Friday, January 8, 2010

Already a trouble maker

We had our ultrasound and check up today and things have taken a turn for the "interesting" shall we say. The ultrasound showed that sir/madame is in breech, is horizontal, up in my ribs, and doesn't have much amniotic fluid to swim around in (whereas he/she should be head-down, in my pelvis, vertical, and cushioned by plenty of water). Now, before you all start calling me, please know that none of this is reason to panic. First and foremost the baby is totally totally healthy with an approximate weight of 5 pounds (which makes him/her in the 71st percentile, the average at this stage of pregnancy is between 4 and 6 pounds so we're perfect) the heartbeat was and has always been perfect, all testing ever done came back normal and healhty. Also of note, i am totally healthy, my blood pressure is and has always been on the lower side of healthy, my weight gain is on the lower side of healthy, and all testing on me has come back normal and healthy.
So, what does all of this mean? Well, on Monday Cheyenne and I are going to St. Vincent Hospital for a non-stress test to see how the baby is doing as a triple check and all is expected to go perfectly fine and smooth. On Friday we go back to our doctor to re-measure the amniotic fluid. And from those two things we'll have a better idea of where we are headed and we can make more solid plans.
Between now and Friday I am told to get as much rest as possible and drink plenty of fluids to try and get those amniotic fluids a bit higher. This means i have to take it slow from here on out, cut out my daily walks around town on my lunch, not wrestle with the dog QUITE as much, and be even more relaxed at work (thank goodness the holidays are over).
Normally speaking in this day and age a breech baby is delivered via c-section. Also, a baby that refuses to "drop" into the pelvis is delivered via c-section. Since I am just 34.5 weeks pregnant a doctor would normally say that the baby still has time to "drop" if it were a matter of it not being in the pelvis yet. Or they would say that the baby still has time to stretch out of breech. Or that we have time for the baby to flip out of it's cozy horizontal nest. However, we seem to have the perfect storm of all of the above happening at the same time and on top of that, even if we didn't have a stubborn little bugger since the amniotic fluid is on the low side he/she doesn't have a lot to swim in to be able to actually do that kind of dropping/flipping/stretching.
It would seem that the odds of me getting a c-section are pretty much as high as they can be. Am i pissed? Well, no. It's pretty far from the drug-free natural birth that i had planned and wanted but ya know, at the end of the day it's more important that we do what's best for our baby...and me, so if this is what it must be then we'll get through it and at the end of it all we'll have our little one here to cuddle and when it's a teenager i have one hell of a story for those times when a guilt trip is called for.

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