By Kim Blakeley, Mojo’s expectant mama
I had a doctor’s appointment this morning, which was almost boringly routine, save for the fact that I got a [very quick] surprise ultrasound to check the position of mah bebe. I thought I was feeling an elbow on the right side of my belly, just below the spot where my son’s head rolled when he was in utero, his skull jamming under my ribs hard enough to snap one of them out of place several times a day (everybody say, OUCH!). It turn out it wasn’t an elbow I’ve been feeling – and watching – move around after all. It was probably a knee. (A bony knee, much like her mama’s, I might add.).
Little Turkey Blaze, as Mojo has dubbed her, is actually head down. Good girl … except I think I was secretly hoping she would be breech, like her big brother was. That would have made my decision so much easier. Or, more to the point, it would have made my decision a moot point.
At my last appointment, my doctor told me that she was the only one in her clinic still willing to let me try for a VBAC; her partners recently voted to stop offering them. And although I know she really would support me if I decided to go forward with one, her news made me waffle.
In the end, with my husband’s concerns over the risk of a uterine rupture with a VBAC (1 in 100 for a woman who has had a previous c-section) – which can result in death for baby and/or mother – the uncertainty over whether I would actually be able to try for one because there’s no guarantee that my doctor would be able to come in when I went into labor, and my general lack of resolve about having a VBAC in the first place, I decided to take what seems to be the route safest for my daughter. (Thanks, Gwen. Your comment really hit home!)
I didn’t actually reach the decision until after I got home from the doctor’s office, but it seems fairly cemented in my head and heart now so I’ve just left word for a nurse to call me back and get a repeat c-section scheduled.
Sigh.
Oh … hold on, the phone is ringing
Back now … it seems our daughter will be born on June 4. It feels very strange knowing that.
