Dear Zach,
We’d waited long enough to meet you. You seemed perfectly content to stay put. Something had to be done. So we did it. On March 22nd, 2009 we made the trip up to Beverly Hospital for a prostin gel. Its purpose is only to soften and ripen things up. In essence, it is to make my body more amenable to giving birth. We were supposed to get 2 gels that day. We got the first one around 10 then Daddy and I went out to lunch at Applebee’s down the road. I was contracting away–the gel was working! Back to the hospital we went for round 2 but they told me I was having too many contractions to get any more. Bummer.
Mommy after getting the gel. We were playing scrabble on Daddy's phone.
Daddy and I drove home and I had contractions all night. They had given me some ambien to help me sleep because we were supposed to head back to the hospital at 7am the next day. Its a good thing too because I would have been too excited to sleep. As it turned out, I should have shared that Ambien with Daddy because the poor guy barely slept a wink!
Bright and early the next morning we checked back into the hospital.
Mommy and Daddy before Zach was born
The gel had worked! But only a little. So we tried another sort of “ripening” medication called Cytotec. Daddy and I finished our game of scrabble and started re-watching LOST on the laptop. We didn’t get very far before things got pretty uncomfortable though. A couple hours after the cytotec labor had officially begun. They started pitocin after lunch to make the contractions stronger and closer together. Your Daddy was awesome and stayed by my side the whole time. He gave me ice when i needed it and rubbed my back when I said so. I got an epidural around 3:30 and the lovely Meg broke your water to speed things up even more. I had planned on taking a nap since I was comfortable but I was way too excited and maybe a bit nervous. But luckily Daddy got an hour or two in since he didn’t the night before!
At 6 Daddy woke up at the same time I started feeling like maybe it was time to start pushing. We called for our nurse (Noreen–she was awesome!). She checked me and sure enough it was time to get started! She got some things ready and let Meg know. We pushed for about 40 minutes before you made your entrance. At 6:58pm on March 23rd, 2009 we got our first look at who we’d previously only imagined for 40 weeks and 3 days. And you were beautiful.
Welcome to our world!
Zachary Christopher Simpkins
March 23, 2009 at 6:58pm
9lbs 7oz 21 inches
Love Always,
Mom
