3 Months!

I can't believe our handsome little man is already 3 months old! The time has flown by. I am so grateful that I have been able to stay home with Briggs every single day up until now. I am so sad that January 4th I will not be spending every single day with him. I will begin student teaching so that I can finally graduate in May! I am so glad to finally be starting my final semester of college but I am so sad that I will be missing so much of Brigham growing up since I won't be home very much. Luckily we have awesome family members who will be taking turns watching him while Mark and I are in school each day. My mom will be coming over on Mondays and Mark's mom will be taking Tuesday-Friday. Mark arranged his school schedule so that he doesn't have class until 12 each day and I should be home some time between 3 and 4 most days. Hopefully the time from January 4th-May 7th flies by and student teaching turns out to be a breeze for me.

Briggs' Stats:
Length: 25.5 inches
Weight: 14 pounds

Schedule:
7:30am: drinks 5 ounces
8:30-10:30am: nap
10:30am: drinks 4 ounces
11:30-1:30pm: nap
1:30pm: drinks 4 ounces
2:30-4:30pm: nap
4:30pm: drinks 4 ounces
6pm: bath time with Dad
7pm: drinks 4 ounces
10pm: dreamfeed

Brigham is a very alert thumb sucker that loves bath time and his jumparoo. He is still a very easy baby. He only gets fussy when he is tired or hungry. He began laughing on December 20th-ish but he doesn't laugh very much. He laughs the most in the mornings if you pinch his thighs. He has woken Mark up 2 times the past week because he was laughing and squealing so loudly. He smiles if you smile at him or talk to him. He loves to have conversations with people, especially men. He gets so excited. Starting December 16th, I decided I would quit getting up for him when he would cry around 5am. He didn't wake up at all the first 2 nights. The next few nights he fussed a few times but went back to sleep. It is so nice not having to get up in the middle of the night and getting uninterrupted sleep.


Brigg's first Christmas was rather uneventful. Mark and I didn't get him anything but everyone else sure did! He racked up in the toy and book departments! I didn't get any pictures from his first Christmas except this one:


I got Mark a keyboard for Christmas and some fudge from the best fudge shop in Illinois. He got me some diamond earrings and a gift certificate for the ultimate manicure and pedicure from my favorite nail salon!!!

Simply Irresistable

An Interesting Night

Mark went to change Briggs' diaper and found nothing short of a mess. I didn't get a picture of Briggs but here is a picture of his undershirt

And that resulted in this


Yes, the poop was almost to his armpits. Gross.

Our Happy Life

Let me tell you about this little guy.
-He loves his Jumparoo (for about 20 minutes then he's ready to go to sleep)
-He loves bath time especially with his dad. He splashes half the water out of his tub.
-He is asleep by 6:45 almost every night.
-He gets up between 7:30 and 8am (rarely on his own. I usually have to wake him up)
-He is a thumb sucker. This is heartbreaking and so cute at the same time.
-He doesn't know this yet but starting Thursday night, he will begin sleeping through the night within 14 days.
-He only wore 3 month size sleepers for a week before he outgrew them.
-Now he is in 6 month size.
-He'll be 3 months old Monday.
-We love him to death.

This is how we spent our Saturday




It doesn't get any better!!

HaPPy ThAnkSgiVinG!

This was a Thanksgiving that we will never forget!
Our day started with Mark going to play in the ward Turkey Bowl and I was at home taking care of Briggs, cooking, cleaning, and then getting Briggs and myself ready for the day. We went to my Aunt Dawn's house and celebrated Thanksgiving with my dad's family. It was the first time for most them to meet Briggs so it was a tiring event for him. He fell asleep during lunch and didn't wake up until I had to put him in his car seat for us to come home where he went back to sleep.
Once returning home, we had to quickly straighten up the house and begin cooking for the Thanksgiving dinner we were hosting for Mark's family and part of mine. We got home at 3:45 and people were supposed to be arriving between 4:30 and 5 and dinner was scheduled to be at 6.
At almost 5 no one had arrived yet and Mark was vacuuming when he realized he needed to hurry and get the turkey going. It takes almost an hour to fry. He ran to the refrigerator to get the turkey out and prepped to discover that our turkey was still FROZEN! I couldn't believe it. It had been sitting in the refrigerator for 4 days! I immediately thought it was hilarious that we weren't going to be having turkey for Thanksgiving this year but at least Mark's mom was bringing ham so at least there would be some meat at our dinner. Mark's reaction to the frozen turkey was slightly different. He tried defrosting it in the bathtub and then he went to Wal-Mart and Bi-Lo trying to find a fresh turkey but with no luck. The frozen turkey ruined his mood and his night, at least the first half of the evening anyways.
He ended up baking some BBQ chicken to go with our ham and all the delicious sides we had. It was a good night and the food was great! I ate only the sides because that is my favorite part of Thanksgiving! Who needs turkey? NOT ME!
Brigham ended up going to sleep for the night at 8. I thought that since he was going to sleep earlier than normal and had slept more than normal during the day that he would be up all night but no. He slept all night and it was great! (when I say all night, he got up some time between 4 and 7 as he has done every night the past 3 weeks)

In the spirit of Thanksgiving I am so thankful for Briggs being the sweet wonderful surprise that he was. We love him so much and can't wait to give him some brothers and maybe a sister in a few years. I am thankful that Mark has been given the opportunity to go back to school. I am also so thankful for our financial security. We aren't sure how but we have more money in our bank account now than we had when we were both working regularly! We have truly been blessed so much this year.

What I Came Home to the Other Day

I love them!!

2 Month Well Check and Vaccines

Briggs is a healthy, happy boy. He is eating 4oz every 3 hours and sleeping 6 hours at night. We have a daily routine which has been great in getting him to sleeping longer at night. Hopefully we'll reach the 8, 10, and 12 hour sleeping in the not too distant future.

His Routine:
Wake-up and eat: between 7-7:30am
Naptime: goes down between 8-9am
Wake-up and eat: between 10-10:20am
Naptime: goes down between 12-12:15pm
Wake-up and eat: 1:15pm
Naptime: goes down between 2:45-3pm
Wake-up and eat: 4:15pm
Naptime: 6:15pm
Wake-up and eat: 7:15pm
Bath Time: between 8:30-9pm
Bedtime: 9:15pm
Dreamfeed: between 10-10:45pm (this is a full feeding that I give him but he doesn't really wake up for it)
Middle of the night feeding: Between 4:25-4:30am

Brigham is now sleeping in his crib with no problems at all! The secret to getting him to sleep was to let him sleep on his belly. Otherwise, he is up and crying within 10 minutes of being laid down and crying it out didn't work. I let him go 30 minutes and just couldn't take it any longer. Now we have a well rested, peaceful, happy baby.

Today's Doctor's Visit
Height: 24.5inches
Weight: 12lbs 6ozs
Head Circumference: 41.5cm

He also received his first set of vaccines. We are doing a selective delayed vaccine schedule so instead of receiving 4 sets of vaccines he only received 2 (the DTap and rotavirus). On this schedule he will receive shots each month instead of every few months. We don't want to get the Hepatitis b vaccine or the chicken pox vaccine at all and we want to wait until 2011 when the MMR vaccine will be available in separate vaccines and not just the one vaccine as it is done now.

As for today's vaccines, Briggs did ok. The first was an oral vaccine so he was smiling and cooing the whole time for that one. The 2nd vaccine was a shot that he received in his thigh. The smiling and cooing stopped and he just screamed. It was pitiful but luckily he stopped when I picked him up and no tears were shed during the incident.

This is what he is doing at this exact moment:

Brigham's 2 Month Birthday

Brigham officially reached the 2 month mark on Saturday. He really wanted to go to the Southern Christmas Show so we obliged and took him there to see the sights and enjoy the Christmasy scents all around. It was great as always. I of course wanted to buy lots and lots of things and Mark did not. We ended up leaving with 2 Christmas ornaments (a Wolfpack ornament and a glittery football snowman Panthers one), a weekend subscription to the Charlotte Observer, and bellies full of all the dips, soups, chips, and drink samples. Mark said he could make any of the stuff there that I wanted as long as I bought the materials and drew the pattern then he would cut them out. There is one thing that I will definitely buy the materials for and draw the patterns and have him cut and assemble. Depending on how that goes will determine if I get any of the other things I liked made.



And that is what happens when there are NO baby changing stations to be found at the Southern Christmas Show. It was nothing short of a poop explosion. It would have taken a whole box of wipes to clean that mess.

The Elusive Smile

After days and days and days of trying to catch his smile

We finally caught it!!

Either She Loves Him or She Wants to be Him

Happy Halloween!

So in celebration of Brigham's first Halloween, we took him to Carowinds and let him watch us ride roller coasters and then shopping at South Park Mall later that night.

We went to Carowinds with some friends and bought season passes for next year. We spent a couple of hours taking turns riding roller coasters and it was perfect! There were no lines at any of the rides.

We then came home for a little bit and just when the Trick or Treaters hit the streets, we left for the mall. 2 hours, 1 sweater, and a free massage for Mark later, we headed home.

We'll have to make Halloween more memorable and exciting next year.

Brigham is a Month Old!!

Brigham has learned a lot in his first month here.
1. He loves to be held
2. He has to be held to go to sleep
3. If you put him in his crib after he is asleep, he is awake within 10 minutes
4. If you put him in his crib before he is asleep, he cries until you get him
5. If you put him on his belly in his cradle after he falls asleep on you, he'll sleep for hours

hmmmm..... maybe we have done more learning than Brigham

Things we love:
When he stretches
His crazy faces he makes when he is asleep and awake
His sweet little noises when he eats
When he laughs in his sleep
His smile-it makes you melt

1 Month Check-up
Date: October 20th
Weight: 10lbs 3oz
Height: 22.5 inches
Head Circumference:39cm

Surgery Follow-up
Date: October 20th
Everything is great and there looks to be no permanent damage!! YAY!!!

Milestones:
First smile: We don't know if this was his first real smile was but last Sunday Mark squeezed Brigham's cheeks together giving him a fish face and Briggs smiled for that and has been smiling ever since.

Tummy Time:
He's not a big fan but he doesn't complain too much (for the first 10 minutes anyways)

Eating and Sleeping:
He eats 3oz every 3 hours24 hours a day

Here are pictures of his 1 month Birthday! We celebrated with Nate, Scarlett, Daniel, and Katelyn and we watched Modern Family and ate brownies!!

This is a picture of Daniel showing off his sweet dance moves before we took the real picture

So Nate was taking the picture and he said 1 2 3 SCARLETT'S PREGNANT!!! This was supposed to be a picture of everyone's reaction (or just Daniel and Katelyn- Mark and I already knew) but Nate took the picture before everyone reacted

Here are a few of my favorite pictures from Brigham's first month here

Brigham's First Photo Shoot

To see pictures from his shoot, go here

http://eif.instaproofs.com/buy_print.php?event=162942&id=45832744

I think you have to put in your email address to view the pictures.

Carla Johnson from Expressions in Focus took these pictures on October 9th. Briggs was so good. As you can see, he was naked for the whole 2 HOURS!! and he didn't poop or pee until about 20 seconds after I put his diaper on him at the end! We were all impressed and very surprised!!

Mark was standing ready with a diaper in his hand to catch anything the little man tried to evict from his nether regions but he didn't have to use his catching skills on this day!!

Now we just have to pick which pictures we want and that is not going to be a very easy task.

Surgery...How Sad

Our poor little Briggs had to have surgery when he was only 10 days old! He had 2 hernias in his abdomen that were leaking fluid into his scrotum. This is fairly common in boys and the surgery has a 98% success rate.

We had to have him at Presbyterian Hospital at 5:30am on Thursday October 1st. He wasn't supposed to eat anything after 11:30pm the night before. We cheated a little and fed him a full bottle at 12 and then 1 oz at 2am to put him to sleep. He then slept until they took him back for the surgery. I was so grateful for this blessing.

For his surgery he had to be put to sleep, get an iv in his foot and an epidural in his back. It was so pitiful. Needless to say, he was not happy the next time we saw him in recovery. He actually wasn't a very happy baby until the next day.

His 3 incisions are all healed up now and it is looking like there is no permanent damage but we will find out at his follow up appointment on October 20th.

Brigham Joseph

Sunday, September 20th seemed like every other Sunday. Church, Football, Family Dinner. We were hosting family dinner and I was making a roast in the crockpot. At precisely 6pm I felt something a little odd as I was preparing the sides for our dinner. I soon discovered that my water had broken. Our dinner guests would be arriving any moment and Mark was about to leave to bring a boy he was helping with his homework home so I kept this development to my self. I wanted to have a normal fun dinner without being the center of attention. I also didn't want everyone freaking out. I wasn't freaking out so there was no need for anyone else to and I knew Mark would be so excited that he would let the cat out of the bag so I didn't tell anyone......except Nate and Scarlett. They were the first to arrive and after they asked me how I was feeling, I told them that I thought my water may have just broken but I wasn't positive and I was going to wait until my doctor's appointment the next morning to find out (I wasn't having any contractions or anything, just a slow leak of fluid).

So the rest of the guests eventually arrive and Mark returns home. We began to gather around the kitchen table and Mark was in the kitchen cutting the roast. Daniel made a comment about me having the baby soon and I said that I was going to have him tomorrow. Well this got the attention of several people and lead to a barage of questions. Scarlett tried helping me out but then Janae (a friend of ours) asked if my water had broken. I answered honestly. The freakout begins. This was the first Mark had heard about my water breaking and he kept waiting for me to say I was joking. He hadn't been listening to any of the conversation leading up to this point. He then walked out of the kitchen and looked at my feet then my face then my feet. I felt bad that he had to find out along with everyone else. He asked me if I was for real b/c he didn't see any water on the floor.


The rest of the evening went just as I didn't want it to. People couldn't eat out of excitement and all anyone could talk about was that we needed to leave to go to the hospital. Our guests cleaned our kitchen and dining room. Janae made a list of things she was going to get for me that I would need at the hospital. Mark called the hospital and tried packing my bag for me. I re-packed my bag and hung out with the family a little longer. We left for the hospital at about 9:30.

I still wasn't having contractions and I didn't have any all night long.

At 5am Monday morning I was induced. There had been no progression since my doctor's appointment the week before. This is when things began to get interesting. I went from zero to 100 instantly. I had extremely intense contractions every 2 minutes that lasted about 45 seconds. Let me just say, this wasn't fun and it made it hard to stay on the all natural route for the labor and delivery.

By 11am I had progressed to almost a 3. Six hours of stupid contractions for a little over 1 cm!!! Disappointed doesn't quite describe how I was feeling. At this point the doctors told us that I may have to have a c-section but before that, they would max out the pitocin and give me an epidural to help my body relax and not fight against the contractions and hopefully in 2 hours there would be some progression. Those 2 hours were FABULOUS! I finally got some sleep and Mark and I were able to hang out and enjoy our time together. At 1:00 I had progressed to a 5 and the doctor was satisfied with that and let us continue on the non-c-section route. At 3:15 I was an 8 and at 4:10 I began pushing.


Our sweet baby boy, Brigham "Briggs" Joseph Rufty entered the world at 4:53pm on Monday September 21st at 8lbs 7oz and 20 inches long.




This was a truly amazing experience. Mark and I both almost cried, but not quite. I couldn't believe I had just given birth and I also couldn't believe how heavy he felt on my belly.

My mom and Scarlett were in the waiting room and I later found out that Mark was texting Scarlett between pushes to keep them updated. I had no idea this was going on but I found it quite amusing. This reminds me how great epidurals are, I was laughing and joking between pushes. I couldn't imagine enjoying delivery so much if I hadn't been forced to get an epidural. I'm sure it would have been a pretty miserable experience.

Our room was quickly filled with excited friends and family. I couldn't believe all those people wanted to see our baby! I was worn out so I was glad all these people came so I could just sit there and observe and they could keep Mark company.


We came home on Wednesday September 23rd. Life has been good ever since.

Briggs is such a sweet boy. He doesn't cry and is just such an easy baby. He eats every 3 hours and we only have to get up once at night with him. He holds his pacifier in his mouth and he has one of his hands on his face most of the time when he is sleeping. He is so cute when he stretches his body. It's one of my favorite things. We can just watch him sleep all day long. it never gets old. He has spent a lot of time sleeping on us and various visitors we have (we have visitors every single day) so i am making a conscious effort to put him in his crib during the day and he isn't sleeping as well or as long but hopefully he'll adjust to sleeping in a bed. I LOVE being a mom. It's so fulfilling. I can't wait to have more kids in the future.


Mark and I are completely in love with this little man. We fight over who gets to push his stroller or hold him or feed him. Mark thought he would hate this "boring" part of having a baby but he absolutely loves it. He doesn't want Briggs to grow up so he can hold him forever.

***I had to steal these pictures from other people's facebook pages because I don't know where our camera is right now***

Couponing

My love for couponing was renewed last night. I scored $75 in groceries for a mere $6!! How great is that? My biggest score of the night was a free pack of diapers! I am going to get serious about couponing again. Tonight was too much fun. I'm glad Scarlett, Janae, and I were able to go together.

What's in a Name??

Apparently a lot!! We have been calling this little man Grady ever since we found out it was boy. Well, over the past couple weeks we have made a big change. We have changed the name completely. We are going to be naming him Brigham Joseph. We made this change for a variety of reasons. We feel a loyalty to the name Grady but Brigham Joseph is what he will be named. There is one stipulation that goes along with this name: The only nickname allowed is Briggs. So he can be called Briggs or Brigham but that is it. People keep trying to come up with all kinds of names to call him that aren't his name and we want him to be called one of these 2 that I have mentioned. We aren't sure why people try to come up with names that aren't even what you named your child but we are hoping to put a stop to that from the beginning. Hopefully this change will be received well. We are so excited and can't wait to meet the little man!!! He will definitely be here within the next 3 weeks but hopefully before then!

The Nursery and Progress

Here is a picture of the nursery:

The crib is full of stuff that I need to put in the closet but I have to wait to get 2 shelves put into the closet and some baskets to put some of the stuff in on the shelves but this pretty much shows the nursery. I also have to find something to put on the wall. I can't decide what I want on the walls.

Today's doctor's appointment wasn't completely depressing. We have progress!!! woooo hoooooo!!!

NC Mountains

The NC mountains are so pretty! I've gained a new appreciation for them over the past couple weeks for our mountains. Last Friday night Mark and I went hiking in South Mountain because I have been wanting to go see waterfalls since July and we finally went. We chose South Mountain because it is close and we didn't even get to leave Charlotte until after 4:30. We brought the dogs with us and they seemed to enjoy hiking. It's a rather easy hike until you reach the 5 thousand steps that take you up to the waterfall. Now those were killer but it was totally worth it. We stayed up there for probably 20 minutes and then headed back down. We reached our car just as it was getting dark so it was perfectly timed. We loaded the car with the dogs and ourselves and headed home. We stopped in Gastonia and got pizza at Portofino's (we had never eaten here but I have heard great things about it so we tried it out and we were impressed. It's closer than our favorite pizza restaurant so we will definitely be going back.






Yesterday we visited another NC mountain. I'm not sure what the name of the area we were in is but it's in Brevard and it is beautiful. There are waterfalls you can see from the road. It is amazing. We made our way to a place called Sliding Rock. I never heard of Sliding Rock until last summer and I have wanted to go ever since. Mark and I were going to go earlier this summer but we discovered it was 2 1/2 hours away and we changed our mind about going. So anyways, yesterday we rode up there with Nate and Scarlett and met up with some friends of ours. We brought Reagan along with us and she seemed to enjoy herself and she kept me company while we watched everyone else play on sliding rock. I would have definitely gone on the rock but 1. I didn't even know we were going there so I didn't bring a bathing suit and 2. Mark didn't want me going on it because the water is so cold. So I was the videographer for the afternoon. I made them promise we would go back next year. Now, for those that are unfamiliar with what Sliding Rock is the video's I will post are self explanatory but it is basically a big rock waterslide that dumps you into a pool of water. The kicker is that the water is between 48 and 58 degrees year round! Here is avideos of Nate, Scarlett, and Mark. I can't wait to experience this for myself next year!!!





Here is Mark just before hitting the water


After we left Sliding Rock, we went to a picnic area and ate a delicious dinner courtesy mostly of Jason and Janae. We then headed over to the NC Mountain State Fair we passed on our way up to Sliding Rock and spent a couple of hours there. It was fun but it was no where near as good as the state fair in Raleigh. Mainly because they didn't have fried cheesecake. We left the fair at 11pm and headed home. We were all exhausted from a fun day in the mountains.