getting burped

here's a picture of gideon getting burped, 18 days old.

last weekend

last friday gideon was circumcised. he seems to be healing well but also seems to be in pain. he kept us up for most of last night. on saturday his umbilical cord fell off. so now his belly-button looks pretty normal.

on saturday in the ufc (ultimate fighting championship), bj penn beat jens pulver. even though jens seems like a nicer guy, cooler person, more humble, better character. i couldn't help rooting for bj penn simply because he is asian. i guess part of it is that i'm tired of people thinking that asians are so wimpy & weak. two of the best fighters in mma (mixed martial arts) are asian, bj penn & denis kang. denis kang is half-korean & half-french, his father being korean.

on sunday our church members returned from their mission trip to the Crow Nation (Native American Indian Reservation) in Montana. as expected, they had a great trip & great experience. i was sad that i couldn't go w/them this year.

on sunday night i went w/jin to help him buy a fish tank from a guy he found on craigslist. the guy's three-car garage was full of fish tanks, wall-to-wall. apparently he breeds fish & sells them. since i consider myself to be a considerably knowledgable fish-tank person, i kept asking the guy questions about the equipment & how to set up the tank. the guy just assumed that jin & i lived together, thinking we were some kind of alternative-lifestyle couple. & we drove there in jin's wife's little hot-red scion. so before we left i made it clear to the guy that jin & i don't live together & that's not "how we roll".

gideon's first week home

we brought gideon home last friday. he has a really busy schedule for this week...

monday: first doctor's visit

tuesday: appointment with lactation specialist

wednesday: second doctor's visit

friday: circumcision

& every day he has a photo shoot with us at home. suhee is working so hard & is doing such a great job. it's amazing how much our lives have changed in such a short time.

Birth of Gideon Wisdom Youngjin Chu

June 11, 10:40pm
7 Lbs. 9 Oz.
20.47 inches

Suhee’s due date was June 7. We entered the hospital at 3am on Monday, June 11. We were about to be sent home because Suhee’s contractions were not strong enough and she did not dilate enough. After getting an ultrasound we learned that her amniotic fluid was very low. For this reason we stayed at the hospital. During the contractions Gideon’s heartbeat slowed down significantly because there was not enough cushion provided by the amniotic fluid. Later we learned that Suhee’s water broke over 24 hours prior to entering the hospital. Later in the day Suhee developed high blood pressure and a fever. The fever was probably caused by an infection. The fever caused Gideon’s heartbeat to speed up too quickly. For all of those reasons our doctor strongly recommended that we get the baby out quickly with a C-section. In addition to this it was about 10pm and Suhee was still not dilated enough, even though she was getting augmented/induced all day with pitocin. And she was exhausted from the long labor, lack of sleep, and lack of food/drink. She did a great job under all of that hardship. During the C-section we learned that the umbilical cord was wrapped around Gideon’s neck. This would have caused him even more stress if a natural birth was attempted.

Now Suhee & the baby are doing fine. We feel so blessed & so fortunate. We want to thank everyone who supported us and prayed for us.

If you are interested in seeing more pictures you can go to: gideonchu.shutterfly.com

due date

today is the due date for our first child. but so far, no baby. now we're getting anxious. i guess we feel like we've prepared everything, so now all we can do is wait.

because suhee's mom is living w/us, i've been watching tv less & going to morning prayer more. actually the three of us have been sharing a "family worship" every night. suhee told her mom to limit it to 30 minutes, but we've been averaging one hour.

one of the highlights of my week was stocking up my coffee supply. i bought 13 pounds. the bag on the left is 5 pounds of guatemalan something. the coffee guy called it a "guat". he also explained to me that kona coffee is so expensive because the u.s. laborers cost more. he said that the coffee from oaxaca, mexico is very similar to kona. so i got two different varieties from oaxaca.

we're about to start our "family worship" now.

i hope the baby comes soon.

last weekend

on saturday i went to a birthday party for one of our church guys. at the party, three different people brought their digital slr cameras & a bunch of camera equipment. at the party there were five photography enthusiasts (4 nikon owners, & 1 canon owner). our numbers are growing. i realized that you can't be camera-shy when you come to our church events, because people are always taking pictures.

on sunday one of our church members was baptized at our service. after the baptism our small group sang a special worship song to celebrate her baptism. we convinced her husband to sing one of the verses alone. he was a total stud because even though he's not a polished singer, he sang very sincerely & moved his wife to tears.

after church we had our first softball practice, in preparation for an upcoming tournament. we're forming a team together with the korean ministry. whenever i hit the ball, it wouldn't go as far as i expected. in my mind i kept blaming the bat. back in ny we used to go to the batting cages to prepare for a softball tournament. so nerdy.

suhee's mom flew in last wednesday. she'll be staying w/us for two months to help out w/the baby coming. now that we're all prepared, i'm anxious for the baby to come out. due date is this thursday, june 7.