Stick Your Scalpel Where the Sun Don't Shine!

If you've read the last post you know we were scheduled to go to the hospital Monday night for an ECV. I was asked not to eat or drink anything for 8 hours prior so we were to be there at 5:30 so I could get prepped and properly hydrated via IV fluids for a 6:00pm appointment. Things were a bit backed up and we had to fill out a bunch of forms so I don't believe we got into the room until at least 6:30ish. Man was I thirsty! The nurse asked me to put on a hospital gown. Now, we're not rocket scientists or anything but it really shouldn't have taken us a whole 10 minutes to figure out how to put the damn thing on. I was definitely a team effort. It's a weird shape and none of the buttons are together and, trust me, those gowns will make you feel like a real dummy when the nurse doesn't even warn you about assembling them. So it's 6:40 now. I get into the bed and the nurse ("nurse #1") doesn't start me on an IV. She has me laying on my back and starts monitoring the baby's heart rate, as well as any contractions I may be having. I keep thinking any minute now I am going to get some damn hydration. She goes through this LONG list of questions about my medical history and then when she gets to the end asks me if I've been having contractions lately and I say no. She said,"No? Because you've just had about 5." I didn't feel any of them. She says she is going to hook me up to an IV and I will also have to get a shot to stop the contractions if I want the ECV. She leaves the room, to get the IV I am hoping, and doesn't come back for a while. It's now 6:50. Still no IV, still no perinatologist to come and turn the baby. What the hell is going on? Nurse #1 comes back in the room and says that it is the end of her shift (gee we couldn't tell) so another nurse will be coming, but she spoke with my OB and she is not happy because, during one of the contractions the baby's heart rate dropped a bit. She says because of that the OB wanted to do a C-section. Are you kidding me lady? I don't have a medical degree but I know from the pregnancy books I have read that if you are having contractions one of the things you do is drink lots of water incase you are dehydrated, and you get off your back and lay on your left side. If nurse #1 would have hydrated me before monitoring, I'm pretty sure this blog would be different. Enter Nurse #2. Nurse #2 was the best part of the whole useless experience. She cared and knew exactly what she was doing. The first thing she did was administer the IV and tell me to turn on my left side. She said she called the perinatologist and he wasn't happy about the short dip in the baby's heart rate and probably wouldn't try and turn her. At this point I am pretty upset. Nurse #1 got me so paranoid about heart rates, contractions, and c-sections that I started to shut down. So I am on the IV and we wait around for the perinatologist. It's about 8:10 and there is still no sign of him. We really liked this guy and were very upset that he just didn't bother showing up. His office is right across the street and he didn't even bother making the 5 minute walk to check in. Yeah thanks for that. So wonderful nurse#2 comes in and says she is going to try to get us out of there. She said we have a very healthy baby and there is no reason why we shouldn't be able to leave. My contractions had stopped once I got hydrated and placed on my side. She calls the OB. All of a sudden the phone in the room rings and it's the nurse saying when she hangs up our OB will be on the line. I see nurse #2 come in and mouth to me (with an appauled look on her face), "She wants to section you tonight." I mouth back, "THAT'S RIDICULOUS. NO WAY!" Summary of the conversation Paul had with the OB:

OB: I want to do a cesarian.
Paul: Why? The baby is healthy and Gina isn't having contractions. She was only having contractions because she hasn't eaten or drank since 10am and she was on her back for an hour. Can't the baby still turn on her own?
OB: No she won't turn on her own.
Paul: Why won't she turn on her own?
OB: Well, the baby is really big.
Paul: No, she is really small.
OB: No, she's 7 pounds.
Paul: No, she's tiny. She's only 5 pounds.
OB: Well she has to come out sometime.

Ok, WHAT? Really? She has to come out? No shit, Einstein! But no way were we going to let a healthy baby who has 3 weeks left to cook get cut out of me before she is ready. You're going to have to give us a damn good reason other than "Well she has to come out sometime" before you come near me with that damn scalpel, lady. So disheartening. I thought we had an amazing OB but right now it looks like she is just another part of the baby business, ready and willing to make me another statistic of our awful c-section rate here in the US. At around 8:30-8:45 I eventually got discharged. So I spent the whole day, 9 months pregnant and not able to eat or drink even water, only to get an IV shoved in my arm, my ass hang out of some weird assemble yourself sheet, and some random woman's fingers up my hoo-hah, just to walk out of there disheartened by doctors, with god knows how much less money in our pockets, and a baby that is still breech. What we did leave with is a sense of control over our sitation and, believe you me, a couple doctors are sure going to get an earful today.