U-Turn

At 37 weeks and 5 days, Baybe Jennerek is still breech. This means that her head and feet are up near my ribs and her heinie is down in my pelvis where her head should be. Only about 4% of babies are still breech after 37 weeks and they usually don't turn into the correct position before birth. The vast majority of breech babies are delivered via c-section due to the risks and complications involved. We really wanted to try to avoid having surgery to meet little one plus we wanted the Skaggsette (to steal Berk's term) to arrive on her own clock.

So earlier today I reviewed our delivery options with my doctor and we decided that we would try to manually "turn" her via a procedure called external cephalic version. To dumb it down, you are checked into the hospital and set-up as if you were having a c-section (in the event of an emergency) then they use a little hands-on action on your belly with real live elbow grease and try to gently manipulate baby into the correct head-down position.

The success rate for "turns" can rise above 60%. However, first time Moms experience a lower success rate because their uteruses aren't trained to carry babies as well as a seasoned Mom of one or more. But after considering our options, we are going to roll the dice Vegas-style and try the u-turn!

So... on Saturday, September 20th - the day of the day "turn"- one of three things could happen:

1. Doctor successfully turns baby and then Jenn goes into labor due to the "u-turn" and baby is delivered normally later that day;
   
2. Doctor successfully turns baby, Jenn does not go into labor so she goes home and allows baby to arrive in her own time which could be anywhere from hours to days later;
   
3. Doctor does not successfully turn baby (read: one stubborn baby) and since we are close enough to due date, doctor does c-section on the spot to invite the little one into our world.

So two out of three of the options above suggests there will be a brand-new Skaggs arriving on the 20th but we are not holding our breath because you shouldn't count your chickens until they hatch!