February 12, 2013

My love,

Well, you were a pretty good baby for the majority of your time in utero, but you had a few surprises in store for us here at the end. You were head down and in perfect position at 36 weeks - right on track. Then, by 37 weeks, you had flipped yourself to a sideways position, or what's called transverse. My doctor suspected you might be this way after doing a routine cervical check, so she ordered an ultrasound. A couple of days later, your wonky position was confirmed. The cool thing, though, is that because of this ultrasound, we got to see your pretty little face. We didn't get a picture, but from what I remember, you have a chubby face, my dad's nose and my lips. We'll see how accurate it was soon. :)

So, the transverse thing turned out to be a bigger complication than we initially thought. My doctor called me the Wednesday after the ultrasound saying that she was referring me to an OB to discuss our options for the safest delivery. The OB we saw told us that we could either 1) Schedule a C-section right off the bat, 2) Try an ECV (external cephalic version, or manually turning you from the outside), or 3) Wait and see, hoping you would turn on your own before labor, but risk a dangerous cord prolapse. We opted for door number 2 and scheduled it for Saturday morning. The scary thing about the ECV is that it carries a small risk of a pinched cord or other complications leading to an emergency C-section. Basically, your dad and I had to mentally prepare ourselves that you could be born that weekend, at 38+2.

We showed up to the hospital and were surprised to find that the procedure would be done in a labor and delivery room. Suddenly things got real. First thing, they had to do an ultrasound to confirm you were still transverse. This ultrasound showed that sometime in the previous 36 hours, you had righted yourself and were, in fact, head down again. No need for the version! Your father was relieved, but I was actually interested to see how it was going to go. At any rate, they kept me hooked up to the monitors for a couple of hours while I had a few contractions, and they sent us home. Overall, an interesting day.

So far, you've stayed head down, but I'm still not dilating. I have no idea what this means for when you'll be born, but I certainly feel like a jack-in-the-box. Not to mention, people have already started asking when you'll be here. I've decided to ignore them. You'll come when you're ready. Just promise me you won't make me wait too long?

Love,
Me