Leopold Maneuver

In the thick of Week 34. Mary had her two week check up with the midwife this morning. She's a really nice woman who has given birth to two of her own children already. I guess I'm becoming more and more comfortable with the check ups because I asked for a demonstration of the best way to do the leopold maneuver.



This is something that Mary learned about in one of her nursing classes and has been asking me to try ever since. According to Mary, I never do it right. Basically, you cup each of your hands on Mary's belly and push in until you feel the baby. This way you can check to find out in what position the baby is laying. It can be pretty freaky because you can actually feel Boom Boom move from left to right and back when you push. You can also feel the little arms and legs. However, I've yet to get a good grip of any appendage. I'm always afraid I'm going to hurt the little shaver by pushing too hard or poking his/her head, but I've been assured that I won't.

Finally, I think Mary and are all but finished with this week-by-week "what to expect" book we've been reading. Honestly, I think the authors are just running out of things to say. "Yup, you're getting bigger." "Uh huh, the baby will be moving around a lot." So they start talking about all the horrible things that can go wrong. If something is wrong so be it, but neither of us wants to dwell on the "what-ifs", so I think the book is headed back to the shelf. Now we've moved on to the do's and don'ts of breast feeding. Yay!