I have entered that odd time in pregnancy, where the calendar says the time of baby’s arrival is coming very soon, but your mind and heart feel like it will be forever!!!! Truth be told, baby will arrive no later than August 14 (42 weeks). And that seems like a crazy amount of time. A friend of mine had her baby recently. Our last little ones were born within days of each other. With the arrival of her beautiful girl, I am more antsy to find out if we are welcoming a third little girl or a boy to our clan.
Normally I hit the antsy time about 5 weeks before baby is born. This time I got a hidden blessing. About 5 1/2 weeks before my due date, we found out baby had moved out of the birth position, into a breech presentation. That took away all my ansty-ness. I did not want this baby to come one second before it got it’s little self into the proper position for birth. Nope, stay right there little one!!!
After the reveation of baby’s position, I spent two weeks going to chiropractors for adjustments called the Webster Technique. I also spent hours on my hands and knees and in a swimming pool diving to the bottom and doing hand stands. I did not even know I could do hand stands in a pool, but determination will get you far. I played music to the bottom of my belly and several other ideas I researched.
I begged many for prayers, cried out to God and cried in general. I know there are worse things than a breech birth. I do. I have watched several friends walk through immeasurably worse. But in our lives, this was the struggle we were living.
Baby stayed breech. So a manual turning of baby was scheduled. Hubby and I were a bit concerned the position could be caused by the cord being wrapped or some other issue, so we decided to have a full ultrasound done before the turning at 37 1/2 weeks. We got in to the ultrasound, and almost immediately, the tech asked, “why are you here?” I told her because after a month of being in great position baby had turned breech and they were getting ready to turn baby in two days. She said, “well baby’s not breech.” I kept asking, are you serious, are you sure, hubby did you hear that? I started to cry. She finally said, “that’s a good thing, right?” Yes, oh yes, you have no idea how much time I have spent in the pool, at chiropractors, on my hands and knees. Yes!!!! I asked her several times through the scan, is baby still head down. “Yes, but this baby sure moves a lot!”
My midwife had told me as soon as baby got into a good position, she would have me put on a belly brace and not take it off. I didn’t even sit down between the scan and e-mailing my midwife to find out how to put the brace on.
That was Tuesday, my next midwife appointment was Friday. Thankfully hubby had taken me seriously when after one of the appointments where baby was still breech I had sobbed to him that he had to come to my appointments because I couldn’t bear to face them alone anymore. So, he left work early and came to my appointment.
At the beginning of the appointment, my midwife found the heartbeat at the bottom of my belly. Then she said, do you want me to do a quick scan just to make sure baby is head down. Yes, let’s do that. And apparently in the time she got the ultrasound machine, baby moved again, and went breech.
I sobbed. My midwife just hugged me and agreed this was a horrible situation and talked about our options if baby continued to be in unstable lie, meaning moving in and out of birth position. She then told me to call the chiropractor right away to see if I could get in that day. And we scheduled the manual turning for Monday morning.
So I went to the chiropractor that night and Sunday morning. And Monday morning before the scheduled turning. As I walked into the chiropractor appointment, I got some horrible cramps. They doubled me over, but then were gone.
We got to the hospital. The nurse noticed I seemed very upset. I told her I did not want the turning, I did not want all the meds they were going to pump into me, and as a consequence the baby, and I hated the whole deal. She offered to send in the midwife on duty to talk to me.
We talked for a while, about how we did not have to use all the medications, how I could tell them to stop at any time, and that I still had options. She told us a story about a woman she attended where the baby was breech up until 42 weeks, turned on it’s own at church, and was born the next day weighing 13 lbs, so that in her mind, there is never really a time where baby is too big to turn! That was reassuring, though I would like to avoid a 13 pound baby!!! She tried to palpate, check baby’s position with her hands on my belly, but was unable to do so. So time for another ultrasound. And there was baby, just as head down as could be!!!
Yup, another turning procedure that wasn’t. I put the brace back on.
The next day was my regular appointment with a midwife, not mine. I refused an ultrasound, but the heartbeat was low in my belly, meaning the head was down where it belonged.
And a week later, at 39 weeks 1 day, head was still down where it belonged, so my midwife told me I could quit wearing the brace.
Since then, I have been relieved to not wear the brace, thanking the Lord for answered prayers and asking Him to keep baby in the proper position and to get labor started!!!!!!!!!
I must admit there is still a roller coaster in my emotions and heart. Sometimes the baby does not move much at all and I freak out. Other times, baby moves like crazy and I freak out, what if it turns out of position again????
Here I am, one day before my due date, 2 days before my oldest birthday, wondering and waiting.
I know the Lord is faithful, and without Him, the prayers of so many and the support of my great midwife and chiropractor, I know I would be going nuts…I am close enough as it is. Thank you Lord for not making me walk this alone!!!!
Survive til you Thrive!
