Mark and I learned at my 35 week ultrasound that Baby Parker was still in a frank breech position. His head was up in my ribs on the right side, his bottom was down in my pelvis, and his legs were in a pike position. We joked that maybe he would be a gymnast or high diver. My midwife, who I had been seeing for my entire pregnancy shared some suggestions for trying to flip him inside the womb. One was going in for a procedure called an external cephalic version (ECV) where they try to manually flip him and is said to be very painful (60% success rate.)The other was a traditional Chinese medicine therapy called moxibustion which consists of burning mugwort near the nail of the little toes. This can stimulate movement and activity within the uterus(about a 30% success rate.) She also assured me that he had plenty of time to still make the turn on his own and not to worry too much about it. Only 3-5% of full term pregnancies result in a breech. She did mention that if he did not turn that I would most likely be looking at having a c-section. We now had some options to think about and we would check his position again in 2 weeks.
During the next 2 weeks I was given so many suggestions and tips on how to make Baby Parker turn. It was overwhelming and I had no idea what was worth trying and what wasn't. I spent some time looking up different positions that I could try to help him move on his own and gave those a try. I even gave him a few pep talks. A friend passed along some moxibustion that she had from a prior pregnancy. The problem with that is that you have to burn it outdoors because it smells so bad. We were having an extreme cold spell so I didn't end up trying that right away. I really didn't want to have a c-section and was praying that he would flip without any intervention.
The days leading up to my procedure, the weather warmed up a little bit and I tried burning the moxibustion. It.Was.Disgusting! It smelled like marijuana and it was strong! I had to shower and wash my clothes after each time. I don't even know if I believe in it, but I was desperate.
Friday rolled around and we made our way to the hospital. Another ultrasound was done to confirm the breech before attempting the flip. I spent a couple hours in pre-op before being brought into the OR. The room was set up for a c-section in the event that the procedure caused any fetal distress (which is rare) and they had to take the baby out. The epidural was awful and brought tears to my eyes. Once that had kicked in, they began the attempts to flip the baby. One of them pushed him up and out of my pelvic region while the other then tried to rotate him around. I felt very intense pressure but no pain. At one point I felt like my ribs might crack. Four attempts were made to turn him with long breaks in between each one to wait for the baby's heart rate to come back up. I kept my eyes closed for the first 3 attempts to help me better focus on breathing. My eyes were open for the final attempt though and the doctor's whole body was shaking as he pushed on my belly. The procedure was unsuccessful and they all felt really bad. The doctor said that he was really stuck down in there and just wouldn't budge. I thought I would be more disappointed that I was but I was happy that we at least tried. The doctor that was assisting said that he wanted to see me in the office on Monday and schedule my c-section for the next Friday, 39 weeks. Not what I was hoping for but I chose to use wisdom and trust that my doctors only wanted what was best for both baby and myself. There was nothing else I could do about it so I began working on accepting it and trusting in the process.The ECV was not that terrible and I would totally do it again. Recovering from it, however, was a different story. My stomach felt like it was covered in bruises and my back hurt like nothing I had ever felt before. I spent Friday night and all day Saturday moving around very limited and slowly.
When I woke up that Saturday morning and got out of bed, I felt something unusual. Without going into too much detail, I was almost certain that I had lot my mucus plug. Of course I went straight to Google, but even then I was not 100% certain. Other than the recovery pain that I mentioned before, nothing crazy happened for the rest of that day. Around 8:30 pm, I noticed some blood when I used the bathroom. Again, I went to Google and determined that the event from earlier must have indeed been the plug. Mark had literally just walked into the house after a 16 hour work day when I discovered this. I greeted him at the door with, "Don't freak out but we might have to go to the hospital tonight." After a couple hours of monitoring how I felt, we decided to go to bed. Around 1:30 am I got up to use the bathroom and that is when I felt the small trickle of my water breaking. Mild, irregular contractions kept me up for the next several hours. When Mark's alarm went off early that morning I filled him in on what I was feeling and told him I was pretty sure that I was in the very early stages of labor. He called into work and told them he would not be coming in. After going back and forth about what to do, we decided to go to the hospital. With several more small gushes coming out and being that he was still breech, I didn't want to risk waiting too long and putting him in any kind of danger. We took our time, showered, and made sure that we had everything we needed. We even stopped at Dunkin' Donuts so Mark could get a coffee. Definitely not like the movies haha 😉
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| First family photo |
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| Luke Walter Parker 3/18/18 12:40 pm 6 lbs 15 oz, 20 inches |
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| First ever picture of Luke! |
As I type this, I am 12 days postpartum and my recovery has gone incredibly and surprisingly well. I had such a great birthing experience and honestly couldn't imagine it being any different. Once again, I am reminded that the Lord's ways are so much greater than my own and He will never fail us. His way is perfect!
Stayed tuned for an update on our first days as a family of 3!
