Four years ago, The Edge radio personality Chang Hung met his Irish love Victoria Duncan on Tinder, and two years later they were married in Las Vegas. Now, the besotted pair have welcomed their Kiwi-Irish-Chinese bub Harper Lily, and they couldn’t be prouder!
“Harper has a good demeanour and she’s so cute,” beams Victoria, 36, snuggling their first-born. “Even her cries are cute.
“She’s definitely got the Asian look to her, with lots of dark hair and those gorgeous little almond eyes. But when she put on about 200 grams yesterday, I was like, ‘Aw, she’s getting my double chins!”
For Chang – who once dubbed himself “the crazy Asian guy from The Edge” – becoming a new dad was both life-changing and terrifying.
Harper Lily Duncan-Chang
Born: May 25, 2019
Weight: 2.93kg
“Harper’s birth was very eventful!” says the smitten father, 36, who learnt they were expecting during a medical for their Green Card after winning the US permanent residency lottery last year.
For the first two trimesters, Victoria’s pregnancy was a breeze and even when the pair took a cruise through the South Pacific, while she was three months pregnant, the expectant mum never got morning sickness.
“We went to Fiji, New Caledonia and Sydney, then after that to China, Macau and Hong Kong – everywhere Chang had grown up,” says Victoria. “We were back a couple of weeks and then went to Hawaii to activate our Green Card, so Harper got her air miles in before she even arrived!”
But just a few weeks before her due date, Victoria developed cholestasis, a liver condition that causes severe itching and can lead to stillbirth.
“Cholestasis is rare and the only way they can deal with it is medication and to try to deliver the baby around 37 weeks,” tells the IT project coordinator. “So after that, I was freaking out whenever I didn’t feel her kicking.”
Victoria had to be induced and when it finally came time for the tired mum-to-be to push, Harper’s heart rate dropped.
“I’ve watched a lot of birthing videos and the worst part is when the husband is told to press the assist button,” recalls Victoria. “It was just the midwife in the room and then she told Chang to push it.”
The breakfast producer remembers three staff rushing in and attempting to pull out their unborn daughter, who was facing the wrong way. Luckily, with the help of a suction cup, their darling girl was born just after 9.30am on May 25.
“They placed Harper on Victoria’s chest, but she wasn’t crying,” reveals Chang. “It was scary because she wasn’t breathing on her own and needed an oxygen mask.
“I held her little hand and was panicking, like, ‘Please cry, please cry.’ When she did the first time, it was a huge relief.”
As part of their birthing experience, the pair kept the placenta to bury later, but they weren’t entirely sure what to do with it.
“The staff put it in a container and I left it in one of the fridges at the hospital,” laughs Chang. “Next minute, one of the nurses comes in and is like, ‘Is this yours?! You stored it in the patients’ fridge and people have their food in there!'”
Harper, who also has the Chinese name Wing Wan, which means graceful and smart, hasn’t met her big brother Tuff just yet – a playful Siberian husky who lives with Chang’s parents. But she does have her first big trip lined up for September, when travel lovers Chang and Victoria head to Europe.
“Harper will meet her Irish grandparents, and then I’m a bridesmaid for one of my best friends in Italy,” explains Victoria. “So that’ll be fun, doing a 10-hour and then a 19-hour flight! We’re hoping she’ll just feed and sleep.”
Getting their bub’s passport photo wasn’t easy either! “When she was 12 days old, we were trying to match her face to this circle on the computer,” reveals Chang.
“We had problems getting the right angles and were like, ‘Don’t move!’ But we got there eventually.”
While Victoria says they’ll need to start a budget for shoes now there are two females in the house, Chang is enjoying doting on his two girls – and taking pictures of Harper with Snapchat filters.
“I used the one with the banana hat and my mum was like, ‘Why are you putting dirty bananas on her head?'”
When Chang chokes up while talking about the joy of his precious daughter, Victoria smiles and teases, “Don’t, it sets me off, you big soppy!”
“He’s right, though,” the happy mum says, dabbing her eyes. “I look at Harper and I can’t believe she’s ours. Chang’s amazing and she’s already a daddy’s girl.”
