Pregnancy with Dre – What a Tripp

Andrea Taylor checks in with just a few more days until her little guy arrives.

What a crazy week this has been! Tripp had been stubborn and stayed breech throughout the past few weeks. I really had my heart set on a natural delivery, and after talking and praying about it, Micah and I decided to have an aversion.

An Aversion, or ECV, is when 2 doctors push on the prego belly to get the baby to turn over. When you read about this online or in magazines, they say this is an “uncomfortable” procedure. Thank God my doctor is honest and warned me about how painful it is- and let me tell you- “uncomfortable” is a severe understatement. It is not harmful to the baby but holy moly does it hurt the mommy! There’s only a 50% chance it will work and it’s done in the 37th week to ensure the baby won’t flip back over to the breech position if it does work. Aversions aren’t done too often and I think it’s because C-sections are so common these days. Women usually aren’t opposed to having one if necessary. Of course I have to be a weirdo.

Here’s how it went down:

Thursday, April 15th Micah and I arrive at the hospital and have an ultrasound to check where baby’s head is. Just as it felt, he was still in the head up position. We head into the Labor and Delivery ward and get into our room. You have to be in this ward just in case an emergency C-section is needed if the baby’s heart rate doesn’t get back up after the procedure. I was given an IV and a shot of some medicine that relaxes your uterus (and also gives you heart palpitations- nice to feel like I’m on my training supplements again! Ugh!)

There were about 6 student nurses in the room, along with an ultrasound tech, 2 registered nurses and 2 doctors. My doctor is a tiny 5 foot 90 pound woman, the other doctor- a man- at least 6’2” with big hands! They put oil on my belly and started rubbing their hands around and all of a sudden POW! Man doctor’s fingers dug into my belly and under the baby’s bottom and he just went for it, pushing and pushing past my organs- the bladder was the WORST! My doctor was around the baby’s head pushing it down. 4 hands on my belly digging and pushing, digging and pushing- they were putting all of their weight into me. My husband only looked twice because he said he couldn’t bear to watch – he kept his head down on mine and whispered “breath . . . deep breaths . . . you got this”. I kept my eyes closed the whole time and concentrated on breathing. It must’ve been about 60 seconds of digging and pushing until they finally got him sideways. YIKES – I can’t even explain the pain. I knew exactly where he was when they stopped to check – I could’ve told them if I had the strength to talk! They went at it one more time and all of a sudden the pressure was gone – IT WORKED!!! Tripp flipped – thank you Lord! Everyone was cheering!

I rested in the hospital for about 3 hours after so they could monitor Tripp’s heart rate and I already know he’s going to be a great athlete by the way he recovered! He was back up to his baseline HR within about 15 mins and started squirming around as usual. My recovery, on the other hand, took a few days. I was so sore and tender to the touch. I felt fragile – like I couldn’t move certain ways or else I’d break!

It was tough. I can totally understand how a woman can go through that and say “absolutely never again” if it didn’t work for her. I don’t know how I would’ve felt if it hadn’t worked. It would have been an ugly experience and I hope the prego magazines and emails get in touch with the truth about this procedure. I wasn’t surprised because my doctor warned me and I went into it knowing it was going to hurt, but what about those women that think – “oh, it’s just uncomfortable, let’s try it.” You definitely need some mental prepping for this and I hope other women are told just as I was.

Since the aversion worked I now have a baby that’s “head down” and oh-my-gosh do I feel pregnant! Breech babies are so much more comfortable! Now I get these fun shooting pains down my legs and once in a while I feel like someone is stabbing me in the hip with a knife! I am thankful that these pains are nothing compared to the aversion though.

So, the bags are packed and loaded in the car and we just wait until this guy decides he wants to grace us with his presence . . . 2 more weeks. . .