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.

the perfect church guitar

i'm posting this blog to brag about the guitar that we bought for our church. actually i wanted to tell my friend paul about it. we recently got the "godin a6 ultra semi-acoustic". we got it for just under $700. if we were going to spend more we would have gotten the godin acousticaster. & if we were going to spend even more we would have gotten the gibson chet atkins sst.

the reason this is "the perfect church guitar" is because the price is reasonable. & unlike an acoustic guitar, this guitar is not fragile & does not require much maintenance. it is an electric guitar that has an acoustic pickup system. & it really does sound like an acoustic guitar. it reminds me of the takamine sound & the taylor sound (mix between acoustic & electric). & it looks awesome & it is really light.

mt. diablo

on memorial day a few of us from church went to mount diablo. mount diablo means "mountain of the devil". anyways it was beautiful. we were all surprised at how nice it was up there. even my 9-months-pregnant wife did some hiking.

good eats

Our friends (Abe & Judy) visited San Francisco & treated us to dinner. They wanted to eat Dungeness Crab, so we ordered the “Crab Feast” which feeds four people (at Bobo’s in SF). It was truly impressive.

Hotaru (San Mateo) is one of the few Japanese restaurants that is actually owned & operated by Japanese people. They have awesome curry, but here is a picture of some of their salmon (sake).

thank you for the baby shower!

I just wanted to say thank you to everyone who threw the baby shower for Suhee yesterday. Especially to Mary who hosted & Michelle who prepared everything so well. All the gifts we received were really nice & really generous; & they will all be put to good use.

I also wanted to say thanks to all the guys who took me out for dinner yesterday. I had a good time & my steak was awesome. I'm hoping we can play Risk again, maybe this Saturday after the UFC? Go Chuck!