Can someone please get Little B a GPS?

Dearest Gertrude,
I'm kidding. I won't name Little B Gertrude, even though it appears that Little B won't be arriving by midnight tomorrow. Turns out the baby is dealing with some faulty directions. We're back home and I'll explain what has transpired. But first, the most important thing to know is that the baby is doing well and is healthy--that's all that really matters.

We had our appointment today and we were all ready to go. Consistent contractions? Check. Bags packed? Check. Vehicle gassed up? Check. Check. Even the nurses who'd helped me over the phone yesterday thought that today was the day for us to have our baby. We were almost too ready...we even remembered to stop and get breakfast on the way to the appointment so that I would have something in my stomache before the stopped me from being able to eat/drink once admitted. Trust me, I'm not this well organized, especially with "Baby Brain" as my brother calls it.

So, I was pretty confident that today or tomorrow would be the day Little B arrived. In walks my doctor to "survey the situation" as we'll call it. The first thing he tells me is that the baby is in great health. And I could just sense the biggest "but" coming my way...and I was right. "But, you haven't made any physical progress since I last saw you. In fact, the baby is actually HIGHER than they were on Friday. You're having consistent contractions, but they aren't moving the baby downward at all. In fact, they're pushing the baby in a bit of the wrong direction." Seriously? My uterus is directionally challenged?!?! IS that possible? Apparently, the answer is yes.

Loverly. Again, we need to focus on the fact that even though Little B isn't here yet...he or she has a great heartbeat, is moving around a ton, and seems to be in the best of health, We just may have a problem with directions. Babies aren't supposed to rise at the end of a pregnancy, they are supposed to drop.

So, what do we do? They want to wait just a little longer to see if my contractions begin to push the baby down as opposed to up. In some circumstances, this can happen as labor progresses. So, I'm sending mental messages to my belly explaining that it is not physically possible for the baby to come out my nose, so in the words of the terribly cheesey "Charlie Brown Song"..."Reverse! Reverse! Take it back down now..." My doctor was very honest with me on exactly how high up my baby is, so we're not sure if this will correct itself on its own, or cause us to go to Delivery Plan B or C. He literally said "I'm not sure this kid is ever going to figure out how to get out on its own...they're that high up and nowhere close to the birth canal. Otherwise, with the contractions you're having, you'd be holding them by now." But, he did say that we should give it until Monday before we took action.

As for the action plan-- here's where it stands: They've scheduled me for an 8am Fetal Non Stress Test to assess how Little B's heart rate responds to contractions. The test should take about 30 minutes and the results will be given to my doctor immediately. From there we'll make a decision on how to proceed. When contractions occur, a baby's heart rate will suppress a bit. It should then quickly recover back to a normal rate. That's what we're looking to see happen. If the results come back showing that Little B's heart rate recovers well after a contraction, we'll proceed to the hospital to be induced at 9a. They are hoping that with medication, they'll be able to control contractions and help Little B descend properly. If the NST shows that the baby recovers from contractions a bit slower than they'd like to see, we'll go to Plan C, which is a C-Section. Because of my previous surgery, it wouldn't be a typical C-Section, but rather a vertical one. Without going into too much detail, it could be a bit complicated and the recovery would most likely be longer than typical with caesarians. But, whatever it takes to keep Little B safe, we'll do.

So, now we wait for Monday. If someone can get Little B a GPS, that would be great. Its possible that I could go into the right kind of labor (i.e contractions pushing baby in the right direction) before then, but I don't expect this will be the case. In all seriousness, we're staying focused on the baby being healthy, which is what today confirmed. Yes, I would be so happy to be at the hospital getting ready to welcome our baby in the way I envisioned. Just because its going to most likely happen a bit differently, won't change the end result. And that's all we really care about.