Stubborn Little Guy

Last week, Chad and I had another doctors appointment to check on how baby was progressing. The doctor checked the normal things, my weight (which I will not be disclosing on the world wide web), my blood pressure and stomach measurements. The doctor also checked the position of the baby and you could immediately see the worry on the doctor's face. She said she was sending me over for a quick x-ray so we could verify the position of the baby because she wanted to check if the baby was breeched. Being the good little patient I am, I went right over for my x-ray and 5 hours later I got a call from the doctor's office saying our baby was indeed in breech position. When the baby is breeched, his head is up instead of down, so he would be born feet first and this is risky for both the baby and mom.

This also meant that they were sending me to Great Falls to try and have the baby flipped. Flipped? Yup, that is what the doctor said, flipped. Being the curious patient that I am, I immediately youtubed what baby flipping was all about and I was horrified at what was to come. Really, you can do that to a baby while he is still inside the mom? Who'd thunk? I got a call from my doctor's nurse and she explained the procedure a little bit more and advised us to pack as though we would be at the hospital for 3 days, just in case I went into labor or they had to do an emergency c-section. Ok, now I was really freaked out. I thought it was just going to be a simple procedure, a very uncomfortable procedure, but simple nonetheless.

The appointment for baby flippin' was set for Friday, September 3rd at 7 am. Chad and I packed up and headed over to Great Falls on Thursday evening. It was a gorgeous drive. The sky was clear as can be and we could see all of the mountain ranges really, really well. Central Montana really is a glorious place. We also got to go to an awesome outdoor store called Scheels so Chad could add more things to his "must have" list. This list is getting longer and longer by the second. I have really got the head nod and the "that's nice honey" reply down to a science. It is all about the eye contact and making it sound like I really REALLY want him to have that 1500 dollar scope after we get all of the things we need for baby- Chad, look over there! (even though there is no way in heck that's gonna happen anytime soon).

Bright and early on Friday morning, Chad and I headed over to the hospital and boy was it fancy. We met our nurse and our doctor and they were great. Our doctor that was performing the baby flipping (in medical terms it is really called an external version) is the best high risk OB doc in the state and just an all around nice guy. Any doctor that comes in wearing scrubs and his cowboy boots is alright in my book. The doctor and nurse explained the procedure and the history of the procedure which put Chad and I at ease. They took an ultrasound to check on the exact position of the baby and confirmed our suspicions that our baby is going to be really good looking. I was then given a shot to relax the uterus and the convenient side effects was that it would make your heart beat faster and cause the shakes. It is crazy how fast the side effects set in. I started to rub my face and began to shake. Chad just started laughing at me. I am sure that laughing at patients is a calming technique that was taught to him in PT school, so I didn't question it. About 20 minutes later the real fun began. The doctor started to move the baby and the baby would move fine for a few inches, then all of sudden baby would stop or wouldn't turn his body the way it needed to be turned. Stubborn little guy, he definitely gets that from Chad- I seriously have nothing to do with that quality and if Chad tries to tell you otherwise, just nod and say "that's nice honey". The doctor continued to try and turn the baby for about 8-10 minutes. There were a few times I thought I was going to pass out, so I just started to laugh or cry instead. This baby was not going where he needed to be. I am sure baby was not very happy to be moved from his desired position and I am sure if an ultrasound was taken while he was being pushed around, we would have found that baby giving us the bird mouthing the words "I ain't moving suckers".

The doctor stopped and said he thought the baby was for sure going to turn, but we needed to take a break so I could go take warm shower and do some fun yoga poses so we could try and get this baby relaxed. As I mentioned before, the hospital in Great Falls was fancy. The shower in the birthing suite was amazing- it had every kind of shower head imaginable and of course I had them all going at once. Chad and I were contemplating just staying in this room until after the baby was born. An awesome shower, an awesome view of the mountains, people to bring you food and drink, comfortable beds and a TV- what more could one need? I am sure the rent we would have to pay would be astronomical, but hopefully we could convince insurance to pay for all that.

The second go around was no picnic. It only lasted about 2-4 minutes, but it seemed like it was neverending. It hurt a lot more than the first time and I think I might have blacked out a few times because there are things I just do not remember. Chad was great, he reassured me and made sure I kept taking deep breathes. The doctor stopped and just looked defeated, this baby was not going to turn. I felt like a failure that maybe I didn't relax enough to allow our baby to turn or I was to blame for this. The nurse and doctor again were so nice and stayed to talk to Chad and I for another few minutes to make sure we were doing ok. Since we couldn't get the baby turned, it means that I will have a cesarian in a couple weeks. This definitely wasn't "the plan" and I know that these things can't be planned or avoided, but I am really really disappointed that I will always have to have a c-section when we have kids. I have been blessed and have had an extremely easy pregnancy up until this point and the baby and I are healthy as can be, so I guess I shouldn't get too greedy.

The doctor gave orders that Chad had to buy me lunch, so that is exactly what we went to do after we were cleared to leave. We headed on over to McKenzie River Pizza Company and gorged ourselves on yummy pizza and breadsticks. Then, since we were in the big city and all, we headed on over to Wal-Mart to stock up on some cheap groceries. That was a mistake, but when is going to Wal-Mart ever really a good idea? Especially after the morning we had. Some rough looking Wal-Mart folk were out in full force, so we got out of Wal-Mart and the big city as fast as we could.

The good news is that we survived and are all healthy. My body feels like I have been beaten up, but that could have easily been from the Wal-Mart trip.