The Bad(ish) News: The ECV procedure in which the doctor tries to manually flip the baby from breech to a head-down position was unsuccessful yesterday. The doctor tried to flip her, but her little butt and hips are stuck down too low into my pelvis. It was a painful and awkward procedure, but I am glad we at least tried it. My lower uterus is sore every time the baby moves today - a weird bruised sort of feeling! We have a C-Section scheduled for October 1st. I am still not thrilled about having the C-Section, but I know that its best for us and that everything will be ok.
The Scary(ish) News: One thing that the doctor discovered while attempting the ECV procedure is that our little baby girl is a bit on the small side. She is approximately 5 pounds and at this point, the average baby is 6 pounds or more. This is concerning. It could be nothing, just a small kid, or it could be a sign of trouble. Emily (my three-year-old) was 7lbs. 9oz. and she was almost two weeks early. My husband and I are not small people and even the shortest people in our families (our moms) are average height. In fact Emily is in the 100th percentile for three-year-olds. Baby Natalie is estimated to be in the 7th percentile for babies at this point in pregnancy. Her heart rate was monitored for over an hour and it was strong and great... she looked healthy via ultrasound. She is just smaller than she should be. Because of this, the doctor wants to monitor her and make sure that she is growing and not having any issues. At home I have to be extra aware of her movements and kick-counts... On Tuesday, we will be going in for a Non Stress Test (NST), where they will monitor her heart rate for an hour to make sure it is steady and consistent. Next Friday, the doctor will do another ultrasound to check her growth rate. If she hasn't grown at all or not enough, we may end up with a C-Section that evening. If she is thriving and growing, then we will continue to monitor her until our scheduled C-Section date. I was a crying pregnant mess once we got in the car from the ECV appointment! It was a lot to process - kind of a mommy-brain explosion started to happen - The baby won't flip - boom - you have to have a c-section - boom - she looks a little too small - BOOM!!! - oh and, you need to stop working and rest until the delivery date - BOOM! It was a lot to think about and a lot for me to obsessively research online all in one night!
Obsessive Online Research Discoveries that were actually helpful and comforting last night:
1. after thoroughly searching the world wide web, I discovered that I have been a good pregnant mommy! I haven't done anything on the list that causes babies with low birth weights, and I have done all of the right stuff. I take my vitamins and eat well and take good care of myself. There is nothing I could have done to prevent the possibility of a small baby. Even stress hasn't really been proven to cause low birth weight. This made me feel a little better at first, but almost more worried later because I just don't understand what could be wrong. I need to hope that she will just do some big growing in the next two weeks!
2. C-sections can take anywhere from twenty minutes to an hour start to finish depending on the doctor. Thats not so bad!
3. Since I find "Skin-to-skin" time with the baby right after birth to be very important and healthy, I will have to be pushy in the OR and try to force someone to hold my naked little baby up to my chest as they are finishing stitching me up after the procedure (my arms will be strapped to side boards - aaaahhh). But this can be done! I just have to be pushy!!! I learned this from some random mommy blogs and it was nice to know! That was one of my main concerns with having a c-section. Look up the benefits of "Skin-to-skin"... its amazing and it was a really cool bonding experience! We did skin-to-skin time a lot for the first few weeks and it was really calming for me and baby.
I tried to keep my online research light last night so as not to panic! I avoided horror stories and webMD!!!
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