It's a Girl Sophie Elyse Chong

Sophie Elyse Chong
Born Feb 14, 2007
6.8 lbs
36 hours of Labor :)

Welcome to our world!!! Introducing our daughter who just made her one month birthday. She was born on her exact due date so she was on time :)

HER NAME:
Sophie is a derivative of Sophia which in the Hebrew means "WISDOM"
Elyse in Hebrew means "God is my vow"

THE LABOR:
It was a long and difficult labor that started with pre labor 3 am-10 am Feb 13th it stopped and then early stage of labor started from 5pm later that day... those were intense hours of timing Sandy's contractions and keeping her comfortable :) Thanks to our Bradley Coach Dora we worked hard and smart during this period. Sandy's contractions got really painful at midnight so we decided to check into the hospital at 12:30 AM Feb 14th and we were down to 1 minute durations with a 5 minute frequency. We thought that we were almost ready to have the baby but when they checked her dilation she was only at 3 cm & -2 station .... we were pretty discouraged by that lack of progress. In those wee early morning hours her contractions slowed to 10 minute frequency but they were very painful in addition to that they administered a precautionary antibiotic that should have taken 20 minute via IV but took 3 hours and was very painful. By 5 am we decided to take an epidural because she was simply exhausted so that Sandy could get some rest. Dr. Charlene Ushijima came in about 8 am and popped her water bag to induce labor. They administered pitosin (a drug that increases contractions) and we both slept till noon. Charlene came back and Sandy was at 9.5 cm dilation so we started pushing around 1 pm Feb 14th :) We pushed hard .... very hard for 2 hours in many different positions but baby only moved down a little bit to +1 station. We decided to give Sandy a 1 hour rest and start again around 4 pm . Lucy one of Sandy's best friends and prayer warriors showed up and she jumped in and helped with the coaching :) Sandy pushed for another hour and was pretty exhausted and beat. We got to +2 station and we made the decision to use a vacuum assist to help baby out of the birth canal. If this didn't work we would go to a c-section. Within 30 minutes of pushing and pulling Sophie was born :) We were over joyed with tears at the miracle of this little one :)

SOPHIE
Sophie was very alert and had her eyes open immediately I got to hold and comfort her for the first hour while Dr. was fixing up Mom. It was so amazing to hold her in my arms and look into her eyse and speak to her for the first time. I can remember calming her by saying "its ok Daddy's here" :) It was love at first sight. We didn't know the sex of her because we wanted it to be a surprise for the both of us :) she was beautiful and simply fit the name that we had chosen for her :) We had a hunch it was a girl because we simply could not settle on a boy's name the entire pregnancy :) ha God knew :)

SOPHIE @ HOME
Sophie came home two days later and what a ride the first week was being sleep deprived and the most difficult part is that Sandy's milk did not come in so we had to supplement with formula. In addition she had a hard time latching ... in case you didn't know this ... breast feeding is one of the most unnatural things for both mom and baby.... Thank GOD for Hawaii Mother's Milk - our lactation consultants and the "brest friend" ring to prop up baby for feeding.

No one every told me to plan for caring for two I had planned for caring for the baby but was caught a bit off guard to being a full time nurse to mom & baby for the first 2 weeks :) we would have never made it if our family, friends and small group had not brought a continual supply of food :) it was like MANA from heaven when they stopped by our door :) Thanks so much!!! We were also encouraged by the hundreds of congrats emails and many gifts from all of our friends and family :) Sandy says Sophie has a better wardrobe than her :)

Sophie is an awesome kiddo and can be very demanding @ feeding time. She is definitely an extrovert and can hang for hours with guests visiting :) She sleeps very well and at nights she sleeps 5-6 hours (this is very very good for mom and dad) but she likes to cluster feed and has fun eating and playing with mom's nips. She also is very active between feeding and sleep and makes a lot of poop :) We are doing our part in being anti-enviromental going through 8-12 diapers a day :) I have no idea how our parents did the cloth diaper thing :(

SANDY
Sandy continues to heal and continue to pray for her tendonitis in her hand and for her body to get totally healed. Most of the time her day is sleeping, pumping, feeding, eating & drinking :) we do try to get her out once a day even for a short walk to keep her sane :)

CRAIG
Craig started back to work last week and continues on with a light schedule this month of March and has moved his office to the house for now :)

OTHERS
Both Popo's are in love with this little girl and spoil her with love and affection. Our dog Hoku who normally lives with my Mom has checked Sophie out but continues to be the star of the show and hold her own in getting attention from everyone.