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***