HOW do you spend a significant amount of time on hands and knees?

[Lovage]

(keep it clean)
Baby is kind of sideways, between front-to-back and back-to-back and I'm 37 weeks. I'm really keen to encourage them to move round to back-to-front because I had a horrendously slow labour with DS which led to nasty complications and he was the right way round. Had been cheering myself up with the thought that this labour will almost certainly be much quicker, but that's much less likely if this baby is not back-to-front.

I know you are supposed to spend time on your hands and knees so gravity swings them round, but I can't do that for long before my arms start aching (have feeble arms). I can't lean over my birthing ball or the sofa because my breasts and bump are much too tender to put weight on. Also, I get bored staring at the carpet. And DS tries to climb on my back and is generally a pain.

Going swimming, I suppose, but hard to fit that in while I'm still at work - maybe once on Mat Leave. Any other suggestions? Or any other movements that are supposed to help? Have a vague memory of rotating hips while on hands and knees last time, but have forgotten why.

can you sit on an upright chair back to front - ie you face the back of the chair and lean on it's back - that way you are leaning forwards which gives the baby more room to move around.

I try to put a cushion under my knees and lean on a bean bag with my arms drapped over it, my head on it, and my boobs and bump hanging free (if you see what I mean). I turn my head to the side and watch TV. It's not especially comfortable, but it's the best that I could do with huge boobs. You'll need a big bean bag too.

I have fantasies about a comfy bed/cushion thing with a big dent in it for my bump, two smaller dents and possibly a hole for my face like a massage table. It would be lovely to be able to relax on my tummy...

I remember spending a lot of time scrubbing the floor And playing games where I crawled around with DS1.

It did work though. Was bottom down at 36 weeks, did this for a few days and then felt a massive shift round where my belly contorted into a very strange shape and then he was head down

Good luck!

What about those chairs that you kneel on en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Kneeling_chair.jpg - kneel on it and lean onto a desk? Scrubbing floors - why scrub when you can relax?

true - but then I have trouble relaxing, am described as a whirlwind by DH

surprisenumber3 - always wondered about this floor scrubbing. I have a clean floor but have never actually knelt down and scrubbed at it - especially whilst preg!!!

Nope - I have never scrubbed mine except for that time either. Why scrub when you have a mop, lol.

But, I did actually find it very therapeutic letting my belly all hang down, although my knees didn't appreciate it!

I thought that just sitting backwards on a chair/not leaning back etc. was good for encouraging the baby not to get into a bad position, but that once they were in it, you needed to be a bit more major, hence on hands and knees. But this is all vague memories - I may be talking rubbish.

Beanbag is good idea, will get it out of the garage.

Clearly floor scrubbing is the way to go! If only I wasn't so damn tired. And if only my floors weren't so covered in crap that they need hoovering first... Maybe I'll get a nesting urge in a few weeks and that'll make me actually want to scrub floors.

I could lend you my toddler. I can't bend anymore as the bump is too big and inflexible. I seem to spend about an hour a day crawling round on hands and knees to collect up toys, disgarded food etc.

Watching telly leaning over a gymball or beanbag is good too.

i actually wake up lying on my front at 35 weeks too. Luckily we have a tempur mattress and I have a small bump so hopefully baby isn't gonna come out like the paper girl on the deo ad.

The trouble with having a toddler is that while you get the incentive to go on hands and knees (to pick up crumbs and random bits of plastic that you would otherwise trip on), you also get a small person thinking that you are in the mood for a game of "horsey horsey".

Exactly! Can only really do it after he's gone to bed, which further limits the time I can spend on my hands and knees. Actually, having toddler makes me want to get down there even less as floor is always so disgusting... Clearly floor scrubbing is the answer.