So the good news is that our Thanksgiving Day baby finally arrived and she is healthy and beautiful! Isabelle Marie, born 11/27 at 2:02 pm, 9 lbs. 2 oz. and 21 3/4 inches 
The bad news is that she came by emergency c-section, when, after 50+ hours of labor, she went into distress and they couldn't get her heart rate to come back up
I know you guys will understand why I'm very upset about this even though of course the important thing is that she is healthy - I am still grieving the loss of a normal birth even though I know this was a truly medically necessary case (it had nothing to do with the induction in the end).
I just can't believe I had THREE babies vaginally and THEN ended up with a section for the 4th! But the doc said there is NO reason why I couldn't VBAC in the future. Isabelle was big but not crazy big - a lot bigger than my other kids though, and the main thing was her head. The midwife stayed with me in the OR and when they were pulling her out she looked and said, "Kerri, unless I magically transformed into Ina May Gaskin, there is no way that head was going to go through that pelvis!" They also think she was compressing her cord or tangling it somehow - she never dropped down at all, I never got past 4 cm and 50 % effaced in 3 days because she was still floating.
And we tried EVERYTHING. In fact believe it or not, as I posted in my other thread, they almost sectioned me last night because she turned breech! But this morning she actually turned back on her own, right before the doc came in to try the version! So I thought then that we were in the clear for sure. But even after they broke my water and she was head down, her head still never engaged.
They kept leaving the choice up to me and I was NOT giving up trying until it became an emergency and there was no choice. I was TERRIFIED in the OR. But they were all so great here and the midwife and nurse made sure all my wishes were still respected - I was breastfeeding her in the Recovery Unit barely 15 minutes after they closed my incision!
Of course now I am going NUTS staying in bed. I'm SO not the lie -around type, I think I will go crazy not even being able to stand up....and a Thanksgiving dinner of clear liquids kinda sucks too....
But I do have the best thing ever to be thankful for and that is what matterts!!
The bad news is that she came by emergency c-section, when, after 50+ hours of labor, she went into distress and they couldn't get her heart rate to come back up
I know you guys will understand why I'm very upset about this even though of course the important thing is that she is healthy - I am still grieving the loss of a normal birth even though I know this was a truly medically necessary case (it had nothing to do with the induction in the end).I just can't believe I had THREE babies vaginally and THEN ended up with a section for the 4th! But the doc said there is NO reason why I couldn't VBAC in the future. Isabelle was big but not crazy big - a lot bigger than my other kids though, and the main thing was her head. The midwife stayed with me in the OR and when they were pulling her out she looked and said, "Kerri, unless I magically transformed into Ina May Gaskin, there is no way that head was going to go through that pelvis!" They also think she was compressing her cord or tangling it somehow - she never dropped down at all, I never got past 4 cm and 50 % effaced in 3 days because she was still floating.
And we tried EVERYTHING. In fact believe it or not, as I posted in my other thread, they almost sectioned me last night because she turned breech! But this morning she actually turned back on her own, right before the doc came in to try the version! So I thought then that we were in the clear for sure. But even after they broke my water and she was head down, her head still never engaged.
They kept leaving the choice up to me and I was NOT giving up trying until it became an emergency and there was no choice. I was TERRIFIED in the OR. But they were all so great here and the midwife and nurse made sure all my wishes were still respected - I was breastfeeding her in the Recovery Unit barely 15 minutes after they closed my incision!
Of course now I am going NUTS staying in bed. I'm SO not the lie -around type, I think I will go crazy not even being able to stand up....and a Thanksgiving dinner of clear liquids kinda sucks too....
But I do have the best thing ever to be thankful for and that is what matterts!!
Congrats! Im sorry things didn't turn out how you wanted them to but Im glad that shes healthy.
He just turned 9 this Tuesday. 
:
