The Halloween Unlike Any Other

Disclaimer:  I'm going to be telling my birth story for Ian so proceed at your own risk...

5:30 am came really fast on Halloween morning.  The sun still wasn't up yet as I left home to head to the local hospital for my scheduled induction.  I arrived precisely at 6 am where I found a few nurses waiting for me as I was the only induction scheduled for the day.  Because who would intentionally choose All Hallow's Eve as their child's birthdate...I would, that's who.  I was led to room 2, the room that would be mine for the next two and a half days, where our family of four would become five.  Things started off slow and relaxed, I changed into a gown and signed paperwork before getting a blood draw and IV started.  I had to have two bags of IV fluid in me before they would start Pitocin and had to take cytotec first.  Cytotec is actually an anti-ulcer medication that was discovered to ripen the cervix and start contractions, which it slowly did to me.  I put the tiny white pill between my gums and cheek and let it slowly dissolve and do it's job as the contractions finally started to happen, slowly and sporadically.  Dr. Huss broke my water at around 8 am, I was only dilated to 3 cm.  Finally the time was almost upon us (we set a deadline of 10:15) where I would be done with the two bags of fluid and would be able to start the Pitocin to really kick things into gear.  But at about 10:00, the contractions became much more strong and regular, so we never used pitocin which I was glad about.  I was checked again and was only at a 4, so I was hesitant to call in the anesthesiologist even though the contractions were building in intensity and pain VERY RAPIDLY.  At 10:30 I finally requested, okay begged for an epidural only to find out that the anesthesiologist was held up in the OR and it would be 20-25 mins before he could be there.  By the time he did arrive, the contractions were definitely a 10 on the pain scale and were happening back to back.  I didn't have any time to recover in between and they hurt BAD...like the worst pain I have ever felt, I wanted to die.  At 11:15ish the anesthesiologist gave me a shot in the back of fentanyl to numb some of the pain so that I would be able to hold still enough to get the epidural, which was very difficult to do.  But eventually the medicine kicked in and took the contraction pains to about a 5-6 so that I could hold still enough to get the epidural.  The doc gave us a big spiel about how important it was for me to hold completely still, I was tall and "thin" (although I would never use that word to describe a 9 month pregnant me) and so there wouldn't be much room for error.  He spent a lot of time positioning me and kept saying that I'd moved whenever I had breathed too deeply and would have to line up my spine again. Anyway, he started putting in the epidural and at this point we had been standing completely still for about a half hour and the doc was getting to the really important part (AKA giant needle in the back that could paralyze me if I moved, remember?) when Eric said he was starting to feel light headed and passed out briefly on a chair that thankfully was right behind him.  The problem was that he was slumped up against my legs and I was internally freaking out that he was going to move me and leave me paralyzed. In his defense, it was really hot in there, he had not eaten or drank anything all day, and he was standing completely still with his knees locked for a half hour.  He quickly came to and spent the rest of the epidural insertion with his head between his knees.  Thankfully the doc was able to finish his job, with only a small hiccup when I felt this strong shock down my right leg and it started spontaneously kicking out in front of me over and over (he says it was caused by the epidural rubbing on a nerve).  It was a good thing he finished when he did because before the epidural had a chance to kick in and do it's job, I was checked and was at a 10, totally ready to push.  I had actually started to feel the need to push an hour earlier as I was sitting on the edge of the bed waiting for the anesthesiologist to set up but didn't say anything.  So I think I went from a 4 to a 10 in about a half hour.  Dr. Huss happened to be in the hospital at that time and so they set things up and delivered my baby very quickly, after one contraction's worth of pushing.  Which was nice since I was feeling more than I wanted (read between the lines, OUCH!!!!).  Official time was 1220.  The baby was quiet and didn't cry much even as they tried to make him cry.  I could tell that he was a long baby with big hands and feet right away.  His official numbers were 8 lbs 4 oz and 22 in long.  This delivery was different as the nurses kept the baby for what seemed like forever before I was able to hold him and try to get him to nurse.  I think it was a good hour before I finally got him, even though we kept asking when we could hold him!  I did not like that, but truthfully the baby's nurse was quite weird and obviously couldn't have cared less about what we wanted.
Ian has his own look, we were quite surprised with the color of his hair, it's strawberry blonde with definitely a lot of red in it and his eyes are lighter than our other two so there may be a chance for a blue eyed boy (having a blue eyed child would be a dream come true for me).  His face shape is similar to Lillie's and looks more like her than Henry, but truly not much like either of them.  He does have a crazy toe, the fourth toe on his right foot bends under his third toe, just like Lillie's.  It totally has to be genetic.  But because we've done this before and Lillie's has been just fine, means that we're not worried about it at all.
It has been amazing to me how quickly I have fallen completely in love with him.  I experience a lot of anxiety with having newborns, but it has been a lot easier than with the other two.  I love(d) them all but I worried a lot more about everything with the other two.  I love all of his grunts, faces, squirming, burps, etc.  I love it all.  This was definitely a Halloween that cannot be topped!