A birth story, begun in the middle

Not the middle of the birth, but the story of the middle child. I want to post the stories of my children's births. The latest story isn't written and I'm trying to track down the first, so we'll just start here. :)

Here is the story of my son, Grady Macleod’s birth. My estimated due date wasn't until July 30th, but on July 23th, a Wednesday morning, I woke up with contractions at about 4 a.m. or so. They were actually pretty painful, enough to take my breath away, but I didn't honestly think it could be the real deal. So, I stayed in bed, and just dozed between contractions. They were about 10 minutes apart at that point. Fionna had her 3 yr. check-up scheduled that day at 8:15, so I went ahead and got up at 6 a.m. Literally, when I stood up, the contractions sped up and moved to only 5 minutes apart. At this point, I realized that this was really happening so I woke up Lenny and convinced him not to go to work (a true miracle) and to go with me to the pediatrician appt. so I'd have backup. After alerting my mom and sister-in-law, we started getting ready. The contrax were pretty steady but not getting any faster. I was able to just stop and breathe thru it and then continue with what I was doing. We left the house about 7:45 a.m. to go to the dr. appt. and I made it thru the appointment. In fact, the pediatrician told me that I definitely wasn't in labor because I didn't have the look. After we left there, I called my midwife. She said why don't we just come by her office so she can check me, thus saving an unnecessary hospital visit if this wasn't really "it." We got to her office, they get me right in, and she checks me. I'm 90% effaced and dilated to 6 cm. She tells me to go ahead and take care of whatever I need to (dropping Fionna off, etc.) and then go on down to the hospital. She said that if I didn't have him before then, she'd be there by noon and break my water and get things going. We have my sister-in-law meet us at the hospital, and she takes Fionna. It's about 10 a.m. at this point, and the contrax are still about 5 min. apart. None of the hospital staff even believed me that I was in labor; they even made me walk up to the maternity ward. After all the formality junk, a nurse finally checks me and I'm at 8 centimeters. They made me lay down for about an hour so that they could monitor the baby. This was hard as the contractions were much more painful while laying down, all centered in my lower back. Afterwards though, I started walking, etc. My midwife gets there around 11:30 a.m. and encourages me to get in the tub/shower. So, I alternate getting in there and walking, etc. I'm guessing it's around noon that she checks again. I have a small lip of cervix remaining, she says I'm probably still at 8, but she goes ahead and breaks my water. Not much water comes out so I start walking, squatting, swaying, etc. After moving for a bit, I get a big rush and then continual leaking of fluid. But, still no urge to push or anything. At that point, I just felt really sleepy. So, I say, I'm just gonna lay down for a sec. I lay on my side on the bed for about 2 minutes and wham, it hits me. Bad pain and an uncontrollable urge to push. (I forgot to say, my mom had since picked up Fionna and my SIL was there with us). So, sister-in-law runs out to get the midwife, and she comes in and says okay, let's go. She checks me and I've still got that little lip of the cervix remaining so she keeps her hand in "there" to massage it out of the way. I'm laying on my side with my knees way bent and pulling my legs up to push. I pushed maybe 5 times and he was crowning. The midwife really worked to get me to push slowly as he crowned to prevent tearing but ultimately I tore a little because one hand was up against his face, and I tore there. As soon as he was born, they put him onto my lower belly. He had a really short cord, so he wouldn't reach any further! The placenta was delivered immediately after, and the cord cut soon too. Then, they moved him up to my breast where he right away started licking my nipple and rooting around. They let him do that a bit, and then took him to the warmer to suction him out, etc. I had a postpartum hemorrhage with Fionna, so the midwife was working hard to prevent a repeat of that. I got a couple of shots and first two, then one more cytotec (sp?) pill. It wasn't working at first and I was gushing a lot of blood but they started an IV of pitocin (I had a hep lock in for this possibility), and they got it under control. At this point, my midwife began removing a cyst that I had on my perineum. We had discussed it previously and, since I had already tore, my midwife was willing to try to remove it as she repaired my tear. This was ouchy & took forever. It ended up being two cysts, and she had to dig them out. Ultimately one of them did burst, so there is the possibility that it/they could come back. Anyway, she said they looked consistent with the "safe" kind of cyst that they were diagnosed as, but she's sending them to pathology just in case. Sewing me up was really painful because the outer most layer of skin wouldn't deaden, and I felt all the stitches but oh well.
Now...Grady. As soon as they laid him on my belly, I saw something that shouldn't have been there. On his left hand, he had a small sixth finger, right next to his pinky but dangling by just a thread of skin. I immediately pointed it out, and the midwife assured me it's pretty common, don't worry, etc. But, I'll admit I was upset., just a feeling like something went wrong, I did something wrong, I don't know. The pediatrician saw it the next day, and had it x-rayed. There is no bone involvement, so it's merely this little piece of skin and a tiny little vein that were sustaining it. I admit I really, really just wanted them to cut it off, but they wouldn't. Instead they tied it with a piece of suture and will let it "die" and fall off. This should take about a week. He went in for a weight check on Saturday at the pediatricians request (to make sure the finger wasn’t causing any pain and impacting his gaining). He was only 3 oz. under birth weight and had already gained part of what he lost in the hospital, so that’s great news.
Aside from this small "surprise," he is an absolutely perfect and beautiful boy!!! My life was immediately enriched and expanded the moment he slid from my body... a moment I'll treasure for always!