My baby has engaged!

[Fat Scottish Gal]

I'm 34 weeks plus a few. The past few days my belly shape looks different and I've had loads of cramps and lower backache and sore pelvis. Midwife felt around yesterday and says the baby is engaged! Which really surprised me. Because my first 4 babies didn't engage until labor. And my last baby engaged right at the end, not long before labor (like maybe a couple of days at most).

It explains a lot. And is kind of exciting that things are moving along. I am sooo not ready for the birth yet and need to get a move on! I don't have a birth kit or car seat or anything. But I usually have my babies late so I'm sure I still have loads of time. But still, this is a reminder to me to start getting a move on!

Anyone else's baby engaged? Or how early has it happened in a previous pregnancy?

[WifeofAnt]

Mine bounces down occasionally but won't stay down.

[Multimomma]

Good for you! I don't usually engage either, but I do start dilating about eight weeks out, with lots of prodormal labor. I'm at one cm now, and starting to get soft, so

[Bebegim]

huh?! i had have all those same symptoms! All of a sudden last week my belly sank down a bit, Im getting way more feet in the lungs, my cervix is actually hurting more than when he was breech and kicking it. I have almost constant period like cramping in my back and front. If I sat on the potty all day, I would pee every 5 minutes. I thought maybe he was just getting bigger, but now I wonder, maybe he's engaged. My mw doesnt check me down there, so I dont think she'd have known at our last appt. Can you tell just by feeling the baby from the outside?

[Fat Scottish Gal]

Yeah I didn't have a cervical exam or anything. She just felt my abdomin. I can feel it too, right at the pubic bone, press down and you'll feel the shape of the head. Before, it was free and would move about, I could feel that the head was down there, but bouncing around. Now the baby is right in the center and the head is down quite far, like just above my pubic bone you feel a thick part of the head instead of feeling the top of the head. Does that make sense? It's a hard, thick fetal pole. Before I could feel down there and feel like the top of the head and it would be to the right or left a bit.

Your symptoms do sound like you baby may have dropped and settled in down there. It's so exciting!

I'm losing tons of plug now, just because the baby is bouncing off my cervix all the time now and dislodging it I guess. It's uncomfortable, but still exciting. I'm sure I still have many weeks left, but it's fun to be counting down now instead of countng up.

[ein328]

Originally Posted by Bebegim

huh?! i had have all those same symptoms! All of a sudden last week my belly sank down a bit, Im getting way more feet in the lungs, my cervix is actually hurting more than when he was breech and kicking it. I have almost constant period like cramping in my back and front. If I sat on the potty all day, I would pee every 5 minutes. I thought maybe he was just getting bigger, but now I wonder, maybe he's engaged. My mw doesnt check me down there, so I dont think she'd have known at our last appt. Can you tell just by feeling the baby from the outside?

A skilled MW will be able to tell externally. If you are able to relax adequately, she'll be able to use her hands to feel for baby's head. When I was pregnant with DD, my mw explained it to me as she did it- only it's a lot easier to feel it on someone else than on yourself.