My Fresh Prince of Bel-Air :)

So do you know the theme song to the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air? If not, it starts something like this: "Now this is a story all about how my life got flipped turned upside down.
I'd like to take a minute,  just sit right there..." And I'll tell you how this baby boy is flipping our plans upside down. :)

Since I take way too long to tell a story, I'll just say... Our little man has decided to be breech. Now for the goofy long story. Keep reading if you choose.

So being an L&D nurse, I routinely performed what we call Leopold's Maneuver on patients to check for a babies position. So being pregnant I frequently check my little boys position. Part of why I check so often is because this little boy LOVES to move!! I'm continually baffled how he can change positions so quickly. Some days he was head down with his back against my tummy. He pushes his tummy so hard against my stomach that I joke he's trying to get out "alien" style. But the weird thing is that I wouldn't feel him kick my ribs like so many mom's complain about. I figured he either was in a pike position OR my placenta was in the perfect spot to absorb those kicks. I mentioned the lack of kicks to my nurse practitioner at my last appt at 36 weeks. She checked me. I was 1 cm and 30% effaced. Yay!! Well she said that she could feel a hard little noggin during the exam. She did check my placenta position on my anatomy scan ultrasound and agreed he could be kicking it. So TMI warning: skip to the next paragraph if you need. So after she checked me, I bled. A lot. Let's just say a week later I was still spotting brown discharge. To spot a few days after a check is totally normal. A week later: a little abnormal.

So Wednesday they had me come in before my scheduled appt which would have been Friday. As I was speaking with this nurse practitioner she saw on my chart a note about questionable position. She asked if his head was engaged and I laughed because for all the contracting I was doing recently, this little boy did not have an engaged head. I mentioned that sometimes he felt breech and sometimes he felt head down. It just depended. Well she did Leopold's maneuver and said she wasn't sure if it was butt or head. She did a vaginal exam. I was now 2cm and 50% effaced. But no sign of a head. She decided to schedule me for an ultrasound just in case.

They could only fit me in the next day so I went home. I of course read up on breech babies and versions and explained to Neil that its good to know "just in case" but I'm sure it'll be fine. Even as I laid in bed that night, little boy had the hiccups. I could feel them low low in my pelvis. I told Neil that he was head down again and I'd feel silly at the ultrasound. But I repeat, this little boy loves to move. The next morning when I was laying in bed, he once again got hiccups and they were mid tummy on my right side. Now he totally felt head up!!! I just never know hour to hour!!!

So Neil and I went into the ultrasound. I got on the table and the tech first looked at my lower abdomen. She immediately said "nope" and looked just under my ribs. And there was his noggin!!!! It was so good to see our little boy but we thought it was funny that he wouldn't show his "naughty" little face. The tech tried to wiggle him out but he was stubborn! We could only see the back of his head. So he's what they call complete breech with his bum as the presenting part. His head is in the top of my ribs, his back is against my right side and he's sitting criss cross apple sauce.  (At least during the ultrasound.) Ironically my sister had a breech baby (my nephew Tyson) who was born on April 11th which is the due date of our breech baby :) Go figure!! Haha
 
So we met with the nurse practitioner afterwards. She asked if we'd prefer to try a version or schedule a cesarean section? A version (or external cephalic version) is where a doctor manually tries to flip the baby to a head down position. Its performed in a hospital and has definitely has pros and cons. While we had been waiting, Neil and I talked. We worry that he's so wiggly that if we do a version now that he'll just flip back. We decided that we'd wait a week to see if he'd flip himself and we'd go from there.

Even knowing that he's so wiggly and at times I felt he was head up, you still don't "prepare" to have a breech baby. Neil and I both understand that no matter how well you plan, you just never know what's going to happen. And babies are the ULTIMATE example of this. Birth plans are thrown out the window. (Nurses joke that the longer it is the more likely you are to have a c section.) Its a joke but babies don't read birth plans. Every person is so soooooo different. Even pregnancy to pregnancy is different. Of course you should know what you'd like and be prepared and educated. But being flexible really is key. I know a lot of women get depressed if their labor ends in a c section. They feel as if they "failed". Nobody gets a gold star for having an unmedicated labor. But I think we feel a lot of pressure. I totally would love to have an unmedicated labor with minimal interventions. Medical interventions can be scary. Pregnancy and delivery are scary!! I'm a nurse and do I want my delivery to end in an EMERGENT c section?? No way!!! But do I want a safe and healthy baby and for me to be safe as well?? Heck yes!!!!! (Sorry I'll get off my soap box now.)

So we didn't plan on this little squirt chilling Indian style in me! And we still will have big decisions to make. But we feel good at this point letting him do his thing. We'll give him some time and we'll go from there. I honestly just want my healthy little boy. I still can't believe we're so close!!! I can't wait!!!