Turn, Baby, Turn and False Alarm

This last Tuesday I had my weekly doctor visit. For the past 9 months my doctor visits have been pretty uneventful. But this week the doctor did an internal exam and discovered that our little Daniel has decided to be heads up rather than heads down. He did a quick ultrasound to confirm that Daniel is most definitely breech. So he scheduled me for a version the very next morning. This is where he manually would try to turn Daniel by pushing on my stomach and maneuvering him around to the right spot.

My mom came with us the next morning and we had to be at the hospital at 7:30am to get checked in and have all my vitals taken. They put two little monitors on my tummy, one to monitor Daniel's heart rate and one to measure my contractions, which I have been having for a while now. We could also hear Daniel's heartbeat and it was just beating away as it should be. They put an IV in my hand but didn't actually hook me up to a bag or anything. It was just a precaution in case something went wrong or I went into labor and they would have to a c-section right then. I was given a shot of medicine that relaxed my uterus so it wouldn't contract while the doctor was trying to turn Daniel. The side effect of the medicine was feeling jittery and when you haven't had anything to eat since the night before (in case of emergency surgery) it wasn't a very good feeling and I felt a little nauseous too.

At about 9am the doctor came in and they did another ultrasound to see exactly how Daniel was positioned. The doctor showed me on the screen that Daniel was practicing breathing and his little lungs were going in and out. He is getting ready to be out here with us! That was neat to see.

The nurse stood on one side of me and the doctor on the other. They gooped up my whole stomach really good with ultrasound jelly. The doctor place one hand low on my belly and the other hand up high on Daniel's head. The nurse held my hand they told me I would feel a lot of pressure. The doctor started pushing really hard and at first all I felt was pressure which I can handle but then I started to feel some really sharp pains. I said something and he stopped for moment to let me relax and then he started again and again I felt sharp pain. He told me I was just feeling pressure but I told him that I was definitely feeling sharp pains. So I took a few more deep breaths and tried to relax my body. I tried doing the lamaze breathing technique I learned in the birthing class and it helped me to calm down but then when he started pushing again, this time even harder, the sharp pain felt like a knife cutting through the inside of my stomach and I let out a cry of pain and the doctor immediately stopped. He said he was not going to continue because Daniel was not moving and it shouldn't be that painful for me. He said that when they try to turn the baby a lot of times once they start the baby will just easily flip all on his own but sometimes the baby won't move at all and there is usually a reason for that and he doesn't want to force it especially if the baby is in my pelvis. He also said that sometimes the shape of the pelvis can cause the baby to be stuck.

They cleaned me up and hooked me back up to the baby heart rate monitor and Daniel was doing just fine. The doctor went to find the c-section schedule to see when they could schedule one for me. The nurse told me all kinds of exercises I can do at home to try and get Daniel to turn on his own. He is pretty stuck in there but I am still going to do the exercises just to see if he might turn.

They have me scheduled for a c-section this coming Tuesday the 16th. Which is Daniel's actual due date! I had friends and family make predictions of when they thought Daniel would be born about a week ago and no one predicted his actual due date! But there is still a chance I could into labor before then and I would go in and they would do a c-section. And there is a chance, a small one, but still a chance that he might turn on his own and we could have a normal delivery.

So after a very exhausting morning we headed home. That afternoon I went over to my friend Ruth's house and Hannah Waldock and Hannah Clark came too and brought their little ones with them. Ruth set up the kiddie pool in the back for Gabriel (3) and Tirzah (3) to play in. We enjoyed a relaxing visit and the medicine they gave me to relax my uterus wore off and my contractions started again. We were sitting around the table and I got up for some reason and looked at my chair. There was a little moist spot where I had been sitting. I made a comment and Hannah C. looked at the chair and said, "Did your water break?". I went to the bathroom and things were pretty moist but there was no big gush or anything. So I went back and sat down again and a little while later I got up again and once again there was the moist spot. The girls told me I should call the birthing center to see what they would want me to do. I am Group B Strep positive so if my water breaks I am immediately to go to the hospital so they can give me antibiotics. The birthing center told me to come back in because I had had a version that morning and maybe it was ruptured some membranes. So it was back to the hospital.

I headed home to grab Ruh and we dropped Daisy off at my parent's and picked up my mom. Ruh and my mom were sure we were going to have baby but I wasn't convinced. I said it wasn't going to be anything and they would send us home. They hooked me up to all the monitors again and after a little while a doctor came in to give me an exam. I had never seen this doctor but he had to do the exam because my doctor was busy. Oh boy, I wish my doctor had been the one to give me that exam. It was extremely painful and it lasted so long. I started cramping really bad and it was just unpleasant all around. And in the end they didn't find any amniotic fluid and they sent me home.

(So I had to include this picture because I thought it was hilarious!)

Needless to say I was exhausted by the time we got home and was very glad to have that day coming to an end.

All the pictures are actually from the second visit to the hospital that evening. My mom said she would just delete all those pictures she took but right before I went to bed I checked my e-mail and she had sent out an album of the "False Alarm". I am glad she kept them because technically this has all been part of the process of Daniel being born.

So I will keep on updating but right now it looks like he will be born via c-section on Tuesday June 16th! I was hoping to be able to experience a natural childbirth ( I still may be able to) but as long as he arrives healthy I am fine with whatever way he needs to come out! I know the Lord is in complete control!