Update from the couch

Today I made my first emergency call to the OB's office. I swore I was not going to be one of those pregnant women who call at the first sign of something being a little "off" or "not quite right". But the boy hadn't moved a whole lot over the weekend and I was starting to get nervous. Clearly I turned to the internets for answers before calling the doctor. Most of what I found was that I should lay quietly for two hours and count the number of kicks I feel in those two hours. I should have a minimum of 10 movements/kicks. I started counting Saturday and didn't feel much and the same on Sunday. This morning I had had enough and decided to call the doctor's office.

Apparently, decreased fetal movement at 27 weeks is important enough to get you in to the doctor immediately. Off I went where they hooked me up to a fetal heart monitor and gave me a little button to click every time I felt a movement. It was a little like Jeopardy. The heart monitor produced a good report and detected a strong, consistent beat. It was incredibly reassuring to hear his little heart beating strong and sure. Then I got to have another bonus ultrasound! This is where it got interesting. The boy is measuring right on schedule and all parts are accounted for (double points for confirming we are FOR SURE having a boy). At this point in the game, he should be hanging out either transverse (side to side across my abdomen) or head down, butt up (classic delivery position). My boy, my stubborn little boy, is completely breech (butt down, head up) and is showing no signs of turning. And he's wedged firmly in my pelvis. After the nurse compared my past ultrasounds to this one, she told me that he has been breech since the beginning. Friends, this does not bode well for a natural (by that I mean vaginal, not drug-free, good god) delivery. Unless he does a complete flip in the next 12-13 weeks, I am having a c-section. Also, my placenta has not made enough progress in the past month to rule out a c-section for that reason alone.

The good news: the boy is happy and content in his little womb and is growing big and strong (2 lbs, 3 oz!).

The bad news: he's happy and content in his little womb, right (wrong) side up, and resting squarely in my pelvis.

Stubborn, just like his father.

(Updated to add: 20-25% of babies are breech at the 28th week with about 5% staying breech until birth. Odds are good that he'll turn on his own in the next few weeks, so yay!)