My foray into acupuncture.

So, tomorrow is the final attempt we will make in operation flippy baby. Last week I had chiropractics on Monday, Acupuncture on Wednesday, then Chiro again on Friday. I told him last week that I was going to give it two more attempts this week before my ultrasound on Thursday. So, on Monday we did both Chiro and acupuncture and tomorrow we will do the same. Although it has been an interesting experience, so far, it has been completely and utterly fruitless.
Although there has been some pretty grandiose movement over the last week, she clearly is still sitting straight up and down. Every night I hope that she flips while I'm sleeping. And yet, every morning, while eating my cereal, I see and feel a bony little noggin push out right up towards my ribs as if to say "Hi Mom, I'm still here!".
As for the acupuncture itself, it is pretty cool. Before pregnancy, I was rather skeeved out by needles, and to be honest, acupuncture scared the crap out of me. However, after getting stuck by a zillion needles for blood draws up until this point and the zillion more that are to come, I have gotten a lot more used to the idea and they bother me very little now. I had always heard that the needles don't hurt at all. I never could believe this, after all, it is a needle going into the skin, how could that not hurt?? Well, I am here to say, it doesn't hurt AT ALL. It's not even a pinch, or pain so negligible it is almost nothing. There is straight up no pain. Have you ever stuck a needle into a pin cushion, and felt the slight tension or push back you get from the cushion? Obviously, the pin cushion doesn't feel any pain because it is inanimate. However, somehow, that is exactly what it feels like. You just can feel the tension of the needle going in, but that is all. Very interesting stuff! So, basically the acupuncture process includes just 4 needles. One goes in on the top side of each arm near the wrist, and one on the upper side of each foot. Then, he proceeds to burn a stick of moxa (an herb) over the pinky toe. He basically holds it over one side until it gets too hot, then switches to the other.
So, even if we don't get a head-down baby, at least I've had an interesting life experience. As for the chiropractics, that has totally helped with my back pain. I'm going to go once a week for the last few weeks of the pregnancy just to keep things aligned. I've totally noticed an improvement. I always was highly skeptical of chiropractics, but I am now a believer.
As of now, I am quite certain we are going to be scheduling a c-section on Thursday. During this past week, I really have come to terms with it, and I have found myself focusing more on the positive aspects. Most of all, I think it will be great to have a set date to look forward to. Since the doc will likely want to do the c-section at 39 weeks, that means that I am very likely just about 3 weeks from having a baby. Even though this pregnancy has seemed to drag on, the fact that I am going to be a Mom so very soon is mind-blowing.