December 11, 2012
At my doctor's appointment last week, I found out some interesting and mind-boggling news. After weeks of Baby Gibbs being in the optimal "head down" vertex position, at week 38 he decided to do a little tumbling act! At week 37 (a Friday) my doctor had checked me and could immediately tell he was head down, ready to go. However, at last week's appointment (a Wednesday, literally 5 days later), his head was nowhere to be found. Which left her puzzled, so she went to grab the ultrasound monitor, so we could clearly see what he was up to in there!
Well, sure enough, little man was now kicking and playing around, but facing head up! His little head was right under my right rib cage, and feet were actively kicking my lower left side. Now, I know many of you have not seen me up close in awhile, but there does not seem to be that much room in my belly! Especially for a 6-7 pound-something baby to be doing flips. However, just like his Dad, he proved he is one active little man with his own agenda.
38 Weeks ~ Our little breech baby
With his new positioning, my doctor began prepping me with the "options" for our now breech positioned baby. All I remember hearing her say was that if he did not turn on his own very soon, we would need to schedule a C-section to get him out. Her preference was a scheduled C-section, VS. letting me go into labor naturally with a breech baby and ultimately needing an emergency C-section. The more calm environment, the better. I appreciated that thought. However, I had a feeling that if the little guy could flip this late in the game, he had to be able to flip back. Maybe he just wasn't ready yet. Right?!
When I cam home that night and shared the news with Phil, we started considering the options. Did we want to have a C-section scheduled for 12/11 or 12/14? NO. Not if he could flip naturally on his own. But if it was medically necessary and best for the baby, so be it.
Other options? We could have set up an appointment with my doctor at the hospital to perform an External Version, which essentially tries to flip the baby from the outside by pushing on the baby and your uterus. Although there has been proven success with this technique, there has also been times where the baby does not respond well to the vigorous maneuvering and his heart rate could drop, or the placenta could rupture, and we would need to be ready for an emergency C-section that day. To us, that just seemed scary. Not only for us, but it sounded a little traumatizing for such a little babe. We didn't want to put stress on him - we just want him to be healthy!
Our next appointment was set for Tuesday (12/11) to check on his progress. Therefore, we had a short window (Thursday - Tuesday) to try to get our little man to flip back naturally on his own, or else have to face the C-section discussion.
How? You ask. If you ever Google "How to flip a breech baby," oh the amount of information you will find. There are even You Tube videos out there to show you these techniques instead of just describing them. Last weekend, we were on a mission: Mission Turn Baby, Turn. We were willing to try anything, as long as it appeared harmless for me and the baby.
What did we try? What didn't we try?!
- Pelvic tilts. Getting down on your hands and knees, arching your back like a rainbow (head down) and then arching your back up like a U (head up) to try to open your hips, give the baby more room in your belly to turn, and gently "rock the baby" back into the right position. Apparently my Mom was taught this exercise at her natural childbirth class, and was surprised I didn't hear about it / was not doing it as well. I started to do these every morning, afternoon and night, for 5 days.
- Playing Music. Put headphones near the bottom of my belly, and played music, trying to entice the little guy to move his head toward the music. You would not believe how much movement we saw (and I felt!) every time we turned the music on! Little man loves to dance! Although I couldn't tell if he completely turned around solely using this technique, it definitely perked him up and got him moving! Music of choice? Although we played many options, Baby Gibbs LOVES James Taylor. Especially the song Sweet Baby James. (Thanks Alan & Ashley for the album!) It will be interesting to see how he responds to this music when he's out in the world!
- Sleeping on Right Side. Every pregnancy book you read, you hear it's best for circulation to sleep on your left side. However, I read that if the baby is positioned facing to the left side, it would be extremely difficult for him to "turn around" if I continued sleeping on this side. If I slept on my right side, this would give him more room to turn and motivation to scoot away and down from my rib cage. So, depending on which way baby is facing, sleeping on the opposite side is suppose to help!
- Exercise Ball. Did lots of hip circles on my trusty exercise ball (which, I haven't used in about 2 years), every morning and night. Also just sat on it for better posture, to help open up my hips and to relieve lower back and abdominal pressure.
- Acupuncture. Well, no, I didn't actually go see an Acupuncture therapist, haven't ever been to one and the idea of putting needles in your body doesn't seem up my alley in my current condition. However, our good friend, Mr. Mark Parr, consulted his Acupuncturist and found there are pressure points on your hands and feet, that when pressed all at the same time, help the body relax and help the baby to turn. The pressure points are on each hand, under your middle finger (your tallest finger, pressing on the palm side of your hand, where your finger meets your palm) and on your feet, under your tallest toe (pressing on the base of where the toe meets your foot, on the base of your foot). The catch is that you need two people to do this to you (you cannot do this to yourself), to be able to press on the two points on your hands and two points on your feet at the same time. However, it does relieve tension and helps you feel more relaxed!
- Pedicure. Phil's Mom and I went to get a pedicure over the weekend. Mainly because it was her birthday gift from us, but also because a nice foot massage does wonders for you to feel relaxed as well. And, now our feet are hospital/holiday ready!
- Moxibustion. Moxi what? Phil's Mom read about an ancient Chinese herbal technique, where they burn these Moxa Sticks (essentially a cigar shaped incense stick) near your pinkie toenail, which is found to be a pressure point to help warm and relax the body, open the uterus and allow a breech baby more room to move around and turn naturally. However, this treatment is recommended around week 35-37 and suppose to be performed every day for about 2 weeks to help baby to turn. We had 5 days and were at week 39. Although it seemed a little "out-there" we were willing to try anything! Couldn't hurt! However, we just didn't know where we could find these said "Moxa Sticks" to perform our own at-home experiment. Although you could order them online, we didn't have that kind of time. So, after venturing to the nearest Chinese supermarket and asking the workers there, we were directed to a Chinese medicine man's shop downtown, at Asia Plaza. Who knew?! The medicine man knew exactly what we were talking about, and we purchased 5 sticks (only $1 each). He explained how to use them (confirming what we had heard) and wished us luck! For that weekend and the next few days, Phil became my personal medicine man, waving Moxa sticks near my pinkie toes and talking to the baby to get him to move. NOTE: If you ever try this, make sure all windows and doors are open - the herbal sticks create lots of smoke and smell, therefore lots of ventilation is needed to breath. However, I must say, it is quite relaxing.
This goes under the category, "you know your husband loves you when..."
Dr. Phil, my "Chinese medicine man"
Doesn't he look thrilled?
This past Tuesday was where we learned the verdict. Did our crazy efforts and experiments seem to work?
THEY DID!!
Although the doctor couldn't tell his positioning just by looking at and feeling my belly, once she brought in the ultrasound, she could immediately see that he was in fact, head down again! Little man turned back on his own (or gentle coaching from his parents!). He did it! He listened!!!
What a huge relief and answered prayer!
Now, it's a waiting game. Fingers crossed he stays put.
Any day now, little one. We can't wait to meet our little active guy!
