But life does not always go according to schedules, which is part of the joy and magic of life. And so it was the weekend of 24-25 May 2003.

Julie had done her usual walk to the park Saturday morning, and had run into a neighborhood grandmother who asked Julie how much longer until she was due. Julie replied that she was scheduled for about five days from now, and the woman replied that, no, it looked like today would be the day. Julie came home and told Tim the story, slightly displeased that it was yet another case of someone telling her she looked huge and was carrying low (which she had been hearing for two months from many people).

Saturday was also declared “dad and Jadon haircut day”, in preparation for the new baby’s arrival. Tim got a haircut at a shop, but Jadon balked when his turn came, and said he would only let mommy cut his hair. That evening Julie cut Jadon’s hair, and joked that all the bending and twisting she was having to do to keep up with Jadon would send her in to labor.

Jadon ate a little ice cream (an occasional treat for him) around 9:30PM Saturday evening, then headed off to bed. He fell asleep around 10:30, after his currently normal process of 30-45 minutes of desperately trying to not go to bed, then tossing around in bed. After Jadon finally fell asleep, Julie took her time in the bathroom trimming her nails, and her bangs in front of the mirror. Years of ballet training enabled her to still put her leg up on the counter for a pedicure, even with a 9-month pregnant belly. When she finished her chores, Tim gave Julie a back, leg, and foot massage for 15 minutes, and Julie fell asleep around 11:15 PM. Tim then headed downstairs to the study, where he was working with pad and pen trying to come up with a list of additional candidate names, as Julie and Tim agreed earlier in the day that since this was the last weekend before the baby arrived, one top priority was to finalize a name.

In her light sleep Julie felt a little unusual cramping. She woke up, and immediately noticed a subtle sensation of fluid coming out, which was a totally new experience for her. Am I leaking? What's leaking? Intuition began to call "Tim, Hou Wang! Hou Wang (Tim's nickname in the house). The clock said 12:40 AM, and Tim rushed upstairs.

"I think I was leaking some fluid.... I don't think it was urine. Might have broken my water..." Julie told Tim with a calm but excited voice. We had an idea what this might mean, but were also caught offguard, because we had not reviewed that part of the pregnancy process since Jadon’s birth (why bother! C-Sections are scheduled a week or so before the due date, and Jadon’s turned out fine). After a few minutes of gathering our thoughts, we decided that since the trickling seemed to have stopped, there was no emergency, but that it was best to prepare anyway.

Julie headed downstairs to read the relevant sections of her “What to Expect When You’re Expecting” book. Tim started preparing all the “necessary” electronics; making sure cell phones were in their chargers, charging the digital camera battery, charging the video camera’s battery, cleaning the heads of the video camera, placing spare tapes in the camera case, double-checking all the settings on the digital camera and video camera, and doing test runs with the digital camera and video camera. Julie had started packing a suitcase just on Friday with some baby clothes. Although it wasn't completely packed, at least we had a suitcase to work with instantly.

Julie had another small fluid leak around 1AM, and decided to call the hospital. They had the on-call Ob/Gyn call her around 1:10. Julie was told that if she continued leaking, to come in to the hospital. We decided it was prudent to prepare, so we called Hu-Jie, a helper who had agreed to spend some time in our house helping with Jadon when the new baby arrives (Tim’s parents died several years ago, and Julie’s parents are in China).

When our helper arrived around 1:30 AM, we decided to leave for the hospital following to the on-call doctor's advice, as the leaking continued slowly but surely. The reality still had not set in that Julie was in labor; as we stepped in the car, we said to ourselves that the worst that could happen is that they might tell us to go back home.

On the way to the hospital, we discussed names. We considered a number of options, including deferring naming the baby for a few days to give ourselves some breathing room to come to a more reasonably-paced decision. We both felt, however, that it was important for us to have a name to call our new baby by if he was born tonight.

The complication in naming was that we wanted a name that we felt sounded good in both English and Chinese, and also sounded good with his last name (Bienz). Julie also had the additional constraint, based on a Chinese tradition, that the first syllable of his name be pronounced “Jay”, to match Jadon and show that they are part of the same generation in the same family.

Julie came up with a number of names that started wth “Jay”, and which were beautiful in Chinese, but Tim felt that all of them sounded non-natural in English, and many were confusingly similar to “Jadon” in English. Tim had a list built up out of trying to meet Julie’s goals, plus several non-”Jay” names that were more distinguishable in English. Unfortunately, nearly all of Tim’s names were not good Chinese names.

So we went through our list of favorites again while driving to the hospital and eventually settled on Kalen/Kalon. Althoug it does not have a “Jay” beginning, it does have a very good Chinese meaning (victorious dragon), and Julie felt it made a good family “poem” with Jadon: “Outstanding orient” and “victorious dragon”.

As we pulled in to the hospital’s parking lot, we were discussing how to spell it: Kalen or Kalon. Julie felt that Kalen looked a bit more feminine, so she said:"if the baby is born tonight, he will be Kalon."

We arrived around at the hospital around 2 AM. After some initial tests that showed the baby was fine, and that Julie was definitely leaking amniotic fluid, a decision was made to have a C-Section at 3 AM Sunday 25 May.

We could not believe that the time had arrived in this way instead of the carefully scheduled way we had anticipated, but we (especially Julie) actually greatly preferred this because after carrying the baby for nine months, finishing off with labor seemed to give more of a sense of accomplishment. She had been a little sad about completely missing the labor experience when Jadon was born. This time, Kalon gave us just enough of that experience. In addition, getting this over with now saved a lot of anxiety over the next few days waiting for D-Day to arrive. Besides, the weather had been really hot the previous few days (and continued so for the few days when Julie was in the hospital after Kalon was born), so Julie had been pertty uncomfortable.

We waited quietly for an hour or so while the O.R. staff arrived, and then Julie walked in to the operating room just before 3 AM, to be prepped for surgery. Tim waited just outside, in surgical scrubs, digital camera around the neck, video camera slung over one shoulder, and a spare videotape positioned in the elastic band of his underwear (no place else to put it, since scrubs have no pockets!). As Tim quietly sat there, tired but excited, it suddenly dawned on him that he and Julie were playing "genetic roulette" by having a second child. There was no guarantee that Kalon would turn out to be as wonderful as Jadon; what would we do then! Tim recognized that it was pretty late to be realizing this, and despite the fact that is was now a worry for him, he laughed at himself, too.

A little after 3:30,Tim was called in to surgery just as surgery started. Tim and Julie talked while the incisions were made, and the anestheseologist helped Tim know when the time was near for Kalon to be brought out, so Tim could start videotaping. Julie kept reminding Tim not to forget to turn on the video camera. When Tim touched her forehead, she warned him not to mess up her bangs, so she would look OK on the camera. She also remembered from Jadon's birth not to wear her eyeglasses as they made her (so she thought) look odd on the camera, and she really didn't need the glasses to undergo a C-section or to see the baby when he was brought next to her head.

After a few minutes of numb sensations of pulling and pushing around the tummy area, the baby announced his arrival with loud cries. Tim was delighted that Kalon looked and sounded so wonderful (erasing his thoughts of just 15 minutes ago). Julie was very alert and very excited. "Oh thank God!!! What does he look like? Bring him over to me!!!" She was able to hold him briefly in the operating room, and give him several welcome kisses. Julie instantly bonded with Kalon. Another beautiful baby, Thank God! A new life in the Ma/Bienz family began.

Tim accompanied Kalon to the nursery while Julie's incision was closed. As with Jadon, Tim videotaped the whole first hour of Kalon's life. Tim was not sure with Jadon whether or not this was going completely overboard, but we have watched it several times, and have thoroughly enjoyed it each time. Kalon often almost looks like Jadon's identical twin in the video, though other times he looks so different!

Julie used her cell phone from the recovery room to call her family in China about an hour after Kalon was born (5 AM California, 9 PM in China), to surprise them with the happy news. After that, Kalon joined Julie in the recovery room and ate his first meal, turning out to be a quick learner and a ferocious eater, just like his older brother.

Tim went home to tell Jadon around 7 AM. Yan Zhi Hu carried Jadon downstairs around 8 AM. Jadon was still very sleepy, and did not have too much immediate reaction to the news that his new brother had come out of mommy’s tummy already.

Tim and Jadon went to visit Julie later that morning. Jadon softly kissed “new baby”, said he wanted new baby to come home with him, and said “I love you, Kalon”. He also said goodbye to Kalon when we left.

Jadon wanted to play when we got home in afternoon, so Tim and Jadon took Jadon’s “Bob the Builder” trucks to a dirt pile of Jadon’s of choice in the backyard. Tim helped as Jadon designed a game for us to play.

Julie slept a bit during the day, and Tim caught a few winks while trying to get Jadon to take an afternoon nap by watching TV. Tim, Jadon,and Yan Zhi Hu visited Julie again around dinner time, then left Julie around 7 PM. Jadon fell asleep in the car for the night before we had driven more than 1/4 mile. Tim stayed up until 10 PM or so writing this, and preparing the birth photo/announcement for the web. All told, Julie had a 30-or-so hour day, and Tim had 40-or-so hour day.