One thing after another
My midwife appointments have been interesting for the past month, and frankly I'd much rather have them be boring. First there was the GBS, and I had an iron deficiency. The iron deficiency is easily dealt with, and I'll just be mega supplementing until probably a few days after the baby is born, depending on blood loss and such. The GBS still hasn't cleared up so I'm still doing the annoying rinse. I'm also not all that worried about the GBS at this point. We'll probably have the baby tested for GBS after s/he is born and treatment with antibiotics then is as effective as during labor, so that works for me. All annoying but not a terribly big deal.
Then, last week at my appointment, the two midwives spent a long time poking at my belly and listening to the heartbeat trying to decide if the baby was head up or head down. The heartbeat is strongest near the head, but at this point the heartbeat is strong enough for them to get reading in a bunch of places. There were some jokes about twins (which I would have believed four months ago but not now) and a real concern that the baby was breech. After much humming and hawing they concluded the baby was head down but they'd want to check again thoroughly at the next appointment.
Yesterday I went in for that appointment. And this time there was no doubt. The baby was, well actually, transverse (that means sideways, with no part presenting.) S/he had almost certainly been breech last week, but the butt had disengaged from my pelvis and was off to the side. Transverse is quite frankly a bad thing. A baby just can't be born that way and a C-section is the only way to go. Of course, in our culture, a breech is treated the same way so it doesn't really matter what the baby is doing if they are not head down. Anyway, for our purposes, transverse actually worked out well, because my midwife did an inversion last night, and that is easier if you don't have to get any parts out of the pelvis. I was worried that it would hurt but the procedure itself went very smoothly, and the baby seems fine with it (at least I've felt roughly the same amount of movement today) though I think my uterus didn't like it much. It hurt when I first stood up afterward and I had a lot of very mild cramps/contractions last night. And now, I'm paranoid that the baby will flip back around and we'll have to do it again. I'm supposed to talk to my midwife today about scheduling an ultrasound just to make sure everything is still good, and it is possible she'll want me to come in again this week since my next scheduled appointment is after my due date (my due date is this Sunday)
To further complicate matters, I'm now torn about going into labor soon. On the one hand, the baby is definitely head down at this point, and going into labor while that's the case* is a good thing. On the other hand, Raine has a really nasty cough right now, and I would really rather have her get better before the baby is born. Respiratory illness and newborns just aren't a good combination. Who knows how long it will take for her to get better, though...
To top it off, my white blood cell count has been high at my last couple midwife appointments. It's possible that I'm just fighting off Raine's bug, but I might also have a low level UTI or some other fun thing going on. Sigh.
I just want a relatively straight forward labor ending with a healthy baby, but I'm beginning to wonder if such a thing exists.
* I don't know that it is even likely that the baby will turn again. I think I've just heard too many stories of babies flipping around on their own. And we had thought the baby was head down weeks ago, so it sort of feels like it flipped to breech once already. On the other hand, I was actually going to be breech until my mother's doctor flipped me, and I never turned back around, but my mother also never felt me move, so I think I was just particularly mellow.
Then, last week at my appointment, the two midwives spent a long time poking at my belly and listening to the heartbeat trying to decide if the baby was head up or head down. The heartbeat is strongest near the head, but at this point the heartbeat is strong enough for them to get reading in a bunch of places. There were some jokes about twins (which I would have believed four months ago but not now) and a real concern that the baby was breech. After much humming and hawing they concluded the baby was head down but they'd want to check again thoroughly at the next appointment.
Yesterday I went in for that appointment. And this time there was no doubt. The baby was, well actually, transverse (that means sideways, with no part presenting.) S/he had almost certainly been breech last week, but the butt had disengaged from my pelvis and was off to the side. Transverse is quite frankly a bad thing. A baby just can't be born that way and a C-section is the only way to go. Of course, in our culture, a breech is treated the same way so it doesn't really matter what the baby is doing if they are not head down. Anyway, for our purposes, transverse actually worked out well, because my midwife did an inversion last night, and that is easier if you don't have to get any parts out of the pelvis. I was worried that it would hurt but the procedure itself went very smoothly, and the baby seems fine with it (at least I've felt roughly the same amount of movement today) though I think my uterus didn't like it much. It hurt when I first stood up afterward and I had a lot of very mild cramps/contractions last night. And now, I'm paranoid that the baby will flip back around and we'll have to do it again. I'm supposed to talk to my midwife today about scheduling an ultrasound just to make sure everything is still good, and it is possible she'll want me to come in again this week since my next scheduled appointment is after my due date (my due date is this Sunday)
To further complicate matters, I'm now torn about going into labor soon. On the one hand, the baby is definitely head down at this point, and going into labor while that's the case* is a good thing. On the other hand, Raine has a really nasty cough right now, and I would really rather have her get better before the baby is born. Respiratory illness and newborns just aren't a good combination. Who knows how long it will take for her to get better, though...
To top it off, my white blood cell count has been high at my last couple midwife appointments. It's possible that I'm just fighting off Raine's bug, but I might also have a low level UTI or some other fun thing going on. Sigh.
I just want a relatively straight forward labor ending with a healthy baby, but I'm beginning to wonder if such a thing exists.
* I don't know that it is even likely that the baby will turn again. I think I've just heard too many stories of babies flipping around on their own. And we had thought the baby was head down weeks ago, so it sort of feels like it flipped to breech once already. On the other hand, I was actually going to be breech until my mother's doctor flipped me, and I never turned back around, but my mother also never felt me move, so I think I was just particularly mellow.