34 Week Update

Back of the Head

At my 20 week ultrasound, the baby was breech (which is no big deal, so was Lewis at that point). My doctor had scheduled an ultrasound for 34 weeks to see if he/she had flipped, so today was the day. Unfortunately, this baby did not cooperate like Lewis had at this point--this one is sideways (transverse). The head is up in my right ribs (as I've thought it's felt like for months) and the butt is pointing at my left hip. [Side note: I can do sort of a Stupid Human Trick--if I push on the head, it dances/kicks down at my belly button. It's nice to know which body parts are which now. :)]

My doctor gave me three options: to do nothing, schedule a C-section, or do a version (external cephalic version), where they physically try to push the baby (from the outside) to the head down position. She said that the do nothing plan was not really a plan at all, and she wants to avoid a C-section since I've already given birth the old-fashioned way. Since I have plenty of fluid, have already had a child, and the baby is already halfway there (not fully breech), she said I'm an 'ideal' candidate for the version, so we decided to go with that.

In the meantime, I do have some stretches to do at home to try to get it to flip, but if those don't work, the version will be happening in two weeks. I'm nervous about it because I just had a friend describe hers to me, and it was like worst case scenario all the way. BUT, she was full term and it was her first baby and the cord was involved and so on...my doctor was pretty reassuring about the whole thing today.

My doc does not actually do versions (she said she's tried in the past, but has been unsuccessful), so I'm going next week to meet one of the two doctors in the practice who does do them. He will talk to me about it and then schedule it for the following week (if it's still necessary). If it doesn't work, they will schedule a C-section for later on. If it does work, I get to go home and go about things as normal until I go into labor (assuming I go into labor on my own this time).

The baby was also turned away from the camera, so all we got were back-of-the-head shots. :) The ultrasound tech was able to show us that the baby has a full head of hair, so that was cool to see. Otherwise, everything looks fine, I guess.