The Final Countdown

These last few weeks have been a blur. I guess mostly because life consisted of craziness at school, doctor appointments, and complete exhaustion. I was constantly on edge about going into labor at any moment, especially since the Diva was rolling around in my belly in every position but head down. A lot of research, effort, and several copays to the chiropractor were put into attempts to get her to flip, including one involving the ironing board and me being in a position you shouldn't be at 9 months pregnant, but in the end none worked.

The perinatologist started talking about the high possibility of needing a c section, and my brain went nuts. I was worried that my OB wouldn't be willing to work with me, and attempt to flip her before wanting to just do a c section. It was also concerning that if she did flip head down, that she may or may not stay that way, due to the extra fluid. I began to mentally prepare myself for having a c section, and all that that would entail. Talk about high anxiety!

In the end, even though I had been frustrated with my OB, he ended up being very open to discussing a our options. At my 36 week appointment we talked about my concern that we were running out of time, since my water broke with Carter at a few days past 38 weeks. Basically if my water did break, he told me I needed to get to the hospital pretty quickly to have a c section, since there was a high chance of cord prolapse with her not being in a correct position. But he also told us that he thought I was a good candidate for an external cephalic version to flip her, and that I may be also able to avoid having an epidural to do that since there was extra fluid. Once it was successful, he could go ahead and break my water before she flipped back. That seemed to us like our best option, even though it meant essentially choosing her birthdate, which I fundamentally have a problem with. He told me to discuss all this with the perinatologist the next day at my appointment.

So the next day I did so, except oddly enough with a doctor I never had seen in all my trips to that office. He told me he thought Delaney would be fine to do this procedure at 38 weeks, and even made a call to my OB while I was there to let him know.

The following Tuesday at my 37 week appointment, after confirming that she was indeed still breech, we started talking dates to schedule the version. Christiaan and I were hoping that he would go for doing it Friday, since it was only one day from 38 weeks, because the next option was the following wednesday, the day after Christmas. Unfortunately, he said he couldn't do it before I was officially 38 weeks, or he would get in trouble. So the 26th it was. This made me nervous, mainly because I was worried that my water would break before then, but also because she was getting bigger by the day and I wasn't sure what effect that would have on the version. But we didn't have a choice. I just turned it over to God as to what happened.

Little did we know what on earth our fiesty little girl had in mind... :)