You Know What They Say About The Best Laid Plans

Well, this baby pool is still wide open, folks! See, we've hit a little snag in all our plans. A little snag I like to call "a doctor who doesn't want to take the time to help me avoid major surgery if at all possible." Good times, my friends. Good, stress-free times.

I feel like I've rehashed this so many times in my mind and with Rob, but I'm still annoyed. Less annoyed than last evening, but annoyed nonetheless.

Here's the abridged version: Bun is still honing the circus skills we've come to expect from him/her, and it really has the doctors on guard. At my ultrasound last week, Bun had flipped back to an unstable tranverse position, with the feet, cord, and other little parts resting above my cervix in a big pocket of fluid. The problem with that is that even though I am not dilated right now, if my water were to break, then Bun's presenting parts would be all the wrong ones, and I would definitely need surgery. My family doctor suggested trying an external cephalic version followed by an immediate induction. That also meant involving the perinatologists since an OR team would need to be ready for a c-section in case the baby didn't tolerate the procedure or couldn't be flipped around. Since the odds are very much in my favor for a successful version, we decided to go for it and try all we could to avoid surgery.

Enter the fly in the ointment. My doctor consulted the perinatologist on the hospital service for next week, and his reply was less than helpful. He basically felt like he was too busy to even try to help us out, so since there would have to be an OR team ready anyway, why didn't I just save everyone some time and have a c-section. Even though I might not really need one. (And why is the c-section rate 30% in this country?)

I understand that for many women a c-section is the best and safest way to deliver their babies. Many of my friends and family members have had successful c-sections, but I don't know one of them who would just have one to save a doctor some time. All of them have had serious reasons for their surgeries, and I feel like I need to exhaust all of my options before committing to major surgery. Bun is healthy, just in the wrong position, and if there is a safe and reasonable way to change that without involving a scalpel, then I want to try it.

Fortunately, my family doctor has my back. She spent an entire day calling different doctors until she found one who would help us try to turn Bun around. But unless I go into labor or something happens to Bun in the meantime, it looks like we won't be able to get in to the hospital next week as we had previously planned. I may be making it to early February after all.

The bright side to all of this is that I have a little more time now to get all of Bun's gear cleaned and set up. I may even get around to packing my bag for the hospital, but I'm not pushing it. I have to leave something for the last minute, right?

I also found out that Bun will be a Golden Pig Baby if born before February 7th. One of Rob's partners, who is also pregnant, was telling me that not only is this the Chinese Year of the Pig, which is considered a generally lucky sign, it is the Year of the Golden Pig. The Year of the Golden Pig only happens once every sixty years, and it is widely believed that all the babies born in that year will have especially happy, blessed lives. Sounds good to me!

So Rob and I are hoping Bun flips around and decides to head out before the Chinese New Year. Who wouldn't love to introduce their child as The Golden Pig Baby?!?!

You know you would . . .