Full Term Update

Well, here I am, it is finally November and the baby countdown is on.  Last week, on Halloween actually, I had an appointment where I got some disappointing news.  I didn't share it and tried to focus the last post on Halloween until I could come to terms with it.  It's not the end of the world and everything is fine with the baby.  The problem is that the baby is breech...again.  From my research I have learned that there is a three percent chance of a baby being breech at the time of delivery.  What are the odds of this happening twice?  So, for mostly selfish reasons, I was very upset with the prospect of a second C-section.  The main reason is that we may consider having another child and that would mean a third C-section.  Also, it was not an easy experience recovering from abdominal surgery last time and now I have a one year old who never lets me rest for a second to take care of in addition to a newborn and I won't be able to take care of him the way he needs.  It's hard enough getting up every few hours at night to feed a newborn without having the act of sitting up be painful.

My doctor was out for the week so when I found out about this I was seeing a different group of nurses and a nurse practitioner that I have never met before and they were nice but didn't know anything about my plans and how much I don't want another c-section and after I left I realized no one gave me any ideas about things I could do to try to turn the baby or anything like that and I felt like I was on my own.  I know there is a procedure called ECV (External Cephalic Version) where a doctor tries to turn the baby externally while the patient and baby are monitored and medication can be used to relax the uterus.  No one said anything about this being possible at the appointment though, since not all doctors do this and I have never heard of anyone around here having it done.  I also remembered hearing something about the Webster Technique which can be performed by a chiropractor and it turns out that there is a chiropractor that is certified in it in the same office building that Justin works so I made an appointment.  The theory behind it is that a misaligned pelvis can make the baby settle in a breech position instead of head down.  A lot of it has to do with the sacrum (tailbone) being messed up and mine has been several times since my teen years.  I fell down a spiral staircase in ski vacation house in high school and it hurt for a long time after that and I hurt it again sledding behind a snowmobile with my cousins on Thanksgiving one year.   I can also think of two bad falls on ice where it was injured again.  It usually starts to hurt after I have been sitting for a long time so in the event that any of this really works I can see how I would have these issues.  It is hard to ignore the three percent chance statistic and I have to wonder if something is behind this. 

This morning we went to the Labor and Delivery floor to specify our birth plan and go over some paperwork and have a tour if we wanted (we didn't!  It was the exact same as it was last year!).  I told the nurse what was going on and she happened to know that my doctor does indeed do ECV and is the best at it of the OBs at the hospital.  I see her on Wednesday so we will see what she says.  The procedure honestly scares me a bit but I have to weigh the short time of discomfort with the weeks of recovery and long term implications of a C-section.  After that I saw the chiropractor who said that my pelvis was out of alignment and my tailbone was messed up (but don't they say that to everyone?) and she did some adjustments and did some sort of pressure application to one of my round ligaments.  She also told me some inversion exercises to do around the house. 

Buuuut...if none of this crazy stuff works I will probably end up with a scheduled C-section next week or the week after.  The doctor has been saying all along that my due date is the 16th and according to my 20 week ultrasound paperwork the due date is the 21st.  The 16th is a Saturday so I imagine it would be a few days before or after.  If we get to pick there is the pretty fun date of 11-12-13 coming up and that is...nine!!!!...days away.  YIKES! 

OK, I have to go take a cushion off my couch and kneel with my knees on the couch and my elbows on the floor.  Wish me luck!