“Mr Lee, Mr Seo. Hi, little sweetheart! It's good to see you! How have you been?”
Dr Yoo greeted the couple and their tiny daughter as they entered, Heejin in Changbin's arms.
“We're good, thank you. Pains are getting a little stronger and more annoying.”
The freckled male chuckled as he placed his hand instinctively on top of his growing belly.
“Which pains exactly?”
“Back and hips mostly. My feet hurt too when I stand or walk for too long but that's fine with me, it's really mostly the back. I can't sleep through the night without waking up at least three times to change my position. It's hard to subconsciously turn around with that bump.”
Dr Yoo nodded in understanding as he noted something in the patient file before he gestured for Felix to take a seat in the examination table.
“You're in your 31st week, it sadly won't get any better. But I'd recommend you to tape your tummy. Our nurse Jiu is pretty skilled with that, if you want I'll send you to her later. The tape helps distribute the pressure and weight and supports your skin as well.”
“That sounds really good, I'd like to try that. Is the tape waterproof or do I have to renew it every day?”
“It's waterproof, you can give us a call when it starts to peel off and Jiu will renew it. Have you tried some light yoga to help with
the back pains?”
“I did but it's pretty exhausting.”
Felix chuckled in embarrassment.
Even the lightest things made him feel completely out of breath, sometimes just getting up from the couch was like the hardest workout for him.
“I'll give you a list with explanations of easy exercises you can do with your partner. I can understand that especially with twins it's very exhausting for you and I don't want you to stress yourself.”
The doctor explained as he poured the all too familiar blue gel on the transducer to put it on Felix's bare tummy.
Heejin wasn't really interested in seeing her siblings, judging by the way she had her squishy face pressed in the crook of her daddy's neck, one of her pigtails tickling the ravenette's ear.
“Alright, here we have baby A, the bigger one. The baby's already in the right position, head down and feet up just how we like it. Oh, someone's not happy we're watching.”
The parents chuckled when their unborn baby pressed their hand against the transducer to push it away a little bit as if they were trying to say ‘no filming please.’
“Baby's a good size, head size is great as well and the heartbeat..”
Dr Yoo pushed a button on his board so the rhythmic beating sound of their child's heart filled the room, only interrupted by another beating heart.
“Sounds good, just like their twin's. Now let's move to baby B, they're hiding a bit behind their sibling.”
Changbin watched intensely how the doctor moved the transducer on his fiancé's belly, looking for their second baby.
“Baby B is still slightly smaller which is nothing unusual, the thing that worries me a little is that they're still in head up position. The room to move around is getting smaller as you've probably noticed too. They're most likely not that active anymore, right?”
Felix nodded in agreement, worry written all over his face.
“How bad is it?”
“For now there are a few things we can try to make the baby turn by themselves. I'd like you to try it with a flashlight first. Babies really like light so if you put the flashlight on top of your belly where the baby's head is and move it slowly down, the baby might follow it and turn this way. If this doesn't work, we can make the breech position uncomfortable for the baby by placing a bag of ice on top of your belly. It's not only cold for you, it's cold for the baby too so they should instinctively move away from it and hopefully turn around.”
“But what if they don't?”
Changbin squeezed his fiancé's hand softly to comfort him when he noticed the smallest shakiness in the younger's voice.
“Well, normally we perform external cephalic versions to turn them around manually but that's very difficult with twins. Especially in your case, the breech baby is deeper in your body so we can't get a hold of it and turn it.”
You didn't need to know Felix well to notice how much the new information affected him, how his brain was already imagining all different worst case scenarios.
And Changbin could only hold his hand a little tighter and smile a little warmer to give his fiancé the feeling that it wasn't that bad.
They still had the flashlight and the ice to try out, right?
“If baby B doesn't want to turn at all though, we'll have to perform a c-section. It's too risky for you and the babies. Twin births are risky enough, we won't take any more risks by making you go through a breech birth as well."
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