Baby shows up at Bach Party

So our good friend Mandy is getting married in September and we organize a bachelorette weekend with friends who live all across the U.S. (no easy feat). And Jenn is pregnant, due in August, so we plan the trip for about a month before her due date and plan to visit her in Utah so she won't have to travel. I bought her an awesome "Knocked Up" tee-shirt (pictured) to wear out.

She books us an awesome hotel room in Park City, about an hour into the mountains, from where she lives near Ogden. A few days before our arrival, she finds out that she's already 5cm dialated! But doesn't tell her dr. that she's going out of town for the weekend because she doesn't want her dr. to say no.

We get there, drive up to Park City, and it's gorgeous. We have lunch, walk around all day shopping (Jenn was such a trooper), check into our hotel room, buy some groceries, I made a mean pasta, we walk to get ice cream. Park City is on a mountain slope with some steep roads and this picture is taken on our way uphill back to our hotel room. Poor Jenn was really struggling and feeling tired by this point. So we settle in to walk a movie and Jenn gets a foot rub.

The room had two lush queen beds but they were really high off the ground, and there were five of us, so Jenn decided to sleep on the couch. We go to bed and we all are trying to sleep but are all actually still awake, so we all hear Jenn go into the bathroom and realize after a few minutes that she's been in there for quite awhile without any noises. Then she opens the door but doesn't actually come out. Someone asks "hey Jenn, you okay?" and she moans "NOooooo. I think I just had a contraction!"

Boom! We all leap from the bed, throw on some clothes, find out that there is no hospital in Park City (can you believe that?), call Jenn's husband, call Jenn's dr., figure out she's not gonna drop the baby right away and we'll have time to drive her back to Ogden, jump in the car and are off. It's a Friday night at about 1am.

As soon as we get out of town, I realize (driving) that the tank is empty and there are virtually no gas stations anywhere near us. We had to coast down this canyon highway because I was afraid we'd run out of gas (the light was on). Luckily she had a Jeep with one of those gps things and we found an exit that had a gas station. We forbid Jenn from getting out even though she said she had to pee, just in case, we didn't want her first born to be born in a gas station bathroom. Then we get lost finding the onramp to the highway again, but eventually find it, make it to the hospital, are met by her husband Brendan, and claim our seats in the waiting room.

We went in to see Jenn a few times. Occasionally I had sneaked to the door to listen but could only hear heart monitor noises. The next morning, we go to the airport to pick up Jenn's mom Jan, which was awesome that she could be there. Around 1 or 1:30pm on Sat, July 14th, we see Jenn's dr. go into the room. An hour or so later, a bunch of nurses rush in there. Eventually we thought we heard a scream, but this was the maternity ward so we thought, well it could be someone else. I sneaked to the door again, pressed my ear to the wood but heard only silence this time, no machine sounds. Then suddenly I heard a baby cry. And tears started streaming down my face. I motioned the others over & we all stood around crying with joy.

Eventually we go in, see the beautiful baby -- Chase Michael -- congratulate our friend. Then drive back up to Park City, since all of our stuff was still there, went out to sushi, and just chilled til we left the next day. I said we were having so much fun, Chase thought I gotta get out there into the world!