Arrival at the Hospital:

The morning started much different than our previous trip to the hospital with our first baby, Carter. I got a good night’s sleep, a nice bowl of oatmeal, a warm shower, had time to update playlists on my iPod, and finished packing my hospital bag. Afton put on her make-up and a cute outfit. Saturday, January 16 is the day Afton was scheduled to be induced. There would be no surprise as to when the baby would come. We were scheduled to arrive at the hospital at 7:45AM for the induction. (NOTE: We actually arrived at the hospital at 8:30AM – pregnant women only move so fast). When we arrived at the hospital we were greeted by the blue sky, birds chirping, and the warm sun; and the best of all - a close, available parking spot. We calmly walked to the elevators and went up to the third floor to check in. I told myself that we were going to do a better job of documenting this event because I wish we had more pictures and video of Carter’s birth; so I took several pictures of Afton while she was signing her admittance papers on my iPhone. This made the admittance nurse laugh and put a smile on her face.
We were then brought to our delivery room. I was reminded of how nice these new private delivery rooms are at the Santa Clara Kaiser hospital. They are equipped with a futon, several chairs, TV, DVD player, wireless Internet connections, and a lot of room to spare to accommodate visitors. It is here that Afton would give birth to our second son, Hunter. Our nurse, Gina, walked in to greet us. She was very friendly and excited to be a part of this experience. She hooked Afton up to the monitoring machines that check Hunter’s heart rate and monitor Afton’s contractions. She said right away, “Wow, things are looking very good. You already have contractions. I can see them on the monitor.” She recommended that we start with Pitocin since Afton was already dilated 2 centimeters. Then she started to ask a thousand questions, such as: Do you smoke? Are you sensitive to Latex? Do you have a prosthetic appendage? Is there anything in your mouth that could fall out? (a.k.a. tongue jewels, etc) If your wife was hiding secrets, all would be revealed during one of these conversations.
Soon she left the room to hunt down the doctor, so I figured it would be a good opportunity to take more video and pictures and start this blog/account of Hunter’s arrival. Soon Karen (Afton’s Mom) arrived at the hospital. Erika and Carlos (our Nanny/Daycare staff) were kind enough to watch Carter for the day so that she could join us at the hospital.

The False Alarm:

The nurses started Afton on Pitocin to get things moving. For those that don’t know, Pitocin is a hormone that the body naturally releases to start labor. In hospitals it’s used to start or speed up deliveries. In Afton’s case they gradually increased the dosage every half hour to get the contractions coming more frequently and with increased intensity. This process definitely required patience. I told our new nurse, Karen, who had worked here for years and years, “You must have all kinds of stories working in labor and delivery for so long.” So to pass the time she told us a number of crazy birth stories, including stories of women projectile vomiting onto their husbands during pushing, gender surprises (preparing for a boy to arrive but out came a girl), etc. Around noon Afton’s contractions increased in frequency and strength. We thought the baby was coming pretty soon. Then all of a sudden Afton had a very strong contraction that lasted over 4 minutes and Hunter’s heart rate dropped below the safe threshold. Within seconds our room was full with staff (3-4 nurses, a doctor, technicians, etc). The doctor broke Afton’s water and when the heart rate still didn’t rebound I heard the doctor call for a ‘Code C’. Without telling us anything they started wheeling Afton out of Labor and Delivery and into the OR. Karen came up to me and asked, “What’s going on?” I said, “I think they’re doing an emergency C-section.” All our hearts skipped a beat and then I chased after the medical staff to the OR. We didn’t have much time to think. They dressed me up in scrubs and I ran over to the room.
Later Afton told me that when she got into the room she asked, “What’s happening?” The Anesthesiologist then introduced himself and said that he was going to start her on oxygen, get her off the Pitocin, and begin a general anesthesia. Then the doctor introduced herself to Afton and said, “Don’t worry - I can get a baby out in less than a minute. My record is 32 seconds.” All of this left Afton stunned.
By the time I got there they said the baby’s heart rate had come up again and that they were holding off on the C-section to see if the heart rate would stabilize. They gave Afton some medication to stop the contractions and monitored the situation. Luckily everything continued to look fine and they eventually wheeled Afton back to our personal delivery room.

The Delivery:

After all of the “False Alarm” drama everyone decided that it was best to take the slow and steady approach. The doctors and staff stopped all Pitocin and decided to just let nature take its course. After another 6 hours of waiting it seemed like Afton was regressing. Contractions had pretty much stopped so the doctor recommended to start her on the Pitocin again. Doses started out very small (1 or 2) and the baby was scrupulously monitored. Everything continued to look fine so the doctors decided to gradually increase the dosage.
By this time Afton was ravenously hungry. They wouldn’t let her eat any food all day except for flavored ice chips. Being hungry myself, I ran across the street to grab dinner from a Hawaiian BBQ that was open and I brought it back to the room for me to eat. Once I opened the container the sweet aroma of grilled chicken culets and gravy permeated the room, which was complete torture for Afton. She ordered me to leave the room at once with the food. Since she’s the one having our baby, and knowing what she’s gone through for the last nine months, I complied. I ended up eating the chicken in the bathroom. Even though the food was delicious, it’s just not the same when you’re staring at a bio hazard waste can.
By 5:30 PM Afton’s contractions were strong enough for her to request an epidural. After she got the drug she was as content and talkative as she was the day before. We even watched some of the NFL playoffs and enjoyed ourselves. (Go Colts!) At 9PM contractions spiked in intensity and she began to feel pressure. I asked her what her focal point was. She said, “Having gone 14 hours without food it’s definitely a Big Bacon Classic Burger and a large Frosty.” About 10:00 PM the nurse setup the room for delivery and brought in the doctor for the pushing stage. Within 10 minutes of pushing baby Hunter arrived. The official time was 10:14 PM. He greeted the world with a loaded water gun and a good aim. As the doctor lifted him out of the womb Hunter peed all over the nurses and the doctor. When it looked like he was done they handed him over to Afton when he suddenly started shooting again. This time he got Afton and I, as well as the other nurse. Once the laughter subsided the doctor gave me the umbilical cord to cut. With 3 small little cuts it was official - Hunter had just become the newest member of our family. He measured in at 7 lb 9 oz and was 19.5 inches long. We celebrated that night with Bacon Burgers and Frosties from Wendy’s, bringing Afton’s focal point into a full circle reality.

AFTON SAYS:
We had the all American experience this afternoon. Carter was home from daycare since it's Veteran's day and of course Clayton was home, too. About 3pm the 3 of us went to the super center walmart in gilroy to get groceries for us, groceries for the Thanksgiving Ward Party on Sat, and as many turkeys as they would let us buy. Carter was embarassing Clayton but cracking me up the entire time. Apparently he decided aluminum foil was NOT allowed in our cart and kept throwing it out every chance he got. Clayton had to keep intercepting. He did approve of the plastic forks and knives - those he willingly placed in the cart and didn't try to remove. Go figure.

Then, perhaps because of all of the juice he drank in the car on the way down, not to mention the McDonalds we had while there getting our oil changed (I said it was a true American experience, no?) Carter completely peed through his diaper and pants. It was absolutely soaking wet when we were trying to check out. And of course, Carter could not be detained, the carts were full and we didn't want him throwing things out, Clayton was trying to pay with the AMEX (gotta earn those points), and the women's bathroom was closed for cleaning. So that meant that our soaking-wet son ran wild for a good 10-15 minutes while the cashier figured out how for how much one of the 22 pound turkeys should be rung up. Carter kept running into this front office where a man who looked like an executive was trying to work. Oddly, the "executive" didn't seem bothered, and his admin kept saying how cute Carter was. I guess we got lucky there. And then our son proceeded to climb onto one of the chairs in the waiting area for the executive and squish and slide around his butt on the seat. Yes - that's right. The soaky wet wtih urine butt on this waiting chair. I told Clayton "well - at least we're just at Walmart. It's not like this is some fancy pants office." Then they finally opened up the women's restroom as Clayton was wrapping up with the purchase. So Clayton ran to the back where the kids clothes are, bought prince a new pair of pants, and I changed our boy. It involved a complete stripping down and french bath with baby wipes. He was much happier after wards. But then again, he was awfully happy before the diaper change, running around the store and throwing things at every turn. We think it's the Poppa in him (the "Michael" part of "Carter Michael") - our boy sure loves Wally world.

I remember putting 6 boxes of cornbread stuffing mix into our cart, but only had 5 we could find when we got home. So far this is the only observed casualty of the shopping experience. We expect it's somewhere near aisle 18.


CLAYTON SAYS:
I need to add a couple of additional juicy details (pun intended) that Afton left out – probably because she was in search for a snuggie blanket somewhere within the 5 acre store when it happened.

As I was holding the squirmy Carter with one arm in the checkout line (because he refused to sit one moment longer in the shopping cart) I became distracted by the headlines of the Teen, People, and other useless magazines until I felt a couple of drops on the top of my exposed feet. (I was wearing sandals). I looked down to discover an entire puddle of urine was forming at my feet. It took me a several seconds to connect the dots and realize that they were coming from my son’s pants. I was wearing a sweater, which absorbed a lot of the moisture but a large port of it was leaking right through his pants or down is leg to the floor. And of course, the line was extremely long behind me. I couldn’t do much since I had an uncontrollable son in one hand and a shopping cart overflowing with turkeys in the other. I wasn’t getting out of line because it took me 15 mins to get where I was and I only had one person left in front of me. Luckily the women directly in back of me was distracted on her cell phone and didn’t notice the dripping. So I was able to just wipe the puddle around with my sandal, dissipating the mess to make it less noticeable. I think it worked. No one said anything. What else was I suppose to do???

Ok, those were my additions... and no, I’m not venting.

All,



Everything is going well at the NorCal branch of the Bolz tribe. We thoroughly enjoyed our trip to Utah last week, even though I was completely exhausted by the end of it. I learned a couple things on that trip.



1) I do have allergies. I think it was the first time I sneezed 10 times in row and had an unrestrainable eye itch.

2) Carter has even more energy than I thought

3) Warn the man in front of me on the plane that he might get hit by a fly book.

4) Grandpa Bodily milked the cows, did the chores, then walked a mile to school, came back from school, milked the cows again, did chores, ate, did the dishes with his brother every day when growing up.

5) I already knew this but it’s worth mentioning again because I asked him about it: Grandpa dug this basement himself with a shovel and a bucket. It took him three years.

6) Don’t order BYU tickets on StubHub. It’s much cheaper getting them from scalpers. Also, don’t get tickets in section 128 during a hot day. You’ll be looking into the sun.

7) Warn the person in front of you in Sacrament meeting that she might get hit by a flying plastic spoon.



There are other tid-bits but I’ll save them for later. One other thing to note was that Grandpa Bolz saw Carter for the first time, which was fun. I wish we had more time out there but I guess that’s the way things go when you’ve got so many people to visit (3 different parent (parent-in-laws) homes, as well as 6+ siblings (siblings in-law)) in a 3-4 day period.

Other than our trip to Utah, September was full of other events. We had Mike, Afton’s father, stay with us for a week and we have Karen, Afton’s mother, staying with us this week. I joined a B-ball team at work and we play during lunches on eBay campus. I’m also started a small foray into golf. I bought some clubs and went to the driving range a couple times this month.

The show Afton Choreographed, The Producers, opened this week. She has been getting a lot of Kudos from local threatre critics and did a good job with it. She also had a lot of fun doing it. She’s definitely showing now with the pregnancy. The baby is now the size of a rutabaga.

Carter started swimming lessons and is getting use to the water. He’s progressing very well. He just had an appointment this week and is still in the 95% in weight and height. He has to use the side of the pool now to practice his kicks because he was sinking the floating device that all the other kids use.

All,
The big news from our side is the gender of #2. At this point I think all of you already know, but for thoroughness I’ll announce it once again – It’s a boy! We’re really excited about the thought of Carter having a little playmate to match his energy.
Besides that Afton is wrapping up choreographing ‘The Producers’ for the South Bay Theatre company. Carter and Dad (me) are going to be very happy when she’s done so that we can see ‘Momma’ more. I’ve been working and keep making improvements to ‘Stratplace’ during the night hours. We’ve also been doing a bit of hosting this month. I think we’ve hosted a BB-que every weekend for the last 3-4 weeks now, with either folks from the South Bay Theatre group or folks from our Ward. We wish everyone was closer so that we could share all the leftovers that are in our fridge right now.
On another note, our garden is exploding with Squash, Cucumbers, Peppers, and Tomatoes. So overall our gardening experience has been a success this year. The only part that we haven’t done very well at is consuming all this produce. (Mom, I wish you were here to cook some ‘Stuff Peppers’ that I remember you doing back in the day.)
Also, I decided to upload some fun video of Carter. He’s been growing very fast. He’s no longer a baby, but a little boy constantly running around and scraping up his knees.

Check them out here:
http://s722.photobucket.com/albums/ww22 ... 89a34e.flv
http://s722.photobucket.com/albums/ww22 ... 7e65da.flv
http://s722.photobucket.com/albums/ww22 ... 7e65da.flv
http://s722.photobucket.com/albums/ww22 ... 46fe1a.flv
http://s722.photobucket.com/albums/ww22 ... 9788c4.flv
http://s722.photobucket.com/albums/ww22 ... 78c53f.flv
http://s722.photobucket.com/albums/ww22 ... 7e65da.flv

Later!
Clayton, Afton, Carter, and Peanut (–current codename)