Then they stuck this in her arm, and things got more serious. They told us about all of the bad things that can happen during the procedure, and had us sign a waiver. Of course, they have to do this even if the risks are minuscule. Worst case scenario we envisioned was possibly needing an emergency C-section.
Connie said that the IV was really painful. The nurse told us that they use extra large needles for pregnant women since they may need a lot of blood if something goes wrong. So they use large diameter needles to be able to pump in a lot of blood fast. How comforting...
They then administered a drug that relaxes smooth muscle. The purpose was to get the uterus to relax so it would be easier to turn the baby. A sign that the drug is working is an elevated pulse rate. Here's a shot of the vitals monitor just before they attempted to turn the baby. Connie's pulse is 111, and the baby's heart rate is 132 (it fluctuated between ~125-155).
They then hooked up the ultrasound, re-confirmed the baby's position, established a plan for rotating the baby, and began pushing. They started by ensuring the baby was up high enough out of the pelvis. This didn't require much as this baby has liked to stay high in Connie's belly. Next was to dig in deep, and start rotating. The following picture is when the baby was about in the horizontal position (rotated 90 deg CCW from her starting head-up, vertical position), and Connie was focused on that new test equipment she'd like to get at work ;^) Connie said that this was the most painful portion of the process. The last 90 deg of rotation happened so fast that I missed it. Overall the procedure took only a few minutes and was successful on the first try!
A cool thing about these dudes at UCSD (Drs. Kelly and Robertson) is that they monitored the entire procedure continuously on the ultrasound (unlike the YouTube video we watched in which they only did a before and after). This was much better because they were able to see how the baby was being re-positioned, and how she was responding. At one point her heart rate slowed (seen visually on the ultrasound) so they adjusted Connie's position, and it came right back up. However, since it did depress for a short while, they monitored everything for an additional 2 hours after they were done.
Overall it was a huge success, and went as well as can be expected. They were impressed by how well Connie tolerated the process (which isn't real pleasant for Mom nor baby). Now we just hope that baby doesn't flip back. They felt that Connie's uterus tone should be sufficient to hold her in position so they didn't recommend using any kind of restraint.
Next step: Drop Baby Drop.
They then administered a drug that relaxes smooth muscle. The purpose was to get the uterus to relax so it would be easier to turn the baby. A sign that the drug is working is an elevated pulse rate. Here's a shot of the vitals monitor just before they attempted to turn the baby. Connie's pulse is 111, and the baby's heart rate is 132 (it fluctuated between ~125-155).
They then hooked up the ultrasound, re-confirmed the baby's position, established a plan for rotating the baby, and began pushing. They started by ensuring the baby was up high enough out of the pelvis. This didn't require much as this baby has liked to stay high in Connie's belly. Next was to dig in deep, and start rotating. The following picture is when the baby was about in the horizontal position (rotated 90 deg CCW from her starting head-up, vertical position), and Connie was focused on that new test equipment she'd like to get at work ;^) Connie said that this was the most painful portion of the process. The last 90 deg of rotation happened so fast that I missed it. Overall the procedure took only a few minutes and was successful on the first try!
A cool thing about these dudes at UCSD (Drs. Kelly and Robertson) is that they monitored the entire procedure continuously on the ultrasound (unlike the YouTube video we watched in which they only did a before and after). This was much better because they were able to see how the baby was being re-positioned, and how she was responding. At one point her heart rate slowed (seen visually on the ultrasound) so they adjusted Connie's position, and it came right back up. However, since it did depress for a short while, they monitored everything for an additional 2 hours after they were done.
Overall it was a huge success, and went as well as can be expected. They were impressed by how well Connie tolerated the process (which isn't real pleasant for Mom nor baby). Now we just hope that baby doesn't flip back. They felt that Connie's uterus tone should be sufficient to hold her in position so they didn't recommend using any kind of restraint.
Next step: Drop Baby Drop.
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