tell from the outside! On the chance that we are unable to coax the baby into a better position naturally, we have an external cephalic version scheduled for Thursday morning where the Dr. will attempt to rotate the baby by pushing on my abdomen. If you're interested, you can watch one being done at this link: http://www.babycenter.com/2_lisas-birth-turning-a-breech-baby_1320895.bc I've heard varying things about external versions, from it's uncomfortable to it's quite painful. Our doula, Beth, is going to come with us to help with the nerves and keep us calm, which is key. If I can relax those uterine muscles, turning the baby will be easier. Though they will also likely give me drugs to help with that. ECV has a 58% success rate of turning a baby. The success rate goes up to 90% if the baby is in transverse lie (lying sideways in the belly), but as far as we know the baby isn't there yet. Even with successful turns, there is a chance that the baby will turn back head-up, but there isn't anything stopping us from trying to turn the baby again. The procedure is relatively non-invasive and safe, though as with anything medical, there are risks. We're going to believe the best though and assume that we're going to get this baby turned and have a natural, vaginal, medicine free birth in a few weeks. It is entirely possible to have a vaginal breech birth, however not many Dr.s are trained in this procedure anymore. If it's an issue after Thursday we'll be discussing this with our Dr. We are encouraged by the fact that she immediately suggested an inversion instead of giving us automatic c-section status, so maybe she is skilled in birthing breech babies too. No matter what, we are determined to continue educating ourselves so that we can make the best possible decision for both mommy and baby. The most important thing is that everyone comes home happy and healthy as quickly as possible after the birth so that we can start our life together as a family. On a lighter note, Scott is now convinced that this baby has inherited the stubborn streak that runs through most all of it's family line (the Ross, the Albrecht, and the Reithel families, we could probably safely add the Marty's in there too...) -- a baby that knows what it likes and stands up (or sits up...) for what it wants -- I'll take it :)
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