Sunday, August 5, 2012

drama in the belly

This past Thursday I was 36 weeks, 6 days and had my very first cervical exam - exciting!  I had been taking Evening Primrose Oil, walking every night and sitting on an exercise ball to help "open things up" down there.  My doctor first did the Strep B test, no big deal, and then she did my exam.  She told me I was 1.5cm dilated (1.5 cause she said I had "wiggle room") and 50% effaced.  Very nice, I will take it!  
After she got done she was pressing on my belly and I think I was too excited to really pay much attention to what she was saying.  We listened to the heartbeat (144, perfect) and as she was pulling me up I asked if the baby was head down.  She said something like, she thought she was but she didn't get to feel the baby's suture lines (which evidently are the bones on the top of their skull) when she was doing the external exam, so why don't I go for an ultrasound to make sure she's head down?  
Ultrasounds always freak me out, for some reason, so I left the appointment thinking that there was something wrong and my baby obviously didn't have suture lines on its head.  Didn't even entertain the thought that she didn't feel them because there wasn't a head down there....
So the following day Brad and I go to the ultrasound, and I kid you not, I was SO SHOCKED when the second the girl put the wand on my belly and said, "Yep, she's head up."  
So I have a breech baby.  At 37 weeks.  
My doctor called me about an hour later and discussed my options.  She said I could go up to Duluth and have an ECV done, which is where doctors try to turn the baby from the outside.  I would have to get a shot to relax my uterus, they would have me all hooked up to fetal monitors because it can be stressful on the baby, and there's only a 58% chance that it would be effective.  Not to mention that the baby could still turn back around to the breech position.  So I declined that and told her I would explore other options, and to go ahead and schedule me for an ultrasound for next Thursday (Aug 9) to check on the baby's position then.  If she's still not head down, then we will go from there.
I spent some time doing some research on getting a breech baby to turn, and thanks to the direction of a friend I was able to find a chiropractor about an hour away that specializes in something called the Webster Technique, which is a non-invasive, gentle procedure that has an 85% success rate on getting a baby to turn. Basically the chiropractor adjusts your pelvis while you're on your belly to open it up and give the baby more room to turn.  That's definitely my big "plan of attack" right now.  
I've also been doing Inversions, found on the Spinning Babies website, along with the Breech Tilt.  Both of these positions basically get your head down and your belly up in the air to encourage the baby to turn.  
If she still hasn't turned by next week, when I'm 38 weeks, I was planning to go ahead and do the C-Section at 39 weeks.  However, I've decided now to wait another week - until 39 weeks - to see if she will turn on her own.  If she hasn't turned by then I will hopefully be able to get in soon for a C-Section.  (For some reason I would really like to have her at 39 weeks!  Actually, I'd prefer to have her at 38 weeks but I know that's not the best thing for her).  
Crossing our fingers she gets the memo and flips around ASAP!!  (And stays that way, haha)


Oh - and here's a picture of her face that the tech was able to pull.  We couldn't see hardly anything cause there's just no room in there anymore.  As you can see, I used my great editing skills to label where things were cause otherwise it just looks like a gray and white blob :)


By the way - I'm so puzzled over her fat little nose!  I'm assuming her nose is not really that fat.  Or maybe it is and she's just all swollen from being cramped up in there?  Or its the sound waves creating weird lines?  Or...maybe she just has a fat little nose :)


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