Crab Walking at 34 Weeks

Yesterday, I had my 1st booking in appointment at the hospital that I'm going to give birth in - a public hospital in the Shire about 15 mins from home, the same one we went to when we had Ayisha.

It's obviously very late for a 1st appointment but they understood that we've been living in Bali and happily accepted us anyway.

I haven't given birth anywhere else in the world so I couldn't really compare but I had such a lovely & pleasant experience with Ayisha the last time, I really didn't mind having it here again. The midwives were wonderful and took great care of us all. It made me feel a tiny bit guilty that it doesn't cost us anything - it's all free!

The appointment went quite well. Everything's going along pretty nicely but apparently the baby is in a breech position (head up, bottom down). It's not a major concern yet as according to Cindy, the midwife in charge, there's still time and room for the baby to move to a desired position. But if that doesn't happen by the next appointment, about 3 weeks from now, they might have to try move it manually and if that doesn't work then a caesarean section would have to be booked in.

I'm not so worried about it yet. Ok, I was terribly worried at the time but because Cindy assured me that it's quite common and there's still plenty of time for the baby to move, plus the fact that the baby's actively moving, she's pretty confident it will all be ok. So that made me feel ok too lah.

In the meantime, Cindy suggested crab-walking to help baby move into position, she even did a demo. How? Feet planted on the ground with bended knees, hands on the back with your butt lifted up. Then move your hands & feet sideways, you know, just like a crab. I just did it 30 mins ago. Not easy. I could only move 4 times to the left & 4 to the right, not even a minute passed by. Then I felt the baby moving like crazy and my butt fell flat on the ground.

I felt a lot more movement with this one compared to Ayisha. Last time, Ayisha only moved mildly and I remembered she moved a lot on the right side, very consistently that the very rare occasion when I felt a bump on my left, I got all super excited and carried away.

This time, it's up, down, left, right and all around. Very active. You know how you read about mums saying how they felt the baby's foot is kicking and the elbow's punching etc? I'm not one of those. I honestly do not know which one's which. I don't know if the weird looking shape poking & protruding my tummy is the baby's elbow or the foot or bum or what. But I felt it all the time, all day long. It's nice :)

I only have 2 more check-up appointments to go, unless if there's any problems or if the baby's overdue. Then it's labour time! Erk.. Not very long to go now. I've actually just started to organise & pack my hospital bag, which according to the checklist provided, should be done about 4 weeks ago. Haih...

Anyways, I hope it will all be ok and everything will go on smoothly & safely for us. In the meantime, gotta put my crab-walking moves on!