No baby yet

After assuring everyone that we would be having a baby today no matter what, we are home from the hospital sans baby.

Let me explain: Sean and I went into the hospital dutifully an hour and a half before my procedure. I got hooked up to the monitors, the IV got started, got some blood drawn and took the pre-c-section drugs, plus got a shot to stop any contractions. This took about an hour. The doctor then came in with the ultrasound machine to check out where the baby was hanging out and low and behold her head was down. That took everyone by surprise, especially the doctor. The doctor then told us that my options were to wait until labor started on its own or we could just induce. Since I was still only dilated to 1 cm, Sean and I decided to wait for nature to take its course. The doctor did tell me we could induce any time after today if we decide to but it would be easier if we waited until conditions were more desirable (i.e. being dilated to a 3-4 cm). Right now I'm a big fan of not being in the hospital for 24+ hours before the baby comes. I'll try to keep everyone updated but for right now we're just waiting for baby to decide it is time for her grand entrance.

Oh, and the nurses felt bad that they poked and prodded me before they even checked the ultrasound. Maybe that means they won't charge me for all the stuff they did do to me (wishful thinking!).

Turning

I've been reading up on how to turn a baby on your own, just in case something popped up that sounded like it would work. Most of the things they tell you to try are pretty darn funny. For example:

1. Do a headstand in a pool. .

2. Put your earbuds from your iPod down your pants, next to your pubic bone.

3. Lay your ironing board on your couch, lie down on it upside down, run a flashlight down your stomach from the top of your uterus to your pubic bone. Also, you can put an ice pack at the top of your uterus and stick your earbuds down your pants while in this position.

4. Clip a clothespin on the outside of each pinky toe (this has something to do with pressure points).

5. Visualize your baby turning around and putting her head down into your pelvis.

There are plenty more, some more amusing than others. I can see the benefit of some of the methods but others seem a little ridiculous/impossible to me. Like doing a headstand in a pool, I couldn't do that even if I wasn't 9 months pregnant! I thought about trying some of these but haven't invested much time into self-turning this child. Especially since they tell you to try these starting at 35 weeks (I'll be 39 on Wednesday). Seems like it's a little too late to take matters into my own hands.

External Cephalic Version

I'm going in next week to have this baby turned around, at least that's the hope. I'm scheduled for 9 am on Wednesday morning for a external cephalic verson. If we're successful in the turning then the doctor will induce labor that day, if not, then on to a c-section. Either way we'll have a baby here in less than a week. Now, what to do with Jillian?

38 weeks

I had my weekly doctor appointment today. I saw the nurse practitioner. She checked me out, things were good until she realized that she couldn't feel the baby's head. So she decided to do a quick ultrasound just to check things out. She got the machine ready and had me gooped up and was waving the wand all around my stomach where the head is supposed to be and said, "Good, there's the head, right where it should be." Then she kept moving the wand around because she saw something unusual. "Oh, that's not the head! That's the abdomen!" Turns out my lovely little lady is breech! The NP went out to get the doctor (who was there thankfully!) and we went over my options. Next week we are going to try to turn the baby around and if that is successful they'll induce right then. If it's unsuccessful we'll go right into a c-section. Either way we'll have a baby sometime next week. Right now we are just waiting for the doctor's office to call me to let me know when to come in to have this baby! Not how I wanted things to go, but as long as she's healthy then we'll all be ok.