I hear that some women actual take muscle relaxants and get an epidural for an external version. I’m not a superhero when it comes to pain. Really. I did neither. It’s not painful. It’s very uncomfortable and you need to relax while it’s uncomfortable for, maybe, two minutes. After that it’s done and you sit there with pillows propped under your knees and they monitor your baby’s heartbeat for an hour. The next day, you feel like someone beat you up from the inside. Where are the muscle relaxants and epidurals then?
One book has helped me the most during this breech phase of the pregnancy- “Spiritual Midwifery” by Ina May Gaskin. It’s on its fourth edition with new content but still full of a bunch of wacky hippie pics of people “getting high on birth”. It also has a plethora of valuable practical information from a women who has more experience birthing babies naturally than anyone else in this hemisphere. She birthed breech babies, helped women do exercises to turn them, and even just manually did external versions if the mom looked relaxed enough. Well, it’s done manually in the hospital as well but you have all those monitors going in case the baby does not like it but the idea is the same. If the baby is meant to turn, it will turn.
Now I have this itchy belly band encouraging him to stay positioned and I wear it ALL THE TIME. People ask me if I’m ready now all the time. Yes. I am sick of being pregnant. I know some women bliss out during this time but that’s not me. It is a fascinating process but I feel oppressed by this growing life within my belly rather than enraptured. It’s weird and at this point we are both uncomfortable. As to having all my ducks in a row in preparation, I’m getting there. A winter baby is so very different and the Twilight Zone nature of my life makes things all that much stranger. We leave when other people would be settling in to parenting to an entirely new environment. I also continue to shelter and play interference with all “loved ones” in the area because they can’t help at all. On the bright side, I hope the daily four-part public transport visits with a preschooler are over now that he is in proper position. It’s ROUGH not having a car in the DC-area, in case you did not know (especially when you feel like you are going to pop).
Maia has been a trooper through all of this. She has also reverted back to her extreme OCD 3-year-old reacting self in the face of changes. God forbid you don’t make breakfast the way she expects it or you forget to put her hat below the stroller or you breath improperly. “I don’t love you!” can melt into “Hug me!” back to “Get away!” and then on to “Play with me!” Pretty much all advice can be thrown out the window when our lives are in such a transitional state. Kiev will be rough in the beginning (even without a new baby). No one holds your hand or leads a welcome party in the FS. I expect the regular process of adjustment but at least we’ll have furniture, clothes, a car, new connections, classes for preschoolers, gyms, pools, city cafes, and an environment that will be stable for four years. You know, a life.
