At last week's appointment, my doc said everything continues to look good and I seem to be on "cruise control" just waiting until he's ready to put me into labor. Well, at this week's appointment, the cruise came off when she found the heartbeat way up high as opposed to way down low where he's been head down and ready to pop out for the past 11 weeks. Apparently, he finally got tired of standing on his head and decided it was time for a change. Not so funny at this point in the game. Oh well...I can imagine there will be many times when he will try to lull us into a false sense of security and then throw us for a loop.
So doc grabbed the sono machine just to make sure and yep...his head was up high. He's breach. He turned this past week. I think two days before because the last two nights, my squats felt different...like his head wasn't in my pelvis as good, and I hadn't had to head to the bathroom near as much. Well, I processed the info as calmly as possible and listened to what the doc now recommended and here it is...
She scheduled us for an appointment THIS WEDNESDAY, at the hospital at 6:30AM to try a technique called "external version," which has a 50/50 chance of turning a breech baby to the head down position. It can be fairly painful for me and there are risks involved, such as mine and baby's reaction to the meds they have to give me to relax the uterus. The placenta could also rupture due to the pressure being put on it, and the baby may not tolerate all of it either, causing his heartrate to decelerate and stay down...in any of those situations, she said we'd go ahead with a c-section, which is why they typically perform the technique with an epidural in.
Well, after some discussion, and knowing how much I wanted to try to have a natural birth, she said what she thinks we ought to do is try to do the version once, without the epidural. If he turns, great, we come home and wait for labor and pray he doesn't turn back to breech. If he doesn't turn, she recommends we put in the epidural and try a second time. If unsuccessful, the second time, she wants to go ahead with a c-section on Wednesday anyway, since we are there, I'll have the epi in and he's already full term and only one week from his due date. But it is up to us, and she said we can choose to go home and if he doesn't turn in a week, she'd want to do the c-section on his due date the following Wednesday.
She said...in the mean time, go home, read up and try anything you can find on how to turn a breech baby. I told her I planned on trying the Webster technique with a chiroporactor too. She was fine with all of it and said she'd see me Wednesday morning.
I found a chiropractor who specialized in the technique and in adjusting pregnant women and she was open on Saturday. Dad drove me over to have the adjustment. I'll go back on Monday to be adjusted again. We've also tried lifting my pelvis higher to use gravity to get him back toward my chest, where he has more room to turn. We put ice on my chest because some babies turn from the cold. We played music at my pelvis because some babies turn to the music. And we have tried accupressure on the exterior pinky toes because one chiropractor said it turned breech babies to head down, 70% of the time. I feel good about having tried everything we could try. I'm resting and relaxing and not worrying about any of it. What will be will be. But I am praying he turns down and that the umbilical cord doesn't get wrapped around him in the process. We won't know if anything worked until Wednesday, but I will say that he has been extremely active...especially today...so there is always hope...which has been my motto since youth when my mom told it to me...
"Always hope for the best and expect(or plan for) the worst." That way you are prepared if things get as bad as they can get, but are pleasantly surprised if they don't turn out that bad at all. :)
