It is called an unstable lie

An "unstable lie" is not like an inconvenient truth. It is what baby Radwood does- i.e. a baby that refuses to pick a position and stick with it. Since 25 weeks, baby has spent time in vertex (head firmly tucked down), frank breech (pike-position with head up, butt down, feet near chest), footling breech (feet smooshed waaaay down with head up) and transverse (horizontal, lying on its back or face). It is uncomfortable process for the baby to switch from some positions to other positions- vertex to breech, for instance, is sucky. Footling breech to transverse feels funny but actually is not uncomfortable, just odd.

So how do I know the baby is doing this? Matt and I are getting quite professional at baby-part identification. We've got head, back, butt and feet totally figured out. Arms are tricky because they are weaker and smaller, but of course the arms are not necessary if you already have one or more of the other parts determined. And arms can be figured out later in the process once the weaker punching is differentiated from the stronger, firmer kicking.

I'd rank footling breech as the least comfortable by a large margin. The baby is capable of putting very strong point pressure on my cervix and bladder, and sometimes pokes so hard I actually yelp and double over with surprise. I'm fairly sure that it is inevitable that the baby will eventually make me wet myself if it keeps this up. Additionally, when the baby is in this position, it can "stand" up in the uterus and THAT is ridiculously uncomfortable. Depending on how it is sitting when it does this, baby either;

a) wedges its grapefruit sized head up and under my ribs (ouch, achy)
b) stretches the skin of my mid-belly up and out in a very uncomfortable and freaky looking manner (bigger ouch, and creepy)

I'm very much hoping and looking forward to a return to vertex. I'm trying to stay optimistic on this- it has done it several times, it can do it again. If not, there are ways of firmly massaging it into place once it is big enough to ensure it won't spin around again. This is no fun, I've read and heard, but really I think it sounds like a good idea to me!