The day before my 37 week mark (Friday), I "woke" up from a very sleepless night. I was hurting everywhere, dehydrated and severely warn out. I cried a little to Jon as I kissed him goodbye. I called my midwife and scheduled an appointment to see her that morning. I asked my mom to come with me because I knew I would do nothing but cry and I needed her there to help me communicate my thoughts. My midwife sent me straight over to Mercy Gilbert Medical Center. She called ahead and registered me so I didnt even have to go through the triage formalities. I went straight into a room and a nurse came in and got my IV started. One of my midwives, Dianne, came in with one of my doctors and we came to the conclusion that it most definitely was time to have this baby. We formulated a plan to do an external cephalic version, because did I mention my baby was also breech? A version is when the doctor will manually manipulate the baby to flip by applying massive amounts of pressure on the outside of the abdomen. If that was successful (my chances were 50/50), then they would perform an amniocentesis. An amniocentesis is when a doctor inserts a needle (around 6 inches long) into my abdomen, through my uterus and placenta and pulls out amniotic fluid. They test the fluid to see if the baby's lungs are mature enough to function outside the womb. If they were, then we would induce my labor and go forward with the delivery. We all agreed, the doctors left, my mom slipped out to an appointment and I fell into a drug-induced/sheer exhaustion-induced sleep. I woke up later that afternoon to my darling husband walking in. Jon is such a sight for sore eyes :)
The date was 11-11-11 and just so happened to be the busiest day for the OB floor because everyone wanted to have a baby on that day. I really didn't care about that, but it meant that I was low on the priority list and had to wait for a time when a doctor, nurse, midwife and ultrasound tech were all available at the same time. My mom came back some time early evening and the 3 of us (my mom, Jon and I) tried to relax and rest up.
Late that night, somewhere around midnight, things seemed to be slowing down on the delivery floor so the anesthesiologist came in and did my epidural in preparation for my version. Its an extremely painful procedure. Imagine, if you will, two doctors punching you in the stomach over and over again, then double the pain level. An epidural is 100% necessary. I was terrified! Having a needle inserted into my spine was so scary and as much as i tried to fake it, everyone knew because my monitors started beeping all crazy when my heart started racing. Once it was in, I laid back and felt no pain for the first time in weeks. it was AWESOME! I still had some waiting to do so again, we all tried to get some sleep. My mom pulled up a chair next to me and "ordered" Jon to take the couch and get some sleep since he would need all the energy he could get the next day. He crashed and I fell asleep while my mom watched HGTV. At one point, I woke up to find my sweet, wonderful mom curled up with a blanket ON THE FLOOR! I begged her to switch with Jon but she insisted on letting him sleep. I was so thankful to have my mom there with me. As she laid there on the floor, I realized just how much it meant to me to have her there and how great of a mom she is to me. My kids will be lucky if I turn out to be anywhere near the woman she is.
At about 3am, my nurse came in and told us to get ready because it was version time. The ultrasound tech came in and got set up, followed soon by the doctor (Dr Adams) and midwife (Diane). They had to watch the baby very closely because the version can actually cause the baby to go into stress or even make me go into labor. So they first start by checking the baby via ultrasound. After that, they smeared tons of the same gel all over my stomach. Then Dr Adams, with every ounce of strength in her, pushed down on my abdomen and around the baby. She moved him half way and Diane held the baby in position while she manipulated the lower half. Just when he seemed to be in place, head down, he popped right back up. So, she tried turning the other way. Her entire body was shaking as she pushed down on me. Even with my epidural, it was almost too much to handle. I felt an enormous amount of pain and pressure as she bore down on me, and it was near impossible to breath. Again, just as he was nearing a head-down position, he popped right back up. They monitored the baby and he seemed to be ok so I asked her to try one more time. She pushed and held and pushed and held more, but this baby just did not seem to want to budge. After he flipped back up again, I said I just couldnt
Diane said we had two choices: try and make it through another week or two and hope he flips on his own, or do an amniocentesis to check for mature lungs. If we did the amnio and the baby was ready, we would for sure do a c-section later in the day. Everyone left the room so that Jon and I could have a few minutes alone to decide. So it was there, in a quiet, dimly lit hospital room, at 2am that Jon and I said a prayer. We both felt very strongly that Heavenly Father was telling us to bring this baby into the world. I didnt feel like I was giving up. I felt like I had fought a tough battle and did everything I could to keep my precious little baby growing inside me long enough for him to be ok. I made it weeks longer than any of my doctors thought I would.
We called everyone back in and said "lets do this". I was terrified because a c-section really concerned me. But I had an incredible amount of peace. I knew everything would be just fine and exactly the way it should be.
So the next thing to do was the amniocentesis. The ultrasound tech came back in to assist Dr Adams. She used a needle about 6 inches long, and inserted it into my abdomen. I didnt feel it push through my skin, but BOY did I feel it go through my uterus. I gasped for air as if someone had punched me. It was the most bizarre feeling in the world. Fortunately, the pain wasnt long lasting. The doctor was able to use the ultrasound to find a good pocket of fluid to draw from. The procedure was only a few minutes and we were done. She told me we would have the results in a few hours and then could proceed with the c-section. I was exhausted and ready for sleep. It was around 4am I believe when the room cleared out and the nurse brought in something to help me sleep.
To be continued...
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