Friday, December 04, 2009

Once More Unto the Breech...

So, at 36 weeks we start having the up-close-and-personal style appointments once a week. Without getting graphic, the doctor checks to see how things are progressing, and checks the baby's position. The first of these appointments left us feeling pretty good - dilated (already!) 1cm, and baby has his head pointed down, in the proper "exit" position.

At least that's what the doctor thought. At 38 weeks (we skipped a week because of Thanksgiving), a different doctor said 2cm, but wasn't quite positive about the position, so he hauled out the ultrasound machine. The verdict was that, like his mother, this baby is NOT turned in the proper direction. Now, when I was born, they just went ahead and delivered me butt first. However, I think that the liability has now caught up with the medical profession, and this is no longer an option.

So, despite this being just a faint glimmer in the (unofficial) birth plan, we are now scheduled for a C-section on December 14th. If the baby gets with the program and flips around, we will cancel it and wait for labor. We are doing all sorts of things to try and get the baby to somersault... some of it seems almost like old wives' tales, but if it's not going to hurt anything and might help, we're trying it. I'm not comfortable with "inversion" where they try and manually flip him - it just seems too invasive to me. So if anyone needs me, I'll be upside down.