The Attempt

Our external cephalic version was scheduled during week 37, the day after we found out baby Will was breech. A version as it could be called is an attempt to try and turn the baby so that he is head down instead. Since we had to make the decision whether or not to do a version right after we found out he was breech we were unable to research what a version really entailed. After the appointment people were telling me that this process has known to be painful. That was not too encouraging to hear.

The day of the version we had to wake up and wait for a phone call from the hospital. We were having it done at the hospital in case something happened and the baby would need to be delivered right away. There was a risk that the placenta could detach or labor could be induced by this procedure. We had to wait for a phone call so we wouldn't make a trip into the hospital and they tell us there are too many other patients and that we would have to reschedule. I was told if we didn't hear from the hospital right by 9:30 (our appointment was for 10:15) then I was to call into the OB's office. We waited until 9:30 and didn't get a call so I had to call in. After being placed on hold several times, I was finally called back and was told were waiting on us at the hospital.

Once there we checked in and sat in the waiting room for a bit. They then took us back to the triage area for the Women's Center at Rex Hospital. The procedure would be done in this area. The nurse then had to set up a fetal monitor to monitor the baby. Once the nurse was all ready, the doctor came in. I was then suppose to get medicine that would relax my uterus. The nurse who dropped off the medicine told our nurse that it could only be administered sub-q, which means under the skin. When the doctor arrived, he told the nurse to administer the medicine through the IV. This caused a debate among the doctor and the nurse. The doctor finally won the debate after going to the charge nurse. This made me a little leery because the doctor went against what the medicine bottle said but it all turned out ok. (I have watched too many crime shows where doctor's go wrong. :/) The doctor warned me ahead of time that this medicine would make my heart feel like it is racing and even could make me paranoid.

Once I could feel my heart racing, he said they are going to start. The removed the monitor. The doctor rubbed some kind of oil on my stomach and used both hands to push as hard as he could on my stomach to try and make the baby flip. He first tried to make him flip by pushing on his head and pulling on his lower body to do a forward somersault. That didn't seem to work. So he did a quick ultrasound to see where the head was and tried moving the baby so he would do a backward flip. No luck. By this time, the nurse was telling me to take in deep breathes. Because it was very uncomfortable I was holding my breathe. She had to keep reminding me to breathe. After doing another ultrasound the doctor said the baby has not moved an inch. He said he would try turning him by making him do a forward flip, one more time. Again nothing happened. The doctor then said the baby hasn't even moved a bit and this usually means that they more than likely are not going to turn. So we gave up.

Because there was a chance that the pressure he was putting on my uterus could have made me go into labor or cause something to go wrong, we had to stay and be watched over for an hour. So the fetal monitor was hooked back up and the nurse would periodically come in and check on us. By the end of the hour, the nurse did count 8 contractions but she didn't seemed too concerned. She did warn me that if they got worse to come back immediately.

The doctor did return and he got me in touch with someone back at the OB office to set up a c-section. I was starting to like the idea of knowing when Will would come. The c-section was scheduled for Tuesday, July12.