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Canoe couple welcome Shuswap’s New Year’s baby

Lindsy and Von Gulfan give birth to Elias Rhys Alexander at Shuswap Lake General Hospital
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Lachlan Labere/Salmon Arm Observer Lindsy and Von Gulfan hold their newborn son Elias Rhys Alexander Gulfan, the Shuswap’s New Year’s baby at Shuswap Lake General Hospital on Wednesday, Jan. 3.

BARB BROUWER

CONTRIBUTOR

He was due to arrive at about the same time as Santa.

But Elias Rhys Alexander Gulfan made his debut at Shuswap Lake General Hospital at 3:53 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 2, keeping mom, Lindsy, and dad, Von, waiting for more than a week.

Weighing in at 8 lbs. 4 oz., Elias was a bit of an oops, laughs Lindsy, who had been extremely nervous about being induced after a very rough go when the couple’s daughter, Noelle,was born three years ago in Calgary.

Related link: First Canadian New Year’s babies delivered at stroke of midnight

“The doctors and nurses were wonderful, very accommodating,” she says. “This actually felt like a natural birth.”

“It’s very personalized here,” says Von, adding his thanks to hospital staff and to the family’s Seventh Day Adventist Church family for their continuing support.

The couple arrived in Canoe just over a year ago, a spontaneous move made after Lindsy and Von decided they liked it here and would be happy living closer to Lindsy’s mom.

So far so good, laughs the couple whose daughter visited her new brother shortly after he was born.

Lindsey and Von know their sleep will be fractured for the next several months, with Elias already resting up during the day and wanting to eat every couple of hours.

But with fist curled up to his cheek, the same way he arrived, Elias looks content in his mom’s arms.