by So, my best friend is pregnant. She also has big, fat giant feet. So lately the aim of the game has been to try to keep Las sitting down with her feet up.
Las does not do well with sitting down, nevermind putting her feet up. She’s a “go-er” and a socialite – even if she tries to claim otherwise, it’s all lies. Seriously, you should look at her planner one day. It makes me exhausted just to think about it, never mind actually doing it – which says a lot, if you’ve ever looked at my calendar…
Needless to say, I felt compelled to do my best to do what I could to make sure she was following doctor’s orders. It started with randomly requesting she send me photos of her feet – to make sure they were propped up like they were supposed to be.
But when I’d ask, she’d occasionally tell me she was at Target, or driving, or… something. Granted most of the time it was a reasonable excuse. (ex: dr’s appointment), but still, that didn’t stop me from threatening to show up and smack her. Because really – a good smack on the head isn’t going to hurt the baby.
Then I got to thinking – I should follow through on this one! The last thing I want is for her to start thinking I’m making blind threats… I mean, that’s one of the most basic rules of parenting, and she often calls me ‘mom’, so I better make sure she takes me seriously!
Armed with some frequent flier miles, her hubby’s contact information and some vacation time from work, I started plotting.
No more than a few hours later, I was ready – flights were booked and her hubby was armed with a perfect story as to why he had to go to the airport — his old boss was flying in. I’m not sure who was more cunning – me, or him!
Next up – I had to figure out how to keep my mouth shut and not give away that I was coming. It was EXCRUCIATING! Especially when she was asking me questions about how to arrange artwork in the nursery. I even told her “would be easier if I could just see the whole room…” and she sent me back a video of the room. PAINFUL! I wanted to scream at her – just WAIT!! She also had a box that she needed to get mailed to me. Thankfully her hubby came up with a good reason to not take it to the post office…
She was hooked on getting artwork for the nursery done, and I promised I would do it, but the problem was trying to get her to tell me what she wanted so I could do the prep work in Iowa and bring it with me to Texas to have her help finish it. She finally figured out what she wanted and I managed to finish the prep work somewhere around 3 AM on the day that I was flying out – I wanted to scream at her ‘HURRY UP AND MAKE A DECISION – I HAVE TO GET ON A PLANE SOON!’.
So the morning of the flight I still needed to pack. Then I realized all of our suitcases were in the storage room that we had accidentally locked from the inside. Oops. Thankfully LeeAnn was able to pick me up early, and Kohl’s was having a sale on luggage. Whew!
I had to take the most INSANE route to get to Texas to save on Frequent Flyer Miles. Iowa to Chicago, Chicago to North Carolina, North Carolina to Houston.
The good news is that the frequent/random stops kept me in contact with her throughout the day, and I was able to continuously request pictures of her feet, so she didn’t suspect much was up. I did, however, begin drilling into her that she should really stay home while Colin went to the airport to pick up his boss – as she shouldn’t be on her feet so much!
My flight was delayed in North Carolina, so Colin had to do some quick thinking and research and picked out a different ‘flight’ for his boss to be on. Thankfully all worked out in the end. I landed and Colin met me at baggage claim – Las was in the car, waiting to meet Colin’s old boss (despite my lectures – though I knew it was going to happen that way. She’s STUBBORN!)
We snuck up behind the car, nearly giving her a heart attack when the trunk popped open, and I opened her car door and asked her why her feet weren’t up!. And for the first time in my life – I rendered Las speechless.
Trust me, that doesn’t happen often!! Well, not speechless, she was still talking, but all she could say was “There are no words…”
The next few days were spent largely with her sitting – we finished up the artwork for his nursery, did some crafting and fit in some spa time for mani-pedi’s. But mostly, sitting. And lecturing. And blood pressure taking.
We also watched a lot of My Drunk Kitchen. Because, well, because it’s basically us… Or at least it was us before kids anyway!
And then I had to fly home. I didn’t want to leave, something told me I should just stick around a little bit longer… and I was SO right. I flew out on Wednesday. Las was admitted to the hospital on Thursday, and little Baby Lewis made his appearance on Friday, 3/14. I think he might have been scared to meet me, considering how much I scared his mother just a few days earlier by randomly showing up to smack her!
A HUGE congrats to Las and Colin, who worked VERY hard to get to this pregnancy.
The hard work isn’t over yet though. Now they get to parent a child with Las’s stubborn tendencies and uncoordination and Col’s sense of humor and analytical tendencies. My prediction: they probably shouldn’t hand over their ‘frequent flyer’ card for the hospital / ER quite yet.
LOVE YOU!
