March 12 - My Birthday Present

The Friday before at my appointment, I found out that our baby was breech. I was disappointed to hear this so late in the pregnancy but felt like it helped things make sense seeing as this pregnancy had felt way different. My tummy stuck out on the right side of my belly button and what we thought was her little bum always pushing out was in actuality her head. My body just felt a lot different than at this point with Michael.

At my appointment the doctor couldn't say for sure whether she was head down so the ultra sound machine verified his assumption that the baby was in fact breech. He said this late in the pregnancy there isn't much of a chance that the baby will flip on her own and if she remained breech, I would have to schedule a c-section. He suggested we go in on Monday for a version telling us that the doctor most known in the county for successful versions would be the doctor at the hospital. We worried the whole weekend about doing a version because for every positive thing we could find about doing it, we read a scary, negative issue. Still a little reluctant at the possible risks, we started my birthday celebration by heading into the hospital.

After monitoring the baby for an hour, the doctor came in. As they took the monitors off, he explained that he would know within 5 minutes if he would be able to flip the baby. Then he said, "Okay I'm just going to feel her positioning first" as he started prodding my stomach. It was some of the worst pain I've ever felt. Steve was holding my hand and watching the doctor and nurse from up by my head. The doctor asked the nurse to hold her fingers on the lower left part of my stomach. Wincing in pain and trying to hold back tears, I was relieved as he pulled his hands away after 15 seconds. At this point I thought he was going to tell me about her positioning and then give me his plan for rotating her. Instead I was shocked to hear "Okay her head is down... let's double check on the ultrasound!"

Sure enough the ultrasound showed us she was now switched around! I was only off the monitors for less than a minute as the version only took him less than 20 seconds to do. Ever grateful and choked up, I thanked the doctor for making this possible. Our sweet girl was now head down and we could plan on a regular delivery. What a great birthday present!

Once the baby flipped, my tummy size went down a good inch. It didn't stick out as far and I could completely tell a difference. As I was leaving the hospital, I remember saying that now my stomach felt like how it did with Michael.

We spent the rest of the day with family. We picked up Michael and had lunch with Steve's parents. We napped for an hour. We had dinner with my parents. Shopped at Tai Pan. And finished the night with self-serve frozen yogurt.

Frank Breech
We're pretty sure this is how the baby was sitting in my tummy before the version.