By Ken Ige, Star-Bulletin
Happy parents Myrna and Kamuela Kupihea beam
over their daughter, Puanonalani, who is Oahu's
first baby of the new year.

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‘Heavenly flower’
is new year baby

Weighing in at
8 pounds, 4.1 ounces,
Puaonalani Kupihea is
Oahu's 'first baby'

By Helen Altonn
Star-Bulletin

It wasn't any surprise to Navy Petty Officer 3rd Class Kamuela Kupihea and his wife, Myrna, that they had Oahu's first baby of 1998 at 12:04 a.m. today.

"We were hoping for the New Year's baby," the weary 25-year-old father said this morning at Tripler Army Medical Center.

Doctors initially told them the baby would be born Jan. 1, he said. "We were all pumped up for that."

However, doctors later changed the due date to Jan. 4 , he said. "We still had some faith going to keep it on the first."

Since they live quite aways from the hospital on the North Shore, he said, "We were carefully monitoring how Myrna feels."

They left for the hospital as soon as she began feeling uncomfortable yesterday, and she was in labor 13-1/2 hours, starting at 10:27 a.m., he said.

Their daughter, delivered by Capt. Robert Mathis, weighs 8 pounds, 4.1 ounces, and is 21 inches long.

Her name is Puaonalani Kuke Palenaka. Puaonalani means "Flowers from the Heaven" in Hawaiian.

Kuke is the Hawaiian name for Suzanne, the name of Kupihea's late mother. Palenaka means Brenda, Myrna's mother's name.

Kupihea is from Waialua and his wife is from Wahiawa.

The new mother, 19, was tired but feeling "really good" this morning.

She said she was looking forward to a visit from her family.