After an extremely easy pregnancy (seriously I'm not even allowed to talk to other pregnant women or they will hate me), our baby girl decided to make the last few weeks a little dramatic. With about 3 weeks left, we found out that she was still hanging out sideways, not head down like they wanted at this point. So Katz did an ultra sound to find out if she had enough water and was in a good position to attempt a procedure to turn her. She did, but we also saw that my placenta was too low to deliver naturally. The only solution was to schedule a C-Section for one week before my due date. I was a little terrified and a little relieved. It was nice to know exactly when everything would be happening. And nice to prepare Adam. So arrangements were made, Mimi changed her flight so she could be here with Adam while we were in the hospital. We prepared for C-Section recovery, moved Adam to a big boy bed, bought all the right clothes and supplies for the hospital, and packed for the 4 or 5 days we would spend at Cedars. A few days later I went to my final Katz appointment before the surgery to go over some last minute instructions. Adam was with me, but not Alex, as we assumed nothing was going to change. Oh were we wrong! Katz examined my belly and laughed, baby girl was head down. Unbelievable. But I could pinpoint the day she turned. She had felt different that night. I couldn't feel her kick as strong, in fact I was nervous something could be wrong. I chalked it up to the fact that she was massive and running out of room to kick. But she actually just moved into a better position. Katz decided to do another ultra sound to be 1000% sure the placenta was still in the way before doing the C-Section. And as luck would have it, it had moved out of the way. In fact, it was over 4 cm away from the danger zone. C-Section cancelled! And I no longer needed to be worried about going into labor. So even though we had physically and emotionally prepared for an August 28th delivery day, now shockingly we were waiting at least another week to go into natural labor. Katz told me to set up another appointment for the following week (a whole WEEK later). Carol moved her flight (again!) and we spent the week doing fun adventures with Adam, living on borrowed time. Then on Thursday I went to my appointment. Baby girl was sideways again. We couldn't believe it. Katz left us with some options, schedule the procedure to try to turn her and then immediately induce, or schedule a C-Section. Both would happen the following morning. Needless to say we were not prepared to handle this type of decision. There were risks with both options. In the end, we trusted Katz's recommendation and decided to try the Version. Since she was only sideways and not completely breach the success rate was very high. So we went home, made arrangements for Adam, and again thought that no matter what happened the baby would be born the next day (Friday) in one way or another. My parents were scheduled to come in on Saturday so the timing was actually not too bad. That night we packed up again and prepared ourselves for an intense 6am appointment at Cedars for the Version. We arrived a little shaky and scared, and were immediately whisked into a delivery room where I was given an IV, a gown, and prepped for the Version and delivery or surgery depending on how everything went down. At one point Alex commented on how the labor room wasn't as nice as our first labor room, to which the nurses responded, "well this one is the closest room to the OR and if something happens we need to get in there as fast as we can." We were officially terrified. Katz walked in, got everything set up, sat on the bed and instructed the OB resident on how to help him. They both grabbed the baby outside my stomach and effortlessly just whipped her into position. It took less than 10 seconds. They monitored her heart on the monitor and her position on the ultra sound. It was incredible. Then she just stayed there! Once she was in position I was supposed to be induced. But Katz said absolutely nothing was happened and he was hesitant to induce me from zero because it would be a long miserable induction, so he sent me home. HOME! This was the second time we thought we were having a baby and then it just didn't happen. More borrowed time! We went to Disneyland, my parents arrived, we went to dinner, prepared for the neighborhood block party, went to the beach, got lunch from Bay Cities and just waited. I was having contractions on and off Saturday night and Sunday morning, but by Sunday afternoon they had stopped. We went to the block party pretty sure we would end up in the hospital sometime that night. But no. Finally Monday morning (Labor Day!) my contractions were close enough and seemed strong enough to warrant a trip to Cedars. Since we knew she kept flipping positions the Drs didn't want me getting too far along in case she had gone back sideways. Alex and I got up, kissed Adam good bye, went to Bouchon Bakery for one last meal, and checked into Cedars. She was still head down and I was at 2-3 cm. Success! I labored all day (on epidural obv) and she was born at 8:30pm Monday night. It was a major roller coaster ride in those final days. And I am so grateful she was healthy and everything went as smoothly as it could have. Katz and the entire Cedars team were amazing and proved his efforts to prevent a C-Section were all worth it.
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| Couldn't imagine a better last meal |
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| is there a better place to be in labor? |
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Block party
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| modern technology is amazing. this was my contraction timer app. |
