Has my bump dropped?

[Focusfocus]

Background - First pregnancy, 34 weeks, family history of labours at 36/37 weeks, ethnic statistical propensity (compared to Caucasian white women) of labours closer to the earlier end of 37-42 weeks than the latter end.

So I wake up this morning to feel a sensation of a stone on my bladder. And surprising ease of breathing. Not per oregnancy like but suddenly voila I can wit a hands with under my bra and the top of the bump easily. Can take those long deep sllllooow breaths suddenly however bladder feels like it has a mountain balanced on it.

Attached hasty pic with one hand. Does this look or sound like a dropped bump? If so I am probably in trouble as baby is apparently back to back and I wanted him to turn before engaging. But what shall I say, I have no experience so can someone interpret for me? Pic attached

And here's a clothes free pic sorry if tmi but for perspective!

Bump (no pun intended)

Even if you bump has 'dropped' and the baby has engaged, it bears no relation to labour. Studies show that the baby engaging has nothing to do with labour being imminent. With a first baby in particular you can expect them to engage early. My first engaged at 31 weeks and was fully engaged and fixed. She stayed there for 8 weeks. My second never engaged and I still went into spontaneous labour.

If you can breathe more easily and the pressure has moved down, it's probable that the baby has started to engage. Doesn't matter if the baby's back to back. They can still turn, many turn during labour and even if they don't, back to back is a 'normal' position and it doesn't mean that your labour will definitely be difficult. Back to back babies do statistically take longer and the pain is different but many women find it an easier delivery than an anterior baby. Don't worry that it means something negative at all. It just means your baby's happy in that position atm.

You can try things like the spinning baby methods to turn the baby but it may have turned already, it may not turn at all, it may swing around for a while yet.

Try not to worry. You have nothing to worry about at all as far as I can see.

Hello ......i'm 34 weeks today and my bump dropped two weeks ago. Looks very much the same as yours. The midwife confirmed the baby now has her head in the rim of my pelvis.

I had the same feeling of being able to breathe a little easier.....but much more pressure now on my bladder. Am often afraid i may wet myself when baby wiggles !!!!!

I was also told that this is no indication that baby will come early....just lucky that she is head down as opposed to breach !!!!

Thanks all! I can definitely breathe easier and people at work, Marks and SPencers and the Vet Receptionist also asked if I am due very soon :( The vet lady even said their vet nurses are trained anyway in case it happens then and there. Scary shit.

Sorry, doesn't look like your bump has dropped to me! Keep us posted on your little one's arrival though! Exciting times :)

I don't really hold with this whole 'looking like it's dropped' thing anyway. My bumps never 'dropped' even though dd went from free and high to fully engaged almost overnight. Bump looked the same.

And people asked me if I was nearly due from around 27 weeks. I have a short abdomen and had a lot of amniotic fluid. It does NOT mean it's imminent.

You sound a little panicked tbh. Are you just worried about it being slightly early because I promise you, there are no indications atm that labour is about to start. Are you worried about the birth in general?

Focus, hope you are doing well and not too worried. I'm also getting days where baby is lower and I can breathe/eat more easily, but then after a couple of days she changes position again (contrary little thing!). No need to panic, you could well still be many weeks yet (sorry if that's not what you wanted to hear!).

Permets tu (French?) let me say this with a big smile - I am not at all worried :-) I am looking forward to the birth next monthish whenever it happens. I am not remotely scared of giving birth. At all. As in - at all. I am curious, yes. But not scared.

It's so hard to read tone online isn't it? I'm the chilledoutest, happiest, unstressedest person ever. I was simply curious about my sudden breathing space and the difference in bump, that is truly all.

And panicked I most definitely am not. Have been a mindfulness meditator for wayyyy too long and through way too many situations to ever panick really :-)

It is hard to read tone online! I was thrown by the face and the 'scary shit' and your references to being 'in trouble'. You just sounded a tad worried about things you don't need to be worried about.

Glad to hear you're happy as larry.

I saw you on another thread earlier (that sounds stalkerish, but it really isn't) and your birth preferences and attitude sound just about perfect. All the best, congratulations and you have a ruddy neat bump. I am horribly jealous. When pregnant, I turned into a weeble.

My bump is that low, I am 36 weeks and my bump has been low for many weeks now. The midwife said the head is on the brim of my pelvis but the baby can still move and become 'free' again. I don't think the bump being low is a certain indicator of when labour will start.

Hahaha permetstu appearances are well deceptive. IF You knew how much weight I've put on despite containing in my pre pregnancy size clothes comfortably your eyes would pop out!i don't entirely understand it. Writing this in my non maternity regular size 12 yoga pants, sitting comfy, wearing my ore pregnancy bra, comfy, wearing my old comfy shoes no swollen ankles, but heyyyyy the weighing scales are about to give. Where on earth is it all going?! I swear eating lettuce is sticking to me

I was exactly the same with my second. The scales were crying by the end of it and the baby only weighed 6lbs. Most of me was exactly the same size. However, my waters broke 38 hours before he was born and I weighed myself once they'd completely gone but ds was still in situ and I'd lost a whole stone. That was just my waters. I can only assume that he'd built a swimming pool in there.

And they broke while I was asleep. Oh the mess.

That photo's me at 35 weeks.

That's not a weeble!!!! That's very very trim!

My bump dropped and the baby was engaged at 32 weeks. I went into labour at 40+5 :)

Re the weight part, I put on four stone and was down by 2 stone within a week, and at fifteen weeks post birth down by 3stone 4lbs. I was massive towards the end lol.

After my 2nd, I was less than my pre-pregnancy weight at 9 weeks (granted, I was walking/jogging 6 miles a day because DC1 had started school and I didn't drive, I had one child in a sling, the other on my back sometimes, school bags, coats and all sorts of crap). I put on nearly 4 stone when pregnant with DS. From the photo above, I don't understand where. The rest of me didn't change.

In a way, I sort of miss that bump. It was almost its own land mass. I kept waiting for somebody to stick a flag in it.

Just an update - following my antenatal appointment today.

So - it seems I was right - bump has indeed "lightened/quickened/dropped" - Midwife said so within a minute of my arrival - then she did her palpation and said from being NE i.e. "not engaged" (on my notes till now) - this time he is "on the brim" - so instead of NE which she was writing in the notes till now she wrote "BRIM" in my green notes.

Presentation is cephalic and I was misinterpreting the back to back bit - turns out he actually lies with his spine along my belly on my left - his head at the brim now and cepahlic with his limbs sometimes thrashing to my right.

But yeah he is definitely lower and midwife fitted two hand widths under my bra strap and beginning of the bump. that was the update :)