Those Mother instincts

I may have mentioned this one or a hundred times; but we had a lot of ultrasounds with Max. A ton of ultrasounds and four different due dates. (in the end he arrived exactly when I thought he would. Check #1 in the Mother instincts column) From the 13th week ultrasound on we could see him quite happily lounging on his back, feet kicked up like he was just relaxing away in a hammock. Weeks 19 and 20 he was in the same happy position. Since Dub's baby was a boy everyone was certain mine was a girl, (as if there was a finite amount of penises for the world) but I knew he was a boy and sure enough we found out Baby Max was indeed a Baby Max! (Check #2 in the Mother instincts column) Week 25 was the 4D super awesome amazing u/s and sure enough there he was. You could practically hear the steel drums and feel the ocean breeze as little Baby Max relaxed and chilled his gestation away.

As I got bigger and bigger...and BIGGER I just assumed he had rotated. by 30 weeks I was humongous. People had been saying 'any day now' since week 27 but by 30 they were saying "Twins! How wonderful!" and when I said nope...just one. I always got the same response "Are you sure? I really think there's two in there, you're huge!" Never mind the either murderous or tearful look on my face, depending on the pregnancy hormones of that day, they would just go on and on and on about the largeness of me.

Thanks a lot.

If Zach was with me I could feel him tense up as soon as anyone approached me and could see his pleading looks to them as they started in on how much I resembled a Macy's Thanksgiving Parade Float.

At our 35 w u/s Dr. K (the OB) got very quiet. We had just discussed the birth plan and she was on board with walking labor and low to no intervention, so when she went silent during the ultrasound Zach grabbed my hand and I swear the temperature dropped ten degrees. Then she said "I don't think you are going to get the birth you want" WHAT?!?!?! Then she told us that the huge lump up by my right rib that I had been sweetly rubbing thinking it was his little booty was actually his big old Charlie Brown noggin. And that other lump by my left hip was his booty. She told us unless he turned I was headed for a C-section. Whew. Seriously, Dr. K (who is AWESOME BTW if you are in LA, go to her. now. She's amazing) you could have led with that! And not only was he breach, he was jacknifed. All that lounging had forced his legs up over his head and he had gotten so big he was stuck there.

We would always laugh because when I sat down you could absolutly see the outline of his body through my belly. It really appeared as if I was pregnant with Mr. Peanut. Now I patted his head and rubbed his booty and apologized to him as I hung upside down off the couch with a warm compress on my lower abdomen and a bag of frozen peas placed on his head. It was supposed to make him turn. I floated in the pool, I lounged on an incline...but by week 37 (which by now was week 39 according to my calculations and the new revised DD) no dice. Scheduled C-section it was.I showed up to the Hospital in labor (Uh. huh. Just try to tell me when I'm due! Mommy knows best y'all!)

I'll save that Braveheart-esque story for another day. But there he was folded in half legs up over his head. Dr K. had warned us that he would need his hips scanned and possibly have a brace or PT. Then the Doc in the nursery told us the same thing. Then our first pediatrician. Then we moved and every single pediatrician that I have mentioned it to ignored me. One actually scoffed at me,even though I noticed that his right hip pops out and sometimes makes a very loud noise. I knew...it took him way too long to crawl, he couldn't keep his knees under him. Finally enter our new pediatrician. And the first female doctor which Zach thinks is why she listened.

The first question she asked when I mentioned he was breach was "What did the scan say?" Then she flipped him over and did a test that we had never seen before, the booty folds should be even if the hips are even. They aren't. So...take that Doctors. Mommy's Instincts are still strong and now Max will be having an X-ray tomorrow. Furious, though since an u/s scan would have been much easier for him, and if he does need a brace we missed a whole year that he could have been being treated.

But we will know for sure. Finally.