Switching doctors and spinning babies

Switching Doctors
Maybe we're crazy, but we decided to switch doctors last week! No, not pediatricians, the baby doctor, the one we've been going to for the last 8 months. Eeek! We had been feeling a little uneasy about the practice we had chosen, but it never seemed like enough to go through the hassle of finding someone new and switching practices. Then, after our last visit, I decided that I was definitely going to have a different doctor if we ever had another child, so it seemed like it would be stupid not to switch now if we could!
Once I broke down and cried about how nervous I was about our doctor, Jordan did all of the work to make the switch happen. What a great husband huh! We contacted our birth class instructor, Stacy (who is amazing by the way, if you're ever considering trying to birth naturally, you should definitely take her classes!) for a recommendation. Apparently she told Jordan that she had been dying for us to ask her about our OB/GYN because she had some other couples who had bad experiences. One woman who had expressed a desire to try for an unmedicated birth was laboring and our doctor told her that she thought she really needed pain medication because she wasn't strong enough to do this without it. The laboring woman refused and went on to have her baby without using any meds. I definitely doubt need that kind of doubt sown in my mind when I'm in labor!
Stacy recommended a few different doctors and Jordan made all the calls to try to get us an appointment. The practice we were most interested in was Brothers and Crochet. Somehow having a doctor named "Crochet" seemed like destiny to me! Dr. Crochet had to approve the late transfer, however, so we had to wait a week to hear if she was going to take us as a patient.
We went on with our lives like normal, and when we were in the waiting room of our old OB for our next appointment, we got a call from Dr. Crochet's office that they would accept the transfer. So, we went about making that happen instead of seeing the old doctor.
Unfortunately, because of the timing, I never got an opportunity to talk to our old doctor about our desire to switch. I got a VERY uncomfortable phone call from her the next day stating that she was so surprised we had decided to change doctors. I'm sure she was, since we hadn't made the decision ourselves until the very last minute! I was so surprised to have her on the phone though that I couldn't really express anything useful to her.
If I had it to do over, I would tell her that I felt like there hadn't been enough communication about what the birth was going to look like. I had asked a couple of times if there was going to be a conversation at some point about what we wanted from the birth experience and she glibly replied, "If you have any questions, just ask them." Well, I didn't even know what questions I was supposed to have and I just wanted to have a discussion about how they generally practice and what I should expect.
Once I finally knew a little more about what I wanted from our delivery, I asked her if she wanted to set up a time to discuss our birth plan, and she looked at me like I had 3 eyes all of a sudden. As if she doesn't have any other patients who make a birth plan! Perhaps she didn't feel like a separate visit was necessary to talk about the birth plan, but then the correct response is, "That's ok, just bring it in next time and we'll go over it at your regular visit." Instead she hmmed and hawed and looked at me like I was an alien and couldn't seem to come to a verdict about whether this extra appointment was necessary or not.
I guess that's all to say that I didn't feel like we had clear communication. Perhaps we just did not understand each other very well, I'm not sure. I believe she is a competent physician who delivers healthy babies to healthy moms, but I was uncomfortable with her after all of my attempts to have discussions with her about birth. Maybe if I had birthed before it wouldn't have seemed like such a big deal, but in general, I like to be informed, and I did not feel that she facilitated that.

Spinning Babies
On a lighter note, our baby is stubborn! We learned in our birth class about ideal positioning for a baby when you go into labor. The best possible position is head down with their back facing out and more on the left of your stomach (left occiput anterior- LOA). So the face is looking at your tail bone and the bulk of the baby is on the left of your stomach. The next best position is the same, except with the bulk on the baby on the right (right occuput anterior- ROA). From there, you get into more and more difficult positions.
Well, after learning all of this, I was interested to discover that my baby was ROA, which is only in the next to best position. Because I want a perfect baby, I was determined to change this!
I went to spinningbabies.com, a website where they outline things you can do to encourage your baby to flip. Most effective is placing yourself in a variety of semi-upside down positions after drinking a lot of fluid. So, I started doing this.
After the first try of hanging out upside down for awhile, baby girl flipped to LOA immediately. I was so proud! What a good baby!
And then she flipped back overnight. *sigh*
So I proceeded with the upside down trials every few nights. She has flipped to LOA a few times, but she always manages to be back in ROA by the next morning! I guess she's just more comfortable there! I'm going to hang out upside down a few more times, I'm sure. Whatever you have to do for a perfect baby right :) No, really, I know she's not perfect....(or else she would have started in LOA!)