In good news - she is perfectly fine, there were absolutely no complications and we're both chilling at home.
Here is how the day went.
We showed at the hospital around noon and soon a midwife came down to the reception to get us. She was the exact flip side of me when it came to French and English - she understood really well but did not speak much. So she spoke to me in French, I spoke to her in English, and we understood each other just fine...
She had me change into a lovely hospital gown and then took us to one of the labor rooms. I lay down on the bed and she hooked me up to the baby heartbeat monitor and took my blood pressure. Both were perfect. She also took a quick ultrasound to confirm that the baby was still head up - which of course she was...
She then put in a catheter in my arm for the medicine, which was supposed to prevent contractions and relax the uterus.
Soon my doctor showed up, He chatted with us for a bit, then did all the normal checks on the baby - kind of what he does at every appointment. Measured her weight, head and tummy circumference and the length of her femur (thigh bone). As of today she is weighing in at 2.8 - 2.9 kilos (6.13 - 6.38lbs) and all her measurements are right in the middle of all the curves.
My fluid levels were fine, adequate for this stage of pregnancy but he said that it was a little low to ensure really good chances of success for the version. It works best if the fluid levels are overabundant.
Anywho, he talked with us some more and then explained again what he would be doing. He would first lift her booty out of my pelvis and then, while holding her up with one hand, he would try to move her to the left and down (She is facing left, and is curled with her feet near the head, so picture how a football player would ball up and roll if he were falling on the ground. That's basically the motion we were going for).
We said we got it, and so the doctor went to change into his scrubs and soon it all started. He proceeded exactly how he described. And all the time the midwife was following his hands with the wand of the ultrasound machine, moving it to where he told her to to constantly see what the baby was doing and how she was reacting. Btw, she was not phased by this at all... CJ was looking at the monitor the entire time and confirmed that. The doctor managed to pop Kate's bottom out of my pelvis quite easily and seemed really happy about it. I was sooooo scared and stressed that I was just trying to relax the whole time. CJ said that my belly was looking hilarious, lumpy and all contorted when the doctor was working on it. Ha ha... I wish I could have relaxed enough and tried to take a peek. I'm sure it would have made me laugh.
After lifting her up, he started these left-ward massage motions (Think Swedish massage, not some painful pushing or anything), to try to push her back and head past the placenta, which is atatched on the left side of my belly. And I think that's where the other issue really was of this not working out. At one point when doing the ultrasound he said that she looked like she was snuggling up to the placenta, kind of using it like a pillow. And at another point he said that it kind of looked like the placenta was like a little helmet on ehr head. Hilarious!!
Anyways, he was guiding her really, really gently so as not to damage the placenta or cause it to detach or what not. He tried several, several tines. We took a little break and he said - we'll try one more time, if it does not work then that's it. And unfortunately after trying again, she did not want to turn. Wah wah....That part lasted probably around 15 minutes out of the neitre time were there.
So then the next thing was back to the baby heart rate monitors, got those attached to my belly. And the midwife took a blood sample to make sure there was nothing floating out of the placenta in the reverse direction which would indicate some damage. Both tests came out great and at that point they told us I could get dressed and we were ok to go downstairs to the cafeteria to have lunch. We were to come back in about an hour for another round of baby monitoring.
We had a nice little lunch and around 2:30 went back to meet the midwife again. She got me hooked up to the monitors again and I lay there for another 30 minutes. She came back and read the printouts and said that I was having some mild contractions (Honestly I did not really feel them) and she wanted to ask the doctor if she should give me any medication etc. At that point the doc had already left as he had a surgery scheduled for that afternoon. She tried calling him a few times but could not get through, so she finally said I was free to go home, and if for some reason the contractions got painful or if I started leaking fluid to give them a call. I was out of there by 3:30.
Well it is over 12 hours later and I am just fine, can't feel any painful contractions and nothing is leaking so obviously we're good.
And that is all... It was not painful AT ALL. I have no idea what all the prople who freak out about versions talk about... The only painful part of the whole procedure was putting in the needle in my vein and taking blood, but that has nothing at all to do with actually turning the baby. And I'm sorry, but if you can't handle THAT, then what are you doing trying to have a baby. For real...
Sure it felt weird when he was pushing on my belly but it wasn't awful or very uncomfortable really. And definitely NOT painful or anything... I have had deep tissue massages in the past which have left me sore and hobbling for days. This was nothing. I lost my breath for a second at one point - when he lifted her out of my pelvis and pushed her into my left side under the ribs - kind of into my lung. That was more from being taken by surprise than anything else.
So even though it did not work out, I will always know I tried my best, and gave her every chance I could to coax her into turning. If any of your friends out there have breech babies and wonder if a version is worth it or painful or whatever, tell them it is totally worth it and it does not hurt at all. And I have pretty low pain tolerance mind you...
Next week we will meet with the doctor again to schedule a c-section, it will happen sometime the week of Feb 20th so stay tuned.
And I leave you with a picture of me just before the procedure. Please ignore the triple chin... I was lying down and I was pretty stressed out at that point...
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