A day with Nikki

My good friend Nikki asked me to come along with her to one of her acupuncture appointment yesterday morning. Reading my last blog, you all probably saw that my midwife mentioned going to see an acupuncturist to try to get him to turn. Anyway, Nikki was kind enough to let me tag along (plus it was a good excuse to have a girls day) and see what the process was like.

When we got there we were greeted right away by her acupuncturist (a natural MD) a nice and very well dressed Chinese man ( josh would be very impressed with his outfit choice).  He introduced himself and began to do check on Nikki.

I was expecting him to have a stethoscope and listen to her lungs and heart beat, but didn't. He looked at her tongue and felt for 3 pressure points on the inside of both of her wrists, and from that he diagnosed that her tummy was not digesting in full capacity and something else which I don't remember at the moment. It was crazy to me how much information he got by just doing some simple touches and looking at the right places!

So, he then began to ask how she was feeling and started to put in the needles. He was so fast and it didn't look like Nikki felt any pain at all. I was so amazed.

After he had Nikki all dialed in; him and I began to talk about my pregnancy ( I think the big bulge in my belly kinda have it away) I told him about Brandon's position and he told me about treatment that they do at his clinic called Moxibustion. It involves a cigar looking stick called a Moxa stick. You're supposed to place the stick just beside your pinky toe; just close enough to feel the heat. He says it works about 75% of the time. They've done studies on it, and they really don't know how to explain it scientifically, but it just works!  It was kinda funny cause the acupuncturist said that he's heard an old Chinese wives tale that "the heat from the stick will make baby feel the heat on his feet too, which will make him want to change his position!" LOL!!  I was dying cause the very first image that popped into my head was Brandon stepping on hot coles and saying "ouch, ouch, ouch!"

So after that he was kind enough to give me a Moxa stick to take home and try it on my own!  I think he totally felt my desperation and worry! He showed me the points on where I should place it and told me that 5 minutes per foot, for 20 minutes,  2x's a day should work. He said good luck and sent us on our way.

Oh, check out those sausage links, eh?

When I got home that evening Josh and I wasted no time and started right away!  After about 30 seconds into the treatment Brandon was moving like crazy "Ouch, ouch, ouch" he's probably saying!  Oh lord the things we do to our child...and in my case I feel so bad, cause he's not even born yet!  I really hope that this will work.  We have our next ultrasound on Monday, so we'll see then I guess!