Still breech - long post warning

We spent a long morning at the Dr's office and hospital.  Our ultrasound went fine, baby is still breech as I expected, but everything else looks pretty normal.  Aside from the strange position of his legs…  he has one leg bent down by his bottom and the other one straight up in front of his face.  Dr. H said he's never seen a breech baby like that.  Imagine that!  He has been an OB for 30 years and never seen a baby in this position.  Lucky us :)  Now that I know for sure where his limbs are, all the movement I feel makes a lot more sense.  It even makes sense to me that he hasn't turned over, based on that straight leg.  Seems to me like that would make it a little hard to maneuver.

Here are some stats…

My weight: 184 I think
My B/P: 126/62
Baby's heart rate: 155
Baby's estimated wt: 6 lbs 12 oz

We had a nice discussion about what's next and ultimately decided to go ahead and try the version on Monday.  My fears were somewhat assuaged regarding having to have an emergency C section.  Dr. H said he talked to Labor & Delivery and they said only one time in the last 10 years have they had a ECV go so horribly wrong that they had to knock the patient out and get the baby out STAT.  The more likely (but still fairly unlikely overall) situation is that the baby just wouldn't be doing too well and they would either just flip him back over or it wouldn't be so terribly urgent that they wouldn't have time to do a spinal (which is the standard anesthesia for a C section).  IF, and that's a big IF, I had to have a TRUE emergency C section then he said he most likely would do a midline (vertical) incision because it's faster, but only in a life or death situation.  So I guess I am okay with that.  Note that a vertical incision pretty much eliminates any possibility of having a VBAC.

So… if the version doesn't work or the baby flips back over, there's still some hope.  He said the baby might still just flip over by the time I go into labor.  If I do go into labor and the baby is still breech, they will sometimes try another version at that point -- but it gets harder and harder the bigger the baby gets, and they wouldn’t be able to if my water was broken.  Also, once you go into labor, usually the baby has dropped down in the pelvis so far that it's hard to dig them out to flip them over.  So in any of those cases I would have to have a C section.  If I haven't gone into labor, they can also try another version and then immediately induce me, but they wouldn't do that until about 39 weeks, and again at that point the baby is probably going to be too big to turn.  So then I'd have a C section.

If I do have a C section, which it sounds like there is a pretty good chance, he said he would probably allow me to try and have a VBAC next time assuming everything else was normal.  He said the risk of my uterus rupturing is about 1 in 200, but if it does, it's a really catastrophic event and gives them about 6 or 7 minutes to get the baby out before it would have severe brain damage.  So it's a small risk, albeit a scary one… but it sounded like the choice was up to us.

I asked him what his perception was in terms of my specific situation and whether or not the ECV was going to work.  He said the baby's not huge (yet), so that's good.  I also have a reasonable amount of amniotic fluid - not a ton, but enough.  So the chances are pretty good.  As good as they can be I guess.  So we're going for it.  For a long explanation of the procedure you can read the article I posted yesterday.  But the abbreviated version is: We'll go in on Monday, they'll monitor the baby for a bit to make sure he's doing okay.  Then they'll try to flip him over without any drugs.  If I start contracting they'll give me a shot of something that makes my heart race but somehow makes my uterus relax (which sounds so weird to me).  Then they'll try again.  After the flip, they'll monitor the baby again for awhile to make sure he's still doing okay and then I'll go home.  And wait.  I hate waiting.

I guess no matter what happens, I will probably have a baby in my arms within about 3 weeks.  I just have to trust that no matter how he comes out, that was the way it was meant to be, and we'll get on with our lives.  Just the same, I appreciate everyone's prayers and positive thoughts, because I really hope this works!