"We are under attack" - Part 1

Those were the words our nation heard seven years ago today as we watched in horror the events unfolding in those early morning hours of September 11, 2001. Who would have thought the day before that so many people would perish, lives changed, and our entire country would be frozen in such a terrible way? It was a beautiful day in the Eastern US. A sunny almost autumn morning.

I was one week shy of exactly 9 months pregnant. We were planning a home birth complete with an incredible birthing pool we set up beside our bed. The day before our Nurse Mid-wife told us she thought our baby was in a breech position. I was up getting ready for an ultra sound to confirm all this, and flipped the T.V. on while getting ready. The screen showed smoke coming from the first WTC building and it was thought a tourist helicopter or private plane had crashed into it by accident.

I called to Dave (who was downstairs making me a high protein soy milk shake :) and told him to come upstairs to see this. Just as he arrived at the bedroom door (with shake in hand) the second plane crashed into the other WTC building. This is when we all knew .. it wasn't an accident.

Glued to the television I continued to get ready for our trip to the Doctor. Our appointment time arrived and as we made our way down the highway, there was an eerie lack of traffic. The mall was closed. Schools were let out. Everyone just wanted to be home with their families, watch, and wait.

Sure enough, the ultrasound confirmed our baby was breech. The Dr. felt we should go ahead and be admitted for a delivery via C- section. Well, those that know me know that those words didn't exactly set well with me and I already had researched the possibilities, not to mention the world turmoil that was going on all around us. Only in an emergency would I have agreed to be admitted on THIS day!

It so happened the office had a peri- natologist on staff and she agreed to talk to me right then. By this time, thanks to hormones, and the world events that morning, I was almost in tears. What happened next was nothing short of Gods hand.

I walked into her office area and she came over and took my hand in hers. She told me that if I was willing, she would attempt an external version. This is a procedure where they manually attempt to turn (flip) the baby by pressing the on the abdomen from the outside. There were risks however as I was only days from my due date and there needed to be adequate amniotic fluid etc.. She told us to go home and think it over. If we decided we wanted to try this, it would be set for the next morning.

We left.

Upon arriving home we continued to watch the catestrophic events and pray for our own situation. I scoured the internet for other homeopathic ways to combat a breech position. So, don't laugh here,, I ended up spending the evening as upside down as possible with a bag of frozen peas placed stratigically in an attempt to get the baby to 'flip' naturally. Yep. Supposidly the baby will try to 'get away' from something cold and go the oposite direction. Suffice it to say, it didn't work.

The next morning we went in for an external version. To say I was nervous would be a vast understatement and risks?, yes, I understood the risks, but knew there were equally as many risks to an automatic C-section so off we went.

It worked. Amazingly the odds were so against it. Praise God, it worked. My WONDERFUL Doctor hugged me and told me to go home and wait for things to happen the 'regular' way!

We went home that evening with such joy in our own lives all the while watching as our nation would be changed forever.

continued in part 2..