Breechy Little Monkey

So last night I was feeling really achy, particularly just inside my left hip. I felt like ligaments stretching so I wasn't really concerned, it was just annoying. Even more annoying was that it wasn't going away easily. Usually just positioning to take the strain off the ligament is enough to relieve it, although I have had a few times recently that it lasted for an hour or so.

Well, 4 hours and a bath later and I was still feeling like something was odd. We had been at my parents for the day and we headed home about 10pm. When I got home, I got right into bed, but lying down, as it had earlier in the evening, made the pain worse. After tossing and turning for a bit, I finally sat up in exasperation, wondering if I was going to need to sleep sitting up that night. The baby was quite active and I put my hands on my belly.

Lo and behold, at the top of my little basketball of a tummy, what did I feel?

A head.

I sat in the dark with a very confused look on my face for a moment. James came in and looked at me strangely. As I kept my hand there, the very hard, round shape I was feeling moved around quite a bit. More and faster than any little baby butt is able to move. On top of that, I could feel little pokey movements---not feet. Hands. I had to sit for a bit to get my mind around this. Then I got up and called my midwife.

Her student answered, as she was off for the weekend. We talked a bit and I told her what I was thinking, feeling a little foolish. What baby flips to a breech position 3 weeks before she's due? How is that even possible?

The midwife assured me that it was possible. I didn't find that assuring, actually. She asked me a bunch more questions and then said she was going to call my back-up midwife for advice. After about 10 minutes she called again. She would get me an apointment to come into clinic for the next day so they could check, and she mentioned the possibility of going for an u/s if there was some question. For that moment, I could take some Tylenol for the ligament pain, and hope to get some rest. At least that part worked.

I got in to see the student midwife, and my back-up for about 10:30 this morning. The student couldn't tell which way she was for sure. I thought the large round head shape at the top of my uterus seemed pretty obvious as I lay on the examining table. My back-up, Simone came in and started feeling around. She got a bit of a smirk on her face....she knew I was right. The baby had turned.

They got me an u/s over at St. Joes for this afternoon, just to be sure. At least I got to see her again. She's sideways, essentially looking at my right armpit, with her back down the left side of my belly. One leg is curled up with her knee at her chest, the other more stretched out into the bottom right of my torso, poking into my right hip----which made for extreme discomfort when I went to stand up from the u/s, after laying on my back for 15 minutes.

And now I'm home. Every once in a while, probably every 5 minutes or so, I feel for her head to see if it's still there. I got up early this morning and did a bunch of reading on the internet about breeches. Lotsa info out there. A few different 'natural' type things I could try. Which I will. I've already made an appointment with my chiropractor, who apparently knows some technique called the Webster that could help. Other sources talked about getting yourself into positions where gravity will encourage the babies head to go down. They say to do it for 15 minutes twice a day. At this point I'm willing to do it ALL DAY LONG.

I'm upset and annoyed and frustrated that I've made it through this pregnancy, which has been such a stressful thing, with this beautiful vision in my head about delivering this baby healthy and whole in my own bed, like the girls were. This is what I've held onto since the moment they told me that Hayden was gone. This birth was going to be the final bookend for the journey I've been on since that loss. I've actually been looking forward to this birth, relishing the thought of labour starting and working through that process again, until a little girl emerged, big and strong. I've been careful to answer peoples' questions about homebirthing with the caveat that I would homebirth if everything was going well. I finally made it to 37 weeks, when my midwife said I could stay home and now look what's happened.