Little Baby has been a "lazy" one throughout this pregnancy, always in a lying / horizontal position when scanning. It's good for the scanning because he's always facing the right directions to make the gynae / sonographer's job easy. But as the pregnancy advances, I've been waiting for him to start turning the right side down to get ready for labor. It's supposedly a natural process for babies to turn head down - due to effect of gravity, according to my gynae. However, even at week 29, he was still in his comfortable, horizontal position. It's surprising, because I have a tall and slim physique, and he's a tall baby. I'm not sure how he finds the space to remain horizontal, but he seems to find it more comfortable than being vertical where I imagine there will be more space with my slim but long torso.
At the 33 week checkup, gynae said he should have his head down for natural delivery. At that check up, he still insisted on remaining in a horizontal position. Ok, slightly diagonal, which I attribute to him needing more space as he grows. But to the gynae, it's still considered a transverse baby and only C-sect as an option. However, because there was a lot of amniotic fluid space all around the baby, the gynae was very hopeful that the baby could still turn in the next couple of weeks. We scheduled a closer checkup at week 35, so we could monitor his positioning. Dr Wong also recommended I do some exercises to promote his turning. Since I was already walking quite a bit (to no avail!), she suggested I do an "inversion" exercise in addition to walking. This involved me first getting on all fours on the bed. Then lowering my head and chest down to touch the bed, to create a maximum tilt for the baby to "sink" into the large space in my uterus. I was supposed to do this twice a day, a minute each time, before doing 30 minutes of walking. The idea was to get the baby into a large space, then walk to use gravity to pull his head down. Some online sources indicate a longer 15 minute inversion, but 30 minutes of walking was the maximum to avoid inducing early labor. The inversion part was really tough on my arms and neck, but for the sake of the baby (and myself), I did it daily. To be honest, I sometimes only did once a day.
By week 35, just before the checkup, I could still feel my baby in a transverse position. I told him if he doesn't turn, he will get a scolding from the gynae! Miraculously, right during the gynae's scan, he turned!! YES, HE TURNED!! But, he turned the wrong direction, and ended up vertical - with his head up and legs down. O.o I guess the "scolding" and "warnings" worked, but my baby has a sense of direction as poor as his mom's. So now he's no longer a transverse baby, but he's a breech baby. Still scheduled for C-sect. And the gynae noticed significantly less space left in the uterus for him to turn. Furthermore, instead of needing to turn 90 degrees, now the baby needs to turn 180 degrees. So we made plans for a C-sect, which will probably happen in 3 weeks' time.
Til then, I'm not giving up yet on my baby. There are many advantages to natural birth (more on that the next time), and I'm educating both my husband and my baby on that on a daily basis. I know he's a smart boy and he will listen. He's just, maybe, a procrastinator who likes to do things at the very last minute - just like his dad. So I'm giving him the benefit of doubt, and will keep my fingers and toes crossed until our next checkup at week 37.
For now, I'm going swimming to create turning space for my baby :)
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