Oliver's story

So to quickly share the story of how Oliver came into the world. (Ok, this isn't a quick story so feel free to jump to the pictures where you can see a handsome little guy)
It is when I finally accepted that we would just go in on Friday and be induced- after all there was plenty to do until then. I had volleyball practice on Tuesday and Wednesday, the Mia Maids where coming over on Wednesday night and a babysitting gig on Thursday, so we may as well wait until Friday. Wednesday night brought in a big rain, hail and thunder storm that kept me up for a few hours, then just a restless night after that. I got up as usual to use the restroom around 5am Thursday morning, and felt sick to my stomach from all of the cookies I had eaten the night before. I lay awake in my bed until 6:00 when Dean got up to get ready for work- then I started to feel that upset stomach come and go, could those be real contractions? I was unsure as I had been contracting for weeks.
I decided to give my mom a call and get her opinion, she was out of town, and it wasn't so early where she was, while I was on the phone with her, she timed my contractions which were five minutes apart. She suggested I head down to Salt Lake to be assessed, so I decided to call Gretchen, my amazing midwife who I like so much I have decided to deliver in Salt Lake where her office is. She is definitely worth all of the miles we put on the car to see her. She also tells me to head down to the hospital, and she says, "I wouldn't wait too long Brynley, it's snowing out there and you've got traffic you'll be dealing with" ...So I decided to jump in the shower.
Lincoln happened to wake up around 6:15 that morning, and Dean did a great job getting him ready to go to his Grandma's for the day. Dean got the car all loaded with all the necessary bags for a couple day trip to Salt Lake. He also suggested at least twice that I get moving a little quicker so we could get on the road. He always seemed to mention that while I was contracting, so I would look at him like, I will go at whatever pace I want to. I finally made it to the car around 7:30 and I noticed Dean had added a couple of old towels to the back seat. I laughed to myself because he is always prepared and sometime paranoid.
Lincoln was in a great mood, especially for being up so early, he anxiously looked for trucks and would laugh and point each time we passed them. Dean's mother was waiting for us to drop of Lincoln at her home in Bountiful so she could look after him for the day. Dean started timing my contractions in the car and they were 3 minutes apart as we headed down the hill in Uintah. As we drove through the spring snow, we listened to the traffic report, and it wasn't very encouraging, we opted for Legacy and it felt like the right decision as we were moving faster than the traffic on the freeway. When we got to Centerville Dean suggested we have his mom meet us off the freeway. As we approached Bountiful, we determined we should have her meet us at the hospital. I was getting ready for my epidural and didn't think I could survive the extra 20 minute detour. Dean did a great job navigating our way from the west side of  the valley up through downtown and into the avenues. We were hitting lights mostly green and finally got stopped trying to cross state street on north temple. It was then that it hit me, that I needed some help from up above to make it the rest of the way. I realized I had absolutely no control over the pain, or the number of contractions, or the time this baby decided to come. I quickly turned to my Heavenly Father in silent prayer, and possibly vocal prayer as each contraction came. For the next several minutes I pleaded for help.
There was plenty of traffic through the avenues, but Dean managed to get us to the hospital and endure my yells as the pain intensified. I was going to go straight up to labor and delivery while Dean found his mom and made the switch with Lincoln. As we pulled up to the hospital I felt a large pop and my seat was soaked. When I realized my water had broken right as we pulled up to the main doors, I politely (with a firm, loud voice) told dean to go in and get help, because I wasn't going to do much more walking. He was an all-star and ran in and found someone who had a wheelchair. They quickly came to the curb and got me on my way. I don't know who the poor lady was who wheeled me up to the 4th floor, but she deserves extra points in heaven for enduring my cries and moans the whole way up. On the elevator she reminded me to do "my breathing" I told her I had no idea what she was talking about because I had never been trained on breathing. She just said short deep breaths, which I tried and this technique got me to the nurses waiting for me upstairs. It wasn't until I got into the hospital room and saw the look on the nurses faces that it first hit me that this baby was about to be delivered. They kept asking each other if Gretchen was almost there and where only a bit frantic. Within a minute, Gretchen arrived and the nurses where quickly was put at ease. I demanded an epidural and Gretchen just told me in her very own way, "now Brynley I don't think you're going to have time for one of those, but let me just take a look." I told her I wasn't prepared to push this baby out without one, and she smiled and said, don't worry, it won't take long. One push and he'll be here...But Dean still hadn't made it to the room. One of the nurses quickly called Dean and he sprinted from the parking lot to make it to my side. Two contractions (and an unbelievable amount of pain) later, there was a perfect little angel who made his way to mortality on his own timeline. What an unbelievable amount of joy it was to have this little boy in my arms. Dean immediately called his mom and she brought Lincoln back to the hospital to meet his brother. For the first time, Lincoln may have understood what all of this talk about a little brother was. It was an indescribable feeling to have those two little boys laying on my bed with me.