So as I look back at our website, I realized that we hadn’t said much about Clifford, only that he was born and where to find pictures. Given that it’s Saturday and I’m not at work, I figured it’s as good a time as any to write a real update. 

I went into labor on October 27, 2008, about 4 hours after a doctor visit. We were walking around Target trying to get things going when I started having real contractions, and once they were five minutes apart, we went to Panera so I could eat. (I knew they didn’t let you eat once you’re at the hospital in labor.) After that, around 6pm, we headed to the hospital. We were one of two couples in the labor end of the OB floor and the other couple delivered shortly after our arrival, so it was pretty darn quiet. The nice part was the nurses were feeling relaxed and chatty which made our stay much more comfortable. I walked the halls for awhile and was doing ok, but around 1am on the 28^th, things got more intense and I made the decision to go for the epidural. After that, I was able to snooze while Eric laid wide awake in anxiety and anticipation. Poor guy. I tried pushing around 5am but our still unknown baby did NOT want to come out yet. After about an hour and a half they had me rest and gave me some pitocin to make the contractions stronger. Around 11:30am, they had me start pushing again, and right about when they called the Ob doc to evaluate me for c-section, the baby decided to move. At 12:53pm, we were officially parents.

After a few seconds of bawling and basking in the moment, Eric and I both shouted, “What is it!?” The doctor said, “Well, dad, you look!” Eric looked at me and said, “It’s a boy!” The next question from nurses was, of course, “What’s his name?” We again looked at one another and I said, “Well, do you think it’s ok?” You see, we had agreed on the name Clifford Rhodes, but only if he didn’t come out with bright red hair, which would guarantee his mocking for his whole life. Eric took another look and said, “Yeah, I think it’s ok.” We smiled and announced that this boy was Clifford Rhodes Lofgren.

We went home from the hospital at 24 hours, mostly because we were terribly impatient, and the doctor trusted me to know if there was trouble. Clifford was a great eater immediately which was really a blessing. And thus we began the constant exhaustion…

Overall, Clifford seems to be an even-tempered kid who spends a lot of his time happy. From about day 3, he would spend at least a few minutes a day just sitting and staring at the world around him. We tried to arrange these times to be during meals, so that both Eric and I could eat easily. Clifford basically set himself up on a 3 hour schedule right from the start, without our doing anything. He would eat, be happy for about 20-45 minutes, cry for maybe 10-20 minutes, and then sleep until it was time to eat again, exactly 3 hours from the last feeding.

We had a few nights here and there when he slept for 5-6 hours on his own, but in general at night he wakes every 3 hours to eat. He will, thankfully, go right back to sleep though. He’s a pretty sound sleeper once a nap has begun. He doesn’t wake for talking or crashes or even dad playing trumpet.

When he was about 3 ½ weeks old, we headed to Illinois for Thanksgiving and to meet all the family members. He ate in his first restaurant, a Monical’s pizza in Kankakee, and did great. He was fascinated by the colors and lights. We stopped in Peoria for a few days and visited with Grandma and Grandpa Lofgren, and met Uncle Marc for the first time. That weekend we headed to Springfield to our old church, Woodside UMC, where Clifford was baptized among family and friends by Pastor Jim and both my parents. It was a great day and we were so grateful to all those who travelled to be with us. After the baptism we headed down to Centralia for a few days where he met almost all the rest of his aunts and uncles and cousins. Of course, there are pictures in the gallery.  For our final stop before heading home, we went to Alton where Clifford met the Amschler great-grandparents and we were able to take a four generation picture! Very neat!

As soon as we got back, I had to start working again. The first day was definitely rough and there were plenty of tears, but pretty soon we got settled into a routine and things have gone well. Eric is staying at home with Clifford while I work, and taking Clifford to work with him on Wednesdays. The ladies in the office graciously watch him while Eric is in meetings, and for now it’s working out great.

We stayed home for Christmas but had plenty of visitors as the Lofgren side of the family came for Christmas and a few of the Gordons came for New Years. Clifford slept through all the exciting parts of the holidays, but I think he had a lot of fun interacting with all his grandparents.

A week after the holidays we had a fun adventure day to Chicago to drop Uncle Marc off to go to bootcamp. Unfortunately Clifford received his first set of shots that same day, so we had to make a stop at Walgreen’s in Oak Park to get some Tylenol.  He survived the whole thing quite well. He’s really a super traveler, at least thus far. He sleeps in the car and since he eats so predictably, it’s easy to plan out stops around those times and avoid long screaming fits. We have yet to try plane travel, but may have the opportunity soon.

Since then, he has obviously grown quite rapidly and is doing lots of new things every day. Around the third week of January, he caught his first cold/bronchiolitis, most likely from me. We had a few rough days where he wasn’t eating much and we were suctioning out his airways like crazy, but I was grateful to avoid a hospital visit for him! He passed the illness on to the rest of the household and we are finally just now recovering.

While Clifford was sick, we had a scary week with my mom, Linda. She had her second rotator cuff repair surgery on her left shoulder, and about a week later was having some shortness of breath. She ended up being diagnosed with multiple pulmonary emboli (blood clots in the lungs) and after she was hospitalized they found that they were coming from a large blood clot in her leg. She is now on blood thinners and back home doing well, but we were pretty nervous that first night!

Clifford is now 3 months old and lots of fun. He is smiley most of the time he is awake and loves to interact and play with toys. He will reach out for just about anything you put in front of him, and once he has a hold of it will place it directly into his mouth. J He is just starting to have a little laugh now and then which is just delightful. We are keeping in touch with all the grandparents via Skype—it’s really a blessing for long-distance family! If anyone else uses Skype and wants to chat, let us know what your screen name is and we’ll give it a shot!

Eric and I are adjusting fairly well to parenthood. We’re both pretty constantly tired, but we’re picking up new skills daily and overall we’re just plain smitten. We’re blessed with the cutest baby in the whole world! There are loads of new pictures in the gallery under Clifford--check them out!  As always, please keep in touch!  We miss you all so much and love you dearly.  Praying for you,

Charlotte

Some non-baby related stuff. We had an interesting weekend last weekend. The Grand Rapids area got about two and a half inches of rain, which also melted most of the snow. The result regionally was flooding, and the Rogue River here in Rockford was crazy (Marc happened by and helped the guy raising the flood gates). But that's not where our troubles started. You see, our roof has no gutters, but does have two roof lines, and where they converge, enormous icicles form. As it happens, this is directly above our gas meter. Well, we woke up Saturday morning (in our second-story bedroom on the opposite side of the house) to the smell of gas and a loud hissing noise. You guessed it - the icicles had fallen, breaking open our gas line. We hustled over to church to wait for the gas company to respond. After the leak was fixed, we left the house open for around six hours waiting for the smell to clear out. Fortunately this day was unseasonably warm--in the fifties--and extraordinarily humid.

So, smell gone, house closed up, go to bed. Overnight, the temperature dropped back below freezing. When we woke up, we found every surface in our home coated in water. All that humid air had condensed on walls, windows... everything. About the same time, the blower on our furnace started squeaking. Loudly. We tried to ignore that, but after a few hours we also heard a gurgling sound every time the blower ran. So, we reluctantly climbed down the stairs to see what was going on. (I should explain that I try to avoid going into my Michigan basement whenever possible. I just don't want to know.) What I found was 6-8 inches of water surrounding the furnace. The blower was actually in the water, churning it when it ran. The wires powering the blower were in the water. The electronic air filter was under water. So, the power to the furnace got switched off (I could reach the switch from dry land), and space heaters were brought out. We headed to Lowes to buy a utility pump and some garden hose, and got to work emptying the basement.

Many hours later, with a garden hose snaking out our front door, we were able to turn the furnace on. The pump had to keep running, as water was still coming in (not through a leak in a wall or pipe, but up through the floor); only now (a week later) is the basement actually starting to dry. On the positive side, the furnace has, for a week, also acted as a giant humidifier.

In other news, one of my Christmas gifts was a handheld GPS. Here's where I've been lately:

I stole the code to do this from my brother, who is calling this a "Billy Path" after the Family Circus comics.

We're already starting to get snowed in, so I've been going a little crazy with the camera. Check out Clifford's first photo shoots in our gallery.