Week 32: Choosing our Battles  

The little bugger is becoming a pain ... literally. My sciatic nerve has been bothering me lately. My doctor explained that it's due to her position. She's apparently looking for a change of scenery, as her head is now towards my right hip and her feet up by the left part of my ribs. She's now diagonal.  

Not pointing downwards???    "She's going to flip!," I thought. "A breech baby." As I began to jump to conclusions, I began to worry.  

Thoughts of a C-section entered my head. Or, worse yet (depending on how you look at it), the dreaded "manual manipulation," where the OB tries to turn the baby by pressing externally on the abdomen. Three years later, my friend can still recall with vivid detail how much that one hurt.  

I'm a pretty proactive person, so rather than wait to see if Baby actually does do the flip on her own, I decided to take matters in my own hands. On walks, when often I get this sense she might be creeping up, I gently rub downwards on my belly. A subtle coax, if you will. I've tried sleeping on the opposite side that I normally do. And, on the recommendation of my sister, I took a cold wash cloth to my upper belly and warm one to my lower - the idea being the baby's head will be drawn toward the warmth and away from the cold. She said it worked for her; I have no idea if it has worked for me. I'm getting kicks and punches in all directions now, which means I probably did nothing more than tick Baby off.  

The washcloth, the sleeping, the hands-on coaxing. - I have no idea is these are effective in the least - but they make me think of the little tricks we attempt in trying to bring some sense of control or understanding to our pregnancies. Baby overdue? Have sex. Or better yet, eat a roasted jalapeno. (I can imagine that one working.) Want to know the gender? Listen to the heart rate. (Girls are said to be faster.) Baby born with lots of hair? Must have been all that spicy food you ate during the pregnancy.  

In my first pregnancy, I developed a form of preeclampsia that went undetected until the birth. Now in my second, I'm doing everything I can to avoid that scenario again. I'm eating healthier. I'm more active and less stressed out (or as much as one can be with a three-year-old). But the truth is, I'm just trying to control something that I may have very little control over, much like the baby flipping. If she wants to do a 180 in my belly, I have to believe she's just going to do it. But somehow it makes me feel better than I'm trying to convince her to do otherwise.  

Is this a set-up for raising children? They're dead-set on doing something, and then we step in, with a gentle (or not so gentle) urging to do the opposite. She wants her way. I want mine.  

I'd like to say we could meet halfway on this one, which is often good advice in maintaining a healthy relationships. But I think someone will get the upper hand. Hopefully, it won't be my doctor's.