GENE PARK / GPARK@STARBULLETIN.COM Gardenia Brede held up her smiling baby girl, which had yet to be named yesterday afternoon, in her hospital bed at Kapiolani Medical Center. The baby was born at 1:01 a.m. on New Year's Day.

Maili woman among the first to have a child in 2008

It's not so much that her granddaughter is a New Year's baby : Gardenia Kealoha is just proud to be a grandmother.

Of Kealoha's five children, Gardenia Brede is the first to have a child, and the new grandmother was just happy to pass on her bloodline.

"Just to be here with my daughter and help her," Kealoha said through tears. "It felt like I was passing a legacy that my mom passed on to me."

Brede's daughter, who came in at 7 pounds, 5 1/2 ounces, is among the first babies to be born in 2008 in Hawaii. The child, who had yet to be named yesterday afternoon, was born at 1:01 a.m.

A baby at the Hilo Medical Center on the Big Island was born at 12:54 a.m. Sources said a child at the Tripler Army Medical Center was born at 12:41 a.m., but Tripler officials did not respond yesterday to calls for comment.

Being the first wasn't important to Maili resident Brede, who went in to the Kapiolani Center for Women and Children for just an observation.

"I just checked with my doctor to get my blood pressure checked," Brede said. "I didn't know I was going to give birth."

Brede, 25, said she had been due Sunday. She was admitted to the hospital on Monday evening.

"It was kinda quiet, nothing happening," Kealoha said. "Then at 12:30 in the morning I started to hear her moaning. ... She was saying, 'I'm in pain!'" It wasn't much longer that the baby was making her entrance into the world.

"I said, 'You gotta push,' and she said, 'I cannot push, I tired,'" Kealoha said, laughing.

The child's father, Kalani Inoue of Waikiki, was resting at home after the overnight birth, but the excitement kept Brede and her mother up through the night, past morning and through the Sugar Bowl game, which relatives watched at the hospital.

Brede said she hopes to soon choose a name for her newborn daughter.

"I'm just really proud. It's amazing," Brede said, cradling her baby while her family watched.