Just a quick note – we’re going in at 9am tomorrow for the ECV to see if this stubborn baby will turn or not. The doctor says it’s 50% effective – and we’ll know quickly. And, reassuringly, less than 1% of ECVs result in fetal distress, so Amy and I are both reassured. It’s a very slim chance baby Trotz will arrive tomorrow from complications. But if the ECV doesn’t ‘take,’ we’ll will likely schedule the Cesearean birth between March 21st and 31st. Mark your calendars!

So, we’re in week 37. Can you believe it? But baby Trotz has decided that nestling transversely across Amy’s pelvis is the place to be. We are heading into the doctor’s today to determine if a external cephalic version (ECV) is in order – that’s when the doc tells you to take a deep breath, and manually pushes the baby around in your womb to try to get them head first. In preparation for this, Amy has been lying more or less on her head (supposedly makes the baby move around to a more comfortable position). But any slight moves by the baby in the right direction seem to go away as soon as Amy starts playing her horn. Baby Trotz seems to want to turn their head right back to the bell! A budding musician, I guess. Did I mention that our house smells like an opium den now?

Last night Amy broke out a Chinese herbal ‘do it yourself’ solution. The heat from burning moxa sticks can also be used to stimulate the baby’s movements and encourage it to turn. There’s a great site which explains the procedure, and the basis for the process in Eastern medicine.

Traditional Chinese medicine uses moxibustion (burning herbs to stimulate acupuncture points) of acupoint BL 67 (Zhiyin, located beside the outer corner of the fifth toenail), to promote version of fetuses in breech presentation.

The process involves burning these sticks less than 1″ away from the little toes on either foot (see photo). I hope it works, cause they stink up the house something awful! Anyway, this treatment is succesful with approximately 70% of patients.