Andrew's birth story part 1

I was lying in bed on Sunday January 27th talking over my day with Jonathan. We always love Sundays. It seems like a day of renewal and new starts. We were discussing Aubrey and her due date as it was just 2 days away and she was so anxious to have her baby. Jonathan made the comment to me that he told Aubrey that whoever's baby is born first will be the better baby. I laughed at that thinking that of course her baby would be born first.
As I was nodding off to sleep, I felt my water break. My first thought was "you have got to be kidding me! I still have 3 weeks left. I am not ready for this and that somehow Jonathan's remark had caused this." So I woke Jonathan up and called my midwives to let them know. I learned with Adalyn that it is better to let my contractions get a pattern before going in. I was having no contractions at all. So, I went to sleep.
I went and visited my midwives the next day and I was at a 3 but their were still no contractions. They suggested a few ways to get contractions going with one of them being castor oil. Oh! I hate castor oil. So I told them I would let that be my last resort. They informed me that if I hadn't started good contraction by 9:00 that evening that I wouldn't be able to use the birthing center. Because of their policy, 24 hours is all they would allow a woman to go without some type of intervention. So I really wanted to give birth at the birthing center. I could have much more control over my labor and how things were going to turn out. So, at around 4:00 I took the castor oil. Aubrey had this brilliant idea to put the castor oil in veggie caplets so I wouldn't have to taste it. The only downside to that was in order to get 2 full ozs. we had to fill about 30 caplets. So we did that. I was completely waterlogged after taking 30 caplets of castor oil. At around 8:00 there were no signs that the castor oil had even worked. All that work to not have to taste the castor oil and it didn't give us any results. I was sorely disappointed. I had just lost 4 hours of time. So, Jonathan and I went and walked the mall. We walked and walked until I was so exhausted. It did bring on contractions but they weren't heavy or regular. I was frustrated at this point. By this time, it was 9:00 and I called the midwives to tell them. They told me that they would give me until 9:00 in the morning but if nothing happens, to just go straight to the hospital and check myself in.
After realizing the castor oil needs to be swallowed directly, I decided to do that instead. So, Aubrey put it into some Dr. Pepper and I drank it like that. It took a good 10 minutes of constant encouragement to be able to do it. That stuff is nasty. She also held a bottle of peppermint for me to sniff afterwards so I wouldn't have to smell it. She was such a great help.
Feeling very discouraged, I went to bed. Around 1:30 in the morning the castor oil hit and did its job. My contractions started hard and intense around 2:30. I timed them until around 5:00 and called the midwives. They asked if I could wait and come in at 6:00 as they were at the birthing facility in Murray. They needed to get to Orem. So, I woke Jonathan up and I got all my stuff together. We left around 5:30 in a nice snowstorm. It was still surreal to me that we were having a baby. I felt like I needed those 3 extra weeks to prepare mentally. Plus, Aubrey's baby was supposed to come first.