After my 'feeling sorry for myself' blog post last week, I thought I should update my 7 or 8 readers that actually check this page.
At my appointment this morning baby was head down!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! That was confirmed by both my midwife and a hastily booked ultrasound. Took him/her awhile to figure things out, but s/he did not disappoint, and turned right in the nick of time.
No ECV (external cephalic version) for me.
No middle of the night ambulance ride if my waters break while baby is transverse and at risk of cord prolapse.
No elective or emergency c-section (hopefully).
We are officially able to breathe easy now, and just wait and see when Mother Nature wants this baby to come.
Bring it on, baby, I'm ready and I am sooo happy that I get to meet you the most natural way possible!
(Hmmm... wonder if I should let my employer know that I am going to be around for my last 8 shifts after all, if they want me to come back in... nah...)
Tuesday 16 October 2012
Friday 12 October 2012
Hatching, part 2...
I can't help it, here's another anecdote about how I botched another perfect opportunity for "the talk"...
The boys were arguing about our cats.
Connor said, "Lily is a Mommy."
Alex said, "No she's not! She hasn't had kittens yet."
Connor asked me, "When's Lily going to have kittens?"
I replied, "Well, Lily can't have kittens. Before we got her, she had an operation so she couldn't."
Connor asked, "What's an operation?"
I answered, "Well, sometimes the doctor has to take out a part of someone's body, or fix something inside..."
Alex responded, "Oh... so they took out her baby-maker!"
Me... "Umm, yes, something like that."
Kirstin pipes up, having followed the whole conversation with interest... "Mama, are you going to take out your baby-maker?"
Me... "Umm... no..."
Kirstin, "So, what if you have lots and lots of more babies? Where will we put them all?"
Me: "Well... umm... we're not planning to..."
Kirstin. "Oh." She ponders this for a minute. "So, how many eggs you got left to hatch?"
Hahaha... still hatching this one, huh? I have the best kids ever... now off to the library now to find a book that teaches me how to teach my kids about reproduction without scarring them permanently...
* * *
And while we're on the topic, an update about my hatchling. This little one is STUBBORN! It has been weeks now and s/he has moved back and forth from breech to transverse in my stomach. Basically head up to lying sideways across my belly. S/he shows absolutely no desire to flip head down like instinct and nature intends.
And we're running out of time.
So, if my midwife decrees, on Tuesday, that baby is STILL transverse, then I will be seeing an Obstetrician for an External Cephalic Version. Do yourself a favour and do not google it! The nice description is that the OB will try to manually turn the baby by pressing on my stomach. The not nice version (yeah, I googled it) is that it hurts like a son of a b@#$% and is risky enough that you have to have it done in a hospital with an operating room standing by in case baby needs to come out ASAP by caesarean.
ECV is successful about 60% of the time. So, that means that, if this baby doesn't turn on its own, I have a 6/10 chance of avoiding an elective c-section by doing this. If I don't do it, I'm not giving this baby the best possible chance for a natural childbirth. If I do do it, this baby might be born a couple of weeks earlier than we're anticipating. But in my mind, it's not a question of whether we do it, it's a question of when.
My midwife thinks that there's enough room still for the baby, for it to be successful, but she also cautioned me that it also means that there is enough room for baby to turn right back to his or her happy sideways state, so we might want to consider induction to have the baby before s/he turns sideways again.
Needless to say, we have some serious thinking to do in the next few days.
And just to put a little icing on the cake, while I am sitting here with a transverse baby kicking me in the gut, my midwife has also has cautioned me about the risk of cord-prolapse, should I go into labour and my water break before I reach a hospital. Great. I googled that one too! :P
Anyway, the complications of having a transverse baby are enough that I made a somewhat hasty decision to start my maternity leave two weeks earlier than intended. I was supposed to work right up until the 26th, but now I've decided to give myself some breathing space between now and my looming due date. So that we can do whatever we need to do to have a safe outcome.
Wish me luck this weekend, I'm going to be trying some of the old wives' tale strategies on turning breech babies.
The boys were arguing about our cats.
Connor said, "Lily is a Mommy."
Alex said, "No she's not! She hasn't had kittens yet."
Connor asked me, "When's Lily going to have kittens?"
I replied, "Well, Lily can't have kittens. Before we got her, she had an operation so she couldn't."
Connor asked, "What's an operation?"
I answered, "Well, sometimes the doctor has to take out a part of someone's body, or fix something inside..."
Alex responded, "Oh... so they took out her baby-maker!"
Me... "Umm, yes, something like that."
Kirstin pipes up, having followed the whole conversation with interest... "Mama, are you going to take out your baby-maker?"
Me... "Umm... no..."
Kirstin, "So, what if you have lots and lots of more babies? Where will we put them all?"
Me: "Well... umm... we're not planning to..."
Kirstin. "Oh." She ponders this for a minute. "So, how many eggs you got left to hatch?"
Hahaha... still hatching this one, huh? I have the best kids ever... now off to the library now to find a book that teaches me how to teach my kids about reproduction without scarring them permanently...
* * *
And while we're on the topic, an update about my hatchling. This little one is STUBBORN! It has been weeks now and s/he has moved back and forth from breech to transverse in my stomach. Basically head up to lying sideways across my belly. S/he shows absolutely no desire to flip head down like instinct and nature intends.
And we're running out of time.
So, if my midwife decrees, on Tuesday, that baby is STILL transverse, then I will be seeing an Obstetrician for an External Cephalic Version. Do yourself a favour and do not google it! The nice description is that the OB will try to manually turn the baby by pressing on my stomach. The not nice version (yeah, I googled it) is that it hurts like a son of a b@#$% and is risky enough that you have to have it done in a hospital with an operating room standing by in case baby needs to come out ASAP by caesarean.
ECV is successful about 60% of the time. So, that means that, if this baby doesn't turn on its own, I have a 6/10 chance of avoiding an elective c-section by doing this. If I don't do it, I'm not giving this baby the best possible chance for a natural childbirth. If I do do it, this baby might be born a couple of weeks earlier than we're anticipating. But in my mind, it's not a question of whether we do it, it's a question of when.
My midwife thinks that there's enough room still for the baby, for it to be successful, but she also cautioned me that it also means that there is enough room for baby to turn right back to his or her happy sideways state, so we might want to consider induction to have the baby before s/he turns sideways again.
Needless to say, we have some serious thinking to do in the next few days.
And just to put a little icing on the cake, while I am sitting here with a transverse baby kicking me in the gut, my midwife has also has cautioned me about the risk of cord-prolapse, should I go into labour and my water break before I reach a hospital. Great. I googled that one too! :P
Anyway, the complications of having a transverse baby are enough that I made a somewhat hasty decision to start my maternity leave two weeks earlier than intended. I was supposed to work right up until the 26th, but now I've decided to give myself some breathing space between now and my looming due date. So that we can do whatever we need to do to have a safe outcome.
Wish me luck this weekend, I'm going to be trying some of the old wives' tale strategies on turning breech babies.
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