The baby's coming?!? Yikes!

So things have been kind of a whirlwind the last couple of days, not really sure that I am totally prepared to become a mommy for the second time, but there's not much I can do about it now. Yikes! Looks like the day is here. I'm feeling a bit nervous and here's why.

I am 38 weeks pregnant this week. At my 36 week check up the nurse did an ultrasound and we saw that the baby was laying sideways, or breech, with her head on my left side and her legs on my right side instead of with her head down like she was supposed to be. After a consult with the doctor, the nurse said that it was still early and we would see if the baby turns in the right direction over the next couple of weeks. The day after that appointment I felt the baby move quite drastically and I was feeling confident that her head was now down where it was supposed to be.

At my 37th week appointment the doctor did another ultrasound and the baby's head was indeed down where it was supposed to be, facing the right direction. Locked and loaded. The legs were kicking my all over on the right side, poking my rib cage all the time, but the doctor said that as long as the head is down then we don't have anything to worry about.

Last Saturday I felt the baby moving around again. I could tell that she had moved up, but I kind of assumed that her head was still in the downward postion. I went to the doctor on Monday, March 17th, for my 38 week check-up, expecting a normal visit. The doctor came in and felt my stomach and said, "It feels like the baby's head is up by your ribs. Let's get the ultrasound machine." Sure enough, the baby had totally flipped and the head is now on my right side, up by my ribs and the feet are down where the head is supposed to be. What a gymnist I am producing! The doctor left for a moment and when he returned he said that he is concerned about the amount of movement from this baby, that she should not be moving this much after the 37th week of pregnancy. He said that he doesn't want to wait another week and see if she will turn back on her own, as the risk of her smashing the umbillical cord is greater now with the limited amount of space in the uterus. So we are scheduled to go in to the hospital today. Here are our options: 1) If the baby turns back on her own before we go to the hospital and everything looks normal then they will send us home. 2) If the baby is still in the breech position then the doctor will try a technique called external version, which is a procedure where the doctor attempts to turn the baby by pushing on my stomach. (I hear this is very painful.) If that is successful, then he will induce me today. 3) If the external version doesn't work, he will do a C-section today.

Jay and I left the doctor's office on Monday pretty much in shock. Niether of us were expecting this and we were both thinking that we would have a couple more weeks to get everything ready. I didn't have any baby clothes out, our car seat was still packed, no diapers for an infant, no bag packed for the hospital or anything arranged for Gabby, etc. But just the idea that we would have another baby this week took almost all day to sink in. We came home and Jay gave me a blessing and I felt better. But then all day yesterday I was getting nervous again, mainly because I'm not sure what is going to happen and I'm not sure what to plan for. I really don't want to have a C-section because I hear the recovery is hard. But there is a lot of pain associated with having a baby the other way, which I am well aware of, so I guess it's a trade off, huh?

To top it off, I have been developing a cold and cough, so between that and the baby I have not been sleeping that well the last couple of nights. Not the best time to get a cold, huh? Anyway, we are pretty much planning to come home with a baby by the end of this week. It doesn't feel like the baby has moved back to the right position, but then again, what do I know? I thought she was in the mostly right position and I was totally wrong. So we'll see what happens today.