Son, this is part of the marvelousness that awaits you if you get your head down:
If you’ve been following this blog you’ll already know that our first child is breech. Since learning of this medical conundrum my wife and I have been concerned for our child and were given various forms of advice on how our son can possibly get himself turned around in time for his birthday. Today I’m going to describe the various forms of discomfort my wife has subjected herself to in order to coerce our child out of his current position.
1) Tilting. I’m not sure if this was invented as a form of torture in the middle ages or not but my wife is certainly uncomfortable while performing this baby-turning-feat. She is to lay at the steepest angle she can tolerate, her own head down, for up to 30 minutes per session and up to 6 sessions per day. Yes, for those of you doing math at home, that would be 3 hours of laying upside down. (1/8th of the entire day). As you can imagine, getting into this position is no small feat because of the added bundle of joy protruding from her front side. Getting into position, and out of it, is painful for her but she persists for her child.
2) Breaking. Perhaps breaking isn’t the right word but it is the word that my wife uses to describe her now frequent visits to the chiropractor. Oh yes, improper alignment can cause the baby to go breech. It goes without saying, then, that proper alignment can cause the baby to flip around in the proper direction once more. I’m sure some of you love chiropractors (and actually my wife’s is very nice) but you have to understand that my wife gets frightened and put on the verge of nausea if I so much as crack a finger. Now she’s going in twice a week to be cracked, aligned, stretched and whatever else they do in order to convince the baby to turn. The added bonus to this one is that after the visit she feels temporarily relieved of pain.
3) Freezing. This isn’t as uncomfortable for my wife as the other methods above but certainly riles up our child inside her. In order to convince our child’s brain that having his head up is a bad thing we freeze his head. Down low a heating pad (or warm water) are present to further lure his mind to the calming warmth of the correct birthing position. This one, more than the others, elicits an almost immediate response. My son doesn’t like “brainfreeze.”
4) Insomnia. This isn’t really a method for correcting our sons position as much as it is a byproduct of the stress my wife is enduring both from the mental realization that our son could prevent our ability to have a birth without the hospital as well as the physical difficulties inherent in Tilting, Breaking, and Freezing. Her day is now full of tricks and tips to turn the baby. This past week she was up at 4 a.m. attending to business matters instead of the sleeping.
We are not yet sure if our son has turned himself around but as soon as I know I’ll post that information here. The difficulty for me, as a husband and father, is figuring out how to help my wife. Sometimes she’s just so irritated and distressed that she doesn’t want me anywhere near her. Other times she just needs someone to hug. Your thoughts and prayers are very much appreciated. A question for the mothers: What are the best ways husbands can help in trying times during the pregnancy?