"You Spin Me Right Round Baby Right Round..."

I am choosing to write down my experience at the hospital yesterday so that in case the need comes again I can remember my exact words that I said to my husband after all was said and done...
Let's start at the beginning.
At about 28 weeks pregnant I did the nasty glucose test, got my rhogam shot, and the doctor did the usual measure my belly, listen to the heartbeat etc. He also felt my belly and noticed the giant hard spot towards my ribs and noted that he thought my baby still had her head up instead of facing down. He said that baby's turn on their own between 28-32 weeks so we would see what happens. Left the appointment with no worries or anxiety and just kept on growing this baby.
So the same thing happens at week 30 appt, week 32, and by 34 he says we need to make sure that's what he's feeling because it's really hard to tell what's what on first-time moms since my ab muscles are still in decent shape. Ha ha, I know right?

So at 34 weeks we get an ultrasound and sure enough, there's her giant head squished up against my ribs (no wonder it's so uncomfortable to sit. If I bend over just slightly my ribs run into her head and it hurts folks!) So he measures some stuff to estimate how big she is at that time, measures how much amnotic fluid I have in four different spots, and by my request, makes sure this darling baby girl didn't accidently have a penis that we missed at 20 weeks. But no, there is no penis and this girl is going to look great in all her dresses we have for her!
So the doctor explains to me that it appears as though she likes the position she is in and is not going to turn her head down on her own. Explains very minimal about how we can turn her around externally, but explains that it is painful and his own wife wouldn't even try it and she took the other route which is a cesarian section delivery. C-section delivery was never something I had even considered and didn't even want to. So I said, let's turn her and he said we'll see next time.

So at 36 weeks we make sure she's still in her favorite position. She is. And we set up an appointment for a few days later to go to the hospital and try to turn this baby upside down. At this appointment the doctor mentions to me that it's a 50/50 chance of working on first time moms. Again, he blames my ab muscles that are in such excellent condition (ridiculous!) and says there is a less than 1% chance that it may stress out the baby and they'd have to take me in immediately for an emergency c-section anyway. So Nate and I freak out a bit but we're still going for it because I want to avoid the long recovery and nasty scar that come along with a c-section!

Friday, June 4th, rolls around and Nate and I are at the hospital for our External Cephallic Version appt. I get a small taste of what we're going to go through in a few weeks when we're back there for the delivery. I have to put on a hospital gown (as all you women know it's the thing that has like one tie in the back and your bum hangs out! super embarassing, but I guess I'd better get over that real quick!) They have me lay on the hospital bed and the nurse comes in to hook me up with the blue and pink straps that monitor contractions and baby's heart rate. Found out some of the kicks I feel are actually Braxton Hicks contractions and no big deal.
Then she hooks me up to an IV and forgets to draw my blood (just in case I end up in surgery). So she decides to take out the IV tube, leaving the needle in my arm, and just puts the little test tubes in, but that means in between all that I've got a needle going in so what comes out? Lots of blood. I couldn't see because she had all these warm blankets in my way, but I could feel the warm liquid oozing all over my hand and Nate is watching the whole time and starts to feel a bit light headed at all that blood coming out. What am I going to do with this guy when I'm delivering? Anybody's extra tough husband want to trade for the day? I really need someone who's not going to pass out, ditch me, and make me go through labor by myself!

Once we're all hooked up and ready to go we wait. We sit and wait until the doctor is done with his patients in his office and about 20 minutes later he shows up ready to do this. Comments on how brave I am, I freak out in my head for a minute when he says that, but here we go.... He puts a muscle relaxing medicine in my IV to relax the uterus squirts lots of jelly on my belly, and puts the ultrasound on it to see where my little baby is and where she's going to go. First he has to get her little bum out of my pelvis since she's basically squished in half trying to go down the birth canal. So he pushes nice and hard on my lower pelvis and I start cringing and holding my breath because it hurts. Nate jumps up into action and asks if I need a hand to hold. I shake my head because I just want to look at the celiing and hold on to the rails of the bed. Doc reminds me to breath because when I hold my breath it tenses up those muscles that are in his way of turning our baby. But he keeps pushing on my lower pelvis and now up by the baby's head trying to get her to turn the 1/4 turn she needs to go. He says, she's not going to go this way and we're going to try turning her the other way which is a 3/4 turn. He just keeps pushing as hard as he can on my belly and squishing the baby and she actually moves sideways across my tummy. He sees that something is working and makes sure I'm not going to die; I shake my head and just hope that it really is going to work and say something about how I can't believe this is okay to do and it's not killing the baby.
It only took a couple of minutes but it eventually worked and the doctor is amazed that he got her to turn. She was fighting him the whole time, but her little heart beat steadied around 150 the entire time and we all are hoping she will stay that way!

So we had to stay on the monitors for another 30 minutes to make sure her heartbeat stays steady, and it did. We were all done and now I've got a baby facing the proper way. Now it's just a matter of hoping that I go into labor in the next 3 weeks because I don't want to go past my due date. That's way too long! And of course, we hope that she stays put but if she doesn't I've got two options. We can try all that fun turning stuff again and be induced immediately, but it may not be so easy since she will be a bit bigger by then. Or I could have a c-section. And seeing as I just put myself through all that to avoid a c-section I think I would do it again to avoid the c-section. It only took a few minutes, wasn't the worst pain I've ever felt, and so my conclusion is that I would do it again in the future if I had to!

Congratulations if you made it through my super long post, but I just wanted to write down what I went through so I can remember in a few years that if I need to go through it again for another baby I told myself I would. Oh, and I don't have any recent pictures or anything so just look at my little twin on the countdown. I pretty much look exactly like her; anorexic looking arms, small chest, small butt and fabulous legs. Just a basketball hidden under my dress. Right? I wish.....

Oh yeah. And since I'm writing this for myself anyway I might as well wish myself a Happy 25th Birthday today! Hopefully my cute husband will do something extra special for me like get me a donut at the store this time, instead of the usual two donuts for himself!