I have to say so far my pregnancy has been smooth sailing. I experienced minor complications in the first trimester that required me to take it easy (yes that meant no working out so that was tough for me!) but after getting through that, I felt pretty good. Other than the extra tiredness all pregnant women feel, I never got sick, had any weird reactions to food, or experienced any other complications. As I got into my third trimester & things were still progressing as planned, I felt pretty good about everything. My birth plan is to have a natural vaginal birth (yes with an epidural) and to just let nature take its course. I do not want to be pushed to induce and I don’t want a scheduled C section, I just want the baby to come when it’s ready. It’s my first baby so I want to experience that “oh gosh I think it’s time!” moment where we are trying to grab our hospital bags (which are yet to be packed) and are flying out the door to the hospital. I want to experience natural birth and know that I have the strength to push that baby out! I may not have been able to conceive on my own but I can certainly birth this baby on my own and have been preparing for it! Also, since we aren’t finding out the gender I cannot wait for that moment after the baby is born when they tell us. 🙂 I have envisioned all these moments in my head and of course my first priority is the baby’s health but as long as that is all good, I will keep pushing for what I want.

BUT….as of yesterday, my whole birth plan & vision has been put into question and I am trying to sort through all kinds of feelings & emotions about it.

At our 36 week appointment the doctor said the baby was head down so I felt a sigh of relief since I know having a breech baby this late in pregnancy can make natural birth very difficult. Well, little did we know, this week’s appointment would bring us different news. We hit our 37 week mark yesterday (9/28/17) and we were scheduled for an ultrasound to see the growth of the baby (which we were both very excited about). I guess in the past week, little peanut did some somersaults and decided to change position and was now in a breech position, what???!!!! As amazing as it was to see our little guy or girl on the ultrasound screen, I knew this new position was not good news. The doctors explained the option of doing an ECV (external cephalic version) to see if they can externally move the baby to the head down position. If it’s successful, they said the baby should stay in place until birth and if it isn’t, then they schedule a C section at 39 weeks. There is a 50/50 chance of it being successful and it’s very difficult with new moms because our bodies haven’t been through this before. Also, my doctor added with ones that “take care of themselves like you do” it’s harder because I have strong abdominal muscles which make it difficult to physically move the baby. Well, I’m a personal trainer and fitness coach and I’ve been keeping my abdominal muscles strong for labor so what do you expect? He basically said he isn’t very optimistic it will work for me & he wouldn’t bet on it….great. NOT what I want to hear & definitely not in my birthing plan.

“As amazing as it was to see our little guy or girl on the ultrasound screen, I knew this new position was not good news.”

I left our appointment SO upset and feeling so defeated.  I have come this far and have had a great pregnancy after a tough time conceiving and now we have this roadblock to deal with…why?? I know many women get C sections and they are successful but it’s also a major surgery that I want to avoid if possible. If I don’t have to be cut open and have a longer recovery then I won’t be and I don’t want the doctors to push me towards that. My thoughts are if this baby shifted once in a week then he/she can do it again, right? So instead of sitting there feeling bad about everything, I started researching anything and everything I could do naturally and at home to try to make this baby move! I found some good yoga ball techniques & poses to do and last night I tried acupuncture for the first time to try and relax my muscles and open things up a bit so peanut can move into position. Since I am on the smaller side for my third trimester & still pretty fit, there isn’t a lot of extra fluid and space in there for peanut to move which makes it harder BUT you never know! After I did acupuncture (and even during it), I felt A LOT of movement so we will see today if the baby has moved at all before they start the ECV procedure today and if not, see if the doctor can get this little guy or girl into position. I am nervous, scared, and not sure what will happen but I know that I am doing everything I can to keep me & our precious little baby healthy and that is what matters.

Mamas – if you have been through a similar situation and have any suggestions on how to get this baby to turn, I’d love to hear them!!

I will keep you posted on what happens!