Bonus: Over Due

On bonus episode 1 of a 3-party series, we are talking about the ECV, when the doctor turned the baby from breech to head down, my expectations of starting labor, my birth plan, ways we tried to turn the baby head down, and the ways we tried to induce labor. The next episode is the BIRTH STORY, and the last one is postpartum RECOVERY. If this is your first time here, I’m Jamie Massey, 43 and the host of the podcast. It took us 3 years, 5 pregnancies, failed IVF, and a failed embryo transfer to have our first baby using donor eggs. You can go here to learn more about my story. During this recording I’m 8 weeks postpartum. I am so lucky to be sharing my story with my baby sleeping next to me.

Birth Expectations:

I never expected to even get to 40 weeks. Most guests on the show didn’t make it to 40 weeks, with only a few exceptions. I assumed I would be the same. Looking back, many guests have been induced, but I still thought I’d never get to 40 weeks. Now when I got to 40 weeks, I panic. There is so much talk of still birth that I had terrible anxiety. There was a few times, I was ready to go to the hospital and have a c-section. Thank goodness for my doula! Emily Burt was an amazing doula and helped me off of the c-section ledge. She really did. I called her and she reminded me of my birth plan and what I really wanted. And nothing has even gone wrong.

Here’s what we tried to turn the baby head down:

1. We first did spinning babies for two weeks every single day. I heard from many people that this would work. If you haven’t heard of spinning babies, it’s a series of didn’t exercises, I use exercise loosely. Like one of them is sitting on your knees on the sofa with your head on the floor. Another one is leaning on the ball while someone else takes a blanket and see saws your belly. All this took about 1.5 hour to do every night and you can’t miss a night either or you are suppose to start over.
2. During the same time, we got a YMCA membership so we could swim at the pool. Swimming is also helpful to turn the baby. We went three times a week for about half an hour. I would do small laps while floating on pool noodles. It was enjoyable besides the freezing water and chlorine smell. I also wore a two-piece because it was the only thing that fit. Let me say I got some looks. One time there was this little girl, she had to only be about 2 years old. When she walked by me, she did a hard stare at my large belly. I said it’s big isn’t it?! She didn’t say anything but I laughed inside.
3. The third thing we tried was acupuncture and acupressure. And I love me some acupuncture. It’s so relaxing, no one had to twist my arm to get me to do it. What is the difference between the two you might be wondering. Acupuncture uses the needles on points and pressure is just what it sounds like, you put pressure on the points instead of needles.
4. I also was adjusted by a chiropractor. Let me say, laying on the pillows belly down was really hard for me to do the first few times. She wasn’t my favorite and ended up switching, but she was close to the office.

I heard so much confidence that turning him would work, that I never expected we’d have to get a doctor to turn him. But it did. We were not successful getting him to flip head down. We decided to go with the less invasive option of the doctor flipping after again, discussing with Emily. I was warned that I would have an epidural, be at least a painful five minute procedure in the OR and possibly lead to a c-section. Needless to say, I was full of anxiety going into it. At 38 weeks, we went to the hospital to labor and delivery to him turned. I was hooked up to the monitors and had an IV just in case a c-section was needed. Emily and my husband were there for much needed support. I was wheeled into a dark exam room with a chair and a sonogram machine. Well this wasn’t the OR. There was my husband and Emily, two mid-wives and then the MFM walked in to the room. I will never forget this doctor. He said he doesn’t do epidurals and next we’d take a look to see if the baby is still breech. It would be lucky for him if he was still breech because he has three grandchildren and a young girlfriend to support. I was told he was eccentric and is 100 percent true. It became a competition in the room who could make us laugh more between my husband and the doctor. It helped my anxiety some. I brought headphones so I could focus on the music during the procedure. The baby was still breech confirmed the sonogram, the cord wasn’t in the way, so he was confident he could turn him. The chair was motorized to lay me completely flat. He put a ton of gel on top of my stomach and asked if I was ready to begin. Let’s go already. It was an intense amount of pain for abut 10-12 seconds and then he stopped. I waited then I said was that all. He responded with I hate when women tell me that. Everyone in the room was shocked. No one had seen an an ECV go this quickly. No one was able to get out their phone quick enough to record it. The sonogram confirmed he was head down now. Then I went in the little room behind the curtain where I started to monitor the baby to make sure he wasn’t stressed. I had a few contractors but everything was fine. We were there for a few hours afterwards before we could be released. 4-5 hours in the hospital for a 12 second procedure. I was told baby would need to get use to his new position before labor would be a possibility.

My birth plan:

I usually choose the non invasive and natural route of things first and in a perfect world I would have a free birth at home. If fact, for our first pregnancy we found a midwife we really liked for a home birth. My husband wasn’t comfortable with that so we chose to have a non medicated birth at the hospital. That’s right, my mom gave birth naturally, of course I can do that same. And laboring in a birth pool sounds nice. And of course I want to pull my baby out just like Claire. An induction was obviously out of the question because I was confident an induction would lead to a c-section. It was a romantic plan to say the least.

Here’s what we tried to induce labor:

1. sex
2. Acupuncture and chiropractic: Emily gave me the recommendation for an amazing couple in South Lake. Man, it’s a pain to drive to South Lake but I really loved them. After getting adjusted, they did acupressure where they put tiny needles attached to a Band-Aid and she massaged it. Let’s just say it was good breathing practice for labor.  
3. I took primrose oil vaginally. I’ve never done this but it was something the midwives recommended.
4. Since we had the ymca membership, I walked like crazy on the indoor track they have.
5. And since I was at the y, I did lots of curb walking.
6. I drank about 4 cups of labor tea every day. I brewed 4 tea bags the night before to make it super strong and added a little bit of liquid Splenda. Then I just added it to my cup of water a little at time throughout the day. I enjoyed it.
7. I did the miles circuit from spinning babies. This one was work and a few were not comfortable but I ended up modifying a few of them. One of the them is curb walking but we don’t have curbs in the country, so I just went up and down the stairs. I had a bad taste in my mouth from doing so many spinning babies that didn’t work, so maybe I was biased.
8. Of course I used the labor ball often while we watched tv.
9. Then I saw an IG video for pelvic floor exercises.
10. I had one membrane sweep. We almost did a second one during the last appointment but she didn’t think it would work, so we opted out. Those are painful and why do it if it’s not going to work.

Then my due date came and went. And how many times have we heard the rate of stillbirth goes up after 40 weeks? My anxiety was topping the charts. One morning I was in the shower and didn’t feel him move for awhile. Then I laid down still couldn’t feel him move after really moving my belly. My husband put a cold pack on my belly and he finally moved. I ended up calling the midwives and having a sonogram only to find out he was just sleeping and everything was fine. At this point I was having none stress tests every week to confirm he was healthy, but still the anxiety was high. I greatly appreciated that the midwives and my doula were so supportive of not having an induction. The day before I turned 41 weeks, I broke down. At lunch I called my husband and said it was time to have an induction. The very thing I didn’t want from the start. He supported my decision. After I calmed down at my desk and before calling the midwives, I got a call from them. Like how weird was that? How did they know? They wanted to be see me that day even though I had an appointment the next day. My appointment was in two hours.

At 40 weeks 6 days, they midwives didn’t want me going through the weekend and wanted to get me scheduled for an induction the very next day. I spent the next several minutes trying to get my head wrapped around having a baby the next day, but there wasn’t an opening. The next induction time was Sunday at 7pm, two days away. This is was I wanted and I was ready to have this baby.

On bonus episode 2, I’ll be sharing the birth story.

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Resources:  

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Read more about my story: https://over40fabulousandpregnant.com/about-us/