I went Monday (the 12th) for my 38 week appointment. First of all, my weight has continued to fluctuate/drop, as it has since I returned from vacation in mid July. I will spare myself the embarassment of posting the actual numbers, but it has just been bouncing around the same basic July weight. I mentioned this to the midwife, and she just encouraged me to eat more. Haha. I really don't think that is my "problem." At least the tray of chocolate chip cookies I had polished off the night before didn't think that was the problem. She felt around my abdomen and proceeded to go ahead and measure for my growth. Up until 34 weeks, I had been measuring on schedule, and then I had started measuring a week behind. This week, I had "lost" two weeks and was now four weeks behind, measuring only 34 weeks. The midwife didn't show overt concern over this, but she did mention that we would check internally and see if the drop was because the baby had dropped her head lower into the pelvis. (The week before at 37, she couldn't confirm the baby's position externally, but was pretty sure from internal exam that she was feeling head down position.) When she went to check, she was quick to say that it wasn't a head she was feeling, but probably a foot. So we moved to the ultrasound room to confirm. Meanwhile, I was trying not to worry about the drop in weight and growth, but the appointment had kind of moved at its own pace, and in the meantime we hadn't checked the fetal heartbeat yet. The midwife realized this, but just decided to check on ultrasound while we were over there. Sure enough, she was head up (on my upper right side). I asked about her heart, and we went over to check, but from the angle that we were first at, it honestly didn't look like it was beating. We quickly fixed that and saw that it was fine. Her butt and feet were down in my pelvis. Debbie, my midwife, wonderfully talked to me about my options. I am so thankful that back at 34 to 36 weeks, I had had to consider the risks and rewards of a version, because when it came up this time, I was able to say that "yes, I would like one" without a lot of hesitation. The main consideration was when to have one. Doing it as soon as possible, at 38 weeks, gave us the greatest chance that the baby would still be small enough and high enough (out of the birth canal) that we would be able to get her to turn, but it also presented the greatest chance that she would flip right back. Waiting until 39 weeks would mean a somewhat lower chance for success, but a greater chance that the doctor would be willing to induce labor immediately if we were able to achieve a head down position. I opted for trying at 38 weeks and then potentially trying again at 39 weeks if she was breech again at that point. The midwife seemed to agree that this was a good course of action. So the plan became to go to the hospital at 7 am on Wednesday, get a fetal scan for position, get the shot of muscle relaxer, get an IV started (just in case), do the version, and then do a fetal growth ultrasound to check for size and overall health of the baby because of my slowed growth.
That brings us to today, kind of. I should probably mention first that it is a weird thing to prepare for having a baby, but yet knowing that that is really only a very small possibility. I needed to be prepared. I needed to have the house ready, bag packed, kid care in place, car seat in hand, because there was a risk of a version leading to an immediate c-section, but in reality, it was a very low likelihood. So, I tried to emotionally and physically prepare myself to have a baby on Wednesday, but also tried not to get my hopes up too much and try to think of the day as a pretty routine dress rehearsal for the hopeful eventual real thing one day soon.
I didn't get a lot of sleep on Tuesday night. Partly because I was anxious to get the event started, but also because right before bed I had gotten news that my friend Joanne was at the hospital having her twin boys, and then when I woke up around 4, I saw the text with a beautiful picture of her little ones. Sleep was hard to come by. Marcia had come to watch the kids (somewhat unsure as to whether she was committing to watching them for the morning or for a few days!), and Curt and I left for the hospital. We got checked in on the labor and delivery floor and met our nurse for the morning. We got a good one. She was feisty and funny. I had never met this doctor before, because I have only been seeing the midwives, and I have only met two of the six doctors in the practice. She came in and was very nice. She was upbeat, but comforting, very down to earth. She told me she would try the procedure about three times. She looked around on the ultrasound trying to determine the best direction to take the rotation. (She made sure and pointed out that the baby waved at us in the meantime, and then gave us a fist pump, potentially indicating she wasn't so happy about what was coming!) Dr. Dadisman then started firmly, but consistently, pushing on my abdomen, in a counter clockwise position to try and move the head down. The baby didn't really move. She decided to try the other direction, even though it was longer (the baby's head started on my upper right side). The baby responded by moving some, ending up about in the upper middle. (They would confirm with ultrasound between each push.) Both the nurse and the doctor worked together this time, the nurse pushing the baby's bottom out of the pelvis and the doctor rotating the baby's head clockwise down into the pelvis. They got it over to my left side, and I think they were considering quitting, but the doctor could tell that she was moving, they were having some "success," just needed to keep trying. They gave it one more good try and ended up with a head down baby girl. They watched her on the ultrasound for awhile and then put us both back on the monitors to check for baby's heart rate and any potential contractions. She didn't seem distressed to us, her heart rate seemed to stay between 140 and 160. The doctor stayed and charted for awhile and watched her progress; she wanted to see her get a "little happier." I proceeded to wait for the growth ultrasound.
As far as "pain" went, I had been told a variety of things - that it was the worst thing ever, and that it wasn't really that bad. I would say it was somewhere in the middle. It was a lot of pressure. Curt said that at one point my stomach was pushed so flat that it didn't look pregnant at all. But it was a dull pain, as opposed to something more sharp and painful like the shot in the arm I had gotten or the therapy I went through on my sewn through finger last year. However, I may actually have a higher pain tolerance than I thought, because the nurse and doctor did not think that I was going to be okay with how much they were pushing. They thought it was pretty bad. So maybe I'm tougher than I realize. Maybe I could do natural childbirth!
The ultrasound was interesting. The tech was a man, and he was really funny. He seemed good at his job, even though he had a bit of a rough mouth. He quickly saw that the head was still in the "down" position, and then he went to confirm gender (for our third time). She is very very clearly a girl. If she isn't a she...then we have some bigger problems to deal with. Her head measurements were somewhere around 38 weeks, her belly measurements closer to 36 weeks and her leg measurements closer to 40 weeks - giving us an overall estimate of 38 weeks for her age (right on track) and about 7ish pounds. (We'll see about this, they always seem to be "high" estimates from my experience.) She was doing good practice breathing, she seemed to be talking to us, her heart was beating well, she was sucking her thumb. We enjoyed watching her on the ultrasound, looking so healthy and beautiful. We were dismissed from ultrasound back to our room, and we were waiting to be discharged. We got news that the radiologist wouldn't clear us from ultrasound until they looked at her bladder some more. We remembered that he had commented on how large the bladder was, but we didn't think much of it. Probably an hour or so had gone by when it was time for the second ultrasound, and the bladder still was really big. The kidneys looked fine, so it was clear that it hadn't backed up to the point of ruining the kidneys, but there was still some concern that the version had possibly caused a bladder obstruction of some kind. We continued waiting and watching, and she did eventually empty her bladder. The mood wasn't too tense during this time, but it was the only time in the day that I thought a c-section might have been a real possibility. We left the hospital around noon.
It is now night time, and I am really sore. My belly is tender to the touch, and overall sore and crampy. I actually had red marks/scratches on me when I looked earlier. Between all the ultrasounds and pushing, I am tender to say the least. Also, I did feel one weird movement that makes me wonder if she has already flipped back to transverse or breech, but I'm too tender to do much poking around right now.
All in all, I'm thankful for the day. I enjoyed the people I was able to talk with today: ultrasound techs, nurse, doctor, husband. I'm thankful that I had a dry run at the hospital and hopefully I won't have to answer as many questions next time. Thankful that my bags are all really packed now and I'm prepared for the eventual real moment that will be coming. Thankful that I was able to see her moving, growing body. Thankful that we confirmed one more time that she really is a she. Thankful that we were able to get her head down. I am still curious as to how this story is going to end, and when, but it is really just a matter of curiosity, as I know that Someone else knows and has it all planned, just hasn't told me yet!
No comments:
Post a Comment