"Labor" Day Weekend

Whew! What a crazy weekend...too crazy not to share in the middle of the Home Ec Series. First of all it was my bday weekend and I love to celebrate my bday in fun ways. I usually like to break from the norm and go somewhere so that it feels extra special. So this year, Laura and I decided to make it a shopping trip to St. Louis, stay in a hotel, eat good food, have delicious drinks, laugh a lot, and be baby free. St. Louis holds the closest H&M's to where I live and it is only 4-ish hours away. We tentatively planned everything, waiting until the last possible minute since my sister was due to have her baby the weekend after Labor Day. Friday comes, I get the all clear from Em to take off. Miss Dawn even came over to watch the H-man so I could meet up with Laura before Ryan got home from work. Everything was clicking away like clock-work. We get on the road and the holiday traffic wasn't too bad until we hit Columbia and then we hit the combo holiday/football game traffic and came to a stand still. Who knew so many people cared about football. This allowed Laura and I to invent a new game (we often invent games), it was sort of a version of Memory. Since we had a lane of traffic going the same direction next to us, it provided us the opportunity to get a good look at the people/cars next to us. We would give each car an identity, like there was the guy with the bumper sticker that said, "Yes this is my truck and No I won't help you move." Or the minivan that had the stick figures on the back of their window, one for each family and then the words "The Williams Family". Or the guy picking his nose. Or the guy from Nebraska. Each got a name and then as they would either creep ahead or fall behind we would try to remember which order they were in. It took us an extra hour to get to STL but I would say we still had fun. We got checked in at the hotel and went to grab a bite to eat, where my dear friend Luna decided to head to the restroom, like you do. She heads back, glances one direction and sees more pics of women than men and glances the other way and sees more pics of men than women. She decides to go through the door that clearly had more pics of women on the wall (I don't think she looked at the actual door to see what it said). She walks in and there is a dude standing there, cleaning. She looks at him and asks if this is the ladies room. He says no. In her moment of being flustered, she tells him that the men's room is on the wrong side and walks out. It was clearly his fault she was in there. I was dying...all night. So funny...maybe it is because we had each had one little old drink that made it so much funnier. Anyway, back to the hotel room to plan out our weekend of shopping! We decide just in case Em goes into labor and I have to jet back to KS, we should definitely go to H&M first. After grabbing my morning McDonald's we head off to H&M and shop, shop, shop! I loved it and Laura was such a trooper, going out and grabbing me other sizes. We were able to run into a couple more stores before we decided to eat some lunch at Panera...I love the Strawberry Poppyseed Salad there...so so good and only available in the summer. Like 3 bites into my fantastic salad, I get "the call". "We are about to be admitted into the hospital, we are at a 4." "WHAT!?" Okay, my labor took 24 hours after being induced so we probably still have some time and I don't need to freak out. But I knew that I should probably get my butt in gear and we needed a plan to get me back to KS. Ryan packs up Hudson and heads toward me. Laura and I head back to the hotel and pack up my stuff and head towards him. (Praise Jesus we went to H&M first!) And we are off. I get another call 30 minutes later and she is at a 6. Oh crap. Before I get to Ryan she gets the epidural and tells me she is at a 9. Um, holy crap! I'm not going to make it. I meet him in Boonesville (Missouri has questionable towns...I think Bucksnort was another one...I kept asking Laura, "Where are we?) We haul ass back to KS, he drops me off at the front door of the hospital I go as fast as possible up to the 3rd floor and run to her room, past my mom telling me we aren't supposed to go in there. While running, I said, "I don't care!" 10 minutes later, Charlotte Estella Cox was born. 5lbs 10 oz. Soooo tiny and perfect. She's my little sack of sugar.