Do you know when the baby 'turns'?

[HPonEverything]

I don't like poking and prodding it too much and I'm not very good at identifying different bits of it anyway but I wondered if you can feel it when it turns to be head down?

Sorry if this question is really naive.

I am 34 weeks and baby has been oblique a lot (lying sideways) When I went for scan last week he was head down until I walked out the door an the same at MW today, little bugger plays at being well behaved for doctors. MW said as he is sooooo active he may not stay head down and is also back to back but she thinks it will be fine and have been told to sit upright more. They start turning from 30 weeks and if they haven't by 36 you can crawl around on hands and knees ect to encourage it. They are able to turn right at the last moment too I have been told.

You're supposed to be able to tell how he/she is positioned by where the kicks (ie the big kicks, which are surely feet) are (rib? front of belly? other?). Then, of course, don't forget about the smaller elbow pokes being somewhere else. Do you have any idea from this?

With DS he was an unstable lie around 32 to 34 weeks. One day I felt the most almighty movement when he went head down and stayed that way.

With DD I really couldn't tell and neither could the midwife - in one appointment she was convinced DD was breech and then said either I had a baby with two heads or a very bony bottom

The baby moves constantly so it's really hard to tell what's going on, I am convinced baby has St Vitus Dance. Its head is still uppermost though (according to MW), I've definitely had no rib kicking, it's all very low down. Early days though, I have 7wks left :) Thanks all.

I found I could usually tell when really big movements were happening. DD1 was breech at one point late on, and turned one day in a very uncomfortable big scraping sensation! You can often tell they've moved, just because different bits of you are being jabbed, poked and kicked! And it is amazing how confused experienced mws can be about heads and bums!!!

DC3 was breech till 32 weeks, one evening he was really active, but nothing out of the ordinary.

The next day I started getting tighteings and too myself off to the hospital.

Scan by consultant showed that DC3 was now cephalic!

I was really shocked as had been expecting some huge and really uncomfortable movement.

So the short answer is no, not in my experience

G/C sorry, I am 34+5 and last night ended up on the phone to delivery in a panic because I was led in the bath and had major pain aroung my old section scar which scared me. Anyway long story short it eased after an hour and I didn't go in. Anyway all the kicks that followed have been quite intense and low down on the left side.

This baby has been head down for a while now infact weeks, and was head down on Monday for the scan.
Could it have moved and this is why I got so much pain in my lower part?
Also experiencing cervical bashes which I haven't felt before last night.

Hope you're OK nunnie. Hard to tell what caused the pain, but I would say I had various nasty pains in my scar during my second pg, I think because I had a lot of adhesions joining my uterus to my bladder (nice!). When the baby moved the wrong way, or my uterus stretched, it did sometimes get very painful indeed. I wonder if the baby was just having a good wriggle, maybe if you were lying in the bath it could have rotated slightly, so the limbs moved into a different place. DD1 always went mad whenever I had a bath! Or maybe it has started to drop down a bit more? When DD1 actually turned head down, it was a real cement-mixer feeling - hard to describe. When is your next mw appointment? Sorry not to be able to help more.

I think mine turned last night as it was like WW3 in my tum and then I felt new sensations of pressure on the poor old pelvic floor (its DC2 so its not in the best of shapes).

I could tell because most of the kicking changed from being near my appendix scar (ouch) to being in my ribs. He also likes to stretch so bum pushes one side of stomach and legs push the other. Hope that makes sense. Like someone said, they don't tend to choose a permanent position until 37 weeks.

I have found leaning on my birthing ball while watching tv has really helped. Takes the pressure of your back and encourages good position

I thought I was going into labour, or at the very least having bad braxton-hicks suddenly, when I was 38 weeks, but then after a couple hours it calmed down and I saw the midwife the next morning who said 'excellent news - your baby has gone from breech to head-down, and starting to engage'

He still managed to kick like an octopus though!

Catsycat, I am fine today a little tired as sleep wasn't really something I fancied last night. My next midwife appointment is the 30th so not long really. I have never been able to tell position myself so can't really tell which bits are where. May well just have dropped slightly more which I suppose would interfere with the scar a bit more, there is no sign at all that there was any pain last night so I am going on the belief that can only be a good thing.
Thank you for your reply.

That's good to hear nunnie.

This is my 3rd baby in 3 years, so you would think I'd be an expert -but no idea!!
My midwife said I was oblique breech at 36 weeks, so went for a scan at 37 weeks.
I had managed to turn it from oblique, to bum down breech.
They said to go back today ( 2 days later ) and they were going to try and turn it.
I spent the 2 days, just crawling around with the kids, on all fours. And at night I watched tele, with my elbows on the floor, bum in the air, rocking/wiggling/rotating.
I woke up this morning with a really sore back and hips, due to all the exercise!
I was really nervous about getting the baby turned, and had to take a hospital bag, as advised incase of any complications.
They booked me in, and did a scan - it had turned to head down in 2 days, and I didn't have a clue

Only with ds1, my second pg, he was breech for quite awhile, but around 36 weeks had a movement that had me clinging from the ceiling . I did have polyhydramnios ++++ so he had plenty of wiggle room though.