Letter to Vance

My handsome little warrior,

I am still in awe that you are already 10 months old.  Double digits! These last few months have been the happiest months ever! I love seeing you learn new things everyday, and I love seeing you and Ivy laugh together. She loves you so much. She can make you laugh out loud when no one else can. Mornings are the best. I wake up to you both smiling. Ivy blows raspberries on my belly and you burst out laughing. You are crawling all over the place now. You pull up on the side of the couch and walk along from one end to the other. I give you another month and you will be walking. Your 5th tooth came in this week. It barely affected you like the first 4 did. Usually you run high fevers when you're teething. Your clothes are starting to get a little snug. We are soon gonna have to go shopping for some 12 month clothes. That's hard to swallow. I cannot believe you are going to be one in just two months! Where has the time gone??? So much has happened this past year. 2016 was one of the best years of my life and I think 2017 is going to be even better! I love you Dude.

XO

Mama

Vance is One Month Old!

Happy One Month Sweet Boy!!!!

Vance is a little over 10 pounds now and is starting to hold his head up so well! He loves to sleep on his side and belly. He nurses a million times a day (8 more or less). Pees on me at least a few times a week. He has the sweetest little smile. Van loves warm baths. He's wearing size one diapers and 0-3M clothes. This boy loves to be patted on the butt and loves for you to talk to him. He has blue-ish grey eyes and brown hair with a slight red tint to it! And he is starting to look more like his sister.

So this last month has been a whirlwind but I wouldn't change it for the world! The first few weeks were pretty rough for Ivy. She was very jealous of Vance... It was hard for me to tell her I couldn't cuddle and hold her right then.. She just didn't understand why I could hold and nurse him and not her. And I'm not gonna lie, there have been a fair share of times that we have tandem nursed. That's one kid on one boob and one kid on the other boob. It's a sight that is for sure! HA! But I am sure nobody wants to see that picture... ;)  Yes there are pictures! 

Ivy has finally gotten used to her little brother and loves him with a passion! (If you can love with a passion at two years old...) I love watching her love on Vance. She is so gentle and so sweet. 

Life with two kids has been such a fun, scary, crazy adventure and I can't wait to see my littles grow to love one another more and more. I hope they have the relationship that my brothers and I have. 

{Vance Everette's Birth Story}

I am so excited to finally introduce my son, Vance Everette RuBright, to the world!

This is his Birthday Story!!! 

So on Wednesday, March 2nd, I had my 40 Week OB appointment. That was my due date and I was so sad that my son hadn't come into the world yet but I knew God had a special day planned just for him! At my apt. the doctor checked me and I was 4 cm dilated and 75% thinned out. That was encouraging but I knew that I could be that for a few more days... She asked if I wanted my membranes stripped and I said no thank you! Also by this point I had already lost my "plug" twice! 

Friday we (Mom, Jon, Granny, and Ivy) all went to the movies to see Zootopia, which is such a cute movie!!! During the movie I kept having braxton hicks contractions that were pretty consistent. I had to get up once to go to the bathroom and I just knew my water was going to break but it didn't... 

Saturday I was still having contractions but they were getting harder and harder... I thought I was in labor for real and wanted to go get check as soon as I could so about 11pm Richard took me to the hospital to get checked out. We got to the room and we got hooked up to the monitor and they checked me and said I was still about 4 cm.... I was heartbroken! I am in tears from the contractions and the fact that I was once again going home without a baby! The told me to give it two hours and come back in around 2AM cause they thought I would be ready by then! 

Sunday about 2:30am we get back to the hospital. I was finally at 6 cm and I was in pain! This time around labor was a lot more painful for whatever reason... I made it to 8cm with Ivy and only 6cm with Vance. Anyways, around 4:40 I got the happy juice. I was then at 9cm and almost fully thinned out! What was so bad were the contractions I kept having felt like they were in my butt area! It was awful and painful! 

The epidural was a failure.... I was only slightly numb on the left side! I could still move my legs and everything! I was so scared at that point because I knew with Ivy I tore down there and I would most likely tear with this baby too and I did NOT want to feel that! So I ask if there was anything else I could get for pain... They ended up giving me two different drugs to help numb the pain, after the "drug guy" told me he forgot to tell me about the button to push for more morphine..... UGH! 

  

Around 6:30 I tried pushing for the first time (she said she could see his head!) but I was so numb at that point I couldn't push like I needed to... So I tried to rest instead.

At 7 I was ready to start pushing! The lady that helped the whole time was awesome! She told me by 7:30 we should have a baby! I was in a lot of pain by this time and was not wanting to push but if I wanted to see my baby soon I had to start! So they put up the squat bar thing and put a sheet twisted around the bar and told me to pull on the sheet and push! So I pushed and pushed and was in so much pain! I kept running out of breath from pushing so much. Then the lady put the mirror at my feet so I could see baby's head and where I needed to push. 

That mirror helped me a ton actually. I didn't do that with Ivy. After over thirty minutes of pushing, Vance was born at 7:34 am!!! 

He was perfect!!!! He weighed 9 pounds and 1 ounce and was 20.5 inches long! He was a pound more than Ivy and the same length! 

AND he looks like his MAMA!!!! :) 

Happy Birthday Vance Everette!

Mama loves her baby boy!

Happy to be home!

Ivy is adjusting to being a big sister!

He's such a handsome little fella!

She loves him!! 

Happy One Week Van!!!

The first week has gone by so fast already!!! :( We had to say good bye to everyone and that is always hard to do but even harder now that Vance is actually here now! I feel so grateful for the time I got to spend with my family and Richard's daddy. We loved having them all here and can't wait to see them again soon! :)

{Letter to My Son}

My sweet baby boy,

You were due to come into this world on March 2, 2016. Today is the 5th.... I am trying my hardest to be patient but gosh it's hard when I have been waiting for what seems like forever for you to arrive! This whole pregnancy has been amazing! I have loved just about every single minute of it (except the nighttime heartburn flare-ups!). I have loved feeling you move around and kicking like a ninja. I have loved seeing you move around on the screen at my doctor appointments. I have loved getting to know you from the inside and now I am super ready to get to know you on the outside!! We haven't announced your name to the media world yet but you do have a really awesome name! I love talking to you and using your name. It's a rare name that you don't hear often, just like your sister's. Speaking of Ivy, she is going to love you so much! I can see her holding you and trying to help Mama feed you a bottle. She will be my little helper for sure. Granny, Papa, Grams, and Jon have all been here for over a week now waiting on your arrival. Grams and Uncle Jon are going to leave in the morning and come back later in the week IF you don't come sometime tonight.. We are all trying to wait as patiently as we can for you! We are just so excited to meet you baby boy! We love you to the moon and back!!! :)

Love Always,

Mama

{Letter to Ivy}

My sweet Ivy,

My oh my how time has flown by these last two years. I cannot believe I have a two year old now. You are the most intelligent, affectionate, and strong willed little toddler I have ever met! You are learning new things every single day and I am amazed at how fast you pick up things. Just like the other day you where playing with your new learning pad your Papa Ru gave you and you were on a game where you make smoothies. There's a part on the game where you have to tilt the pad to the left to pour in the ice cubes. I had to show you once and you had it down pat! You're a very fast learner. And you never forget anything!

                                                        

                                


This past Friday was your birthday and we did what we did last year and celebrated Thanksgiving with both sides of our family and then afterwards we had a birthday party for you. You didn't touch your little smash cake Grams made you but you demolished a cupcake! You got so many fun toys to play with but I believe your favorite present was the rocking horse Papa & Granny Cannon made for you!

Ivy Victoria you are my sunshine! Whenever I am feeling gloomy I can just look at you and my whole day is made. You make life so much brighter and sweeter. Even though sometimes you make me wanna pull my hair out (I still blame either lack of sleep or teething... ) I still think you are the most amazing gift God has ever given me.

I can't wait to see you as a big sister in a few short months. I know you are going to love on your brother all the time and wanna help Mama any chance you get. I am so excited to see your reaction to our new addition.

I love you Booger!!!! You are my everything!!!

Mama

{Dear Little Mister}

Hey Little Mister!

This is my very first letter to you and I am super excited to finally be writing you! We will be 22 weeks along this pregnancy tomorrow and that means one more week closer to meeting you. Your Daddy, Ivy, and I are so ready!!! I have already seen you about 4 or 5 times and you are growing so much so fast! I am amazed at the whole pregnancy process all over again! The way God created the woman's body and her ability to grow a baby is just perfect to me!! Right now I am laying on the couch with your sister asleep beside me and I am trying to imagine what my life is going to be like in about four months with you added to our family. It might be chaos at first but I know once we establish a good routine, we will be good to go! I am so excited about having you, SON! When we went to see what we were having a few weeks ago, I was so hoping and praying for a little boy and I know your Daddy was too. When we saw that you were indeed a little mister, your Dad didn't even believe it at first but there was no denying what we saw on the screen...If you know what I mean! :) I still can't believe God choose me to be your Mama! I am so blessed to have one of each! I do hope that you and Ivy have a good relationship like I have with my little brothers. We may have fought a lot when we were younger but now that we are older, we are like best friends! I know Ivy is going to love having you around! She loves babies and is always kissing my round belly and saying "baby" and loving on you. She treats her babydoll with such love and makes sure that they are ok. I know she will be that loving towards you as well. Our entire family is excited to have you along! Just 4 more months and I can hold you in my arms!! I love you so much already!

Love,

Your Mama

HUGE Announcement!!!

This is a BIG announcement for our family and a long overdue one at that... But we are expecting our second bundle of JOY around the beginning of March 2016!!!  

This is me at around 17 and a half weeks! 

And to make things even more EXCITING..... (if that's possible, right??) We are expecting a baby BOY!!!!

We are more than thrilled that we are adding a BOY to the family!! I didn't care what we were having as long as he/she was healthy, but we were really hoping it was going to be a boy since this might be our last time having a baby. I don't believe Ivy is old enough yet to really understand what is coming in the near future but I do know that she loves kissing my belly and she loves babies!! I know she will be excited when her little brother comes! 

Here is me and baby boy at about 18 Weeks! 

You can't deny that one!!! HA! He wasn't shy that's for sure!!! 

Just for fun, here is our announcement to the world about Ivy Ru!

Wow that seems like a long time ago! 

Anyways, we are super excited to be telling the world this awesome news! Our family just keeps growing and growing and I love it! The Lord is GOOD!!!! God bless! 

XO Meagan

P.S. I hope to start blogging more often again... I have slacked A LOT lately but wanna get back into again! So keep coming back for updates of Baby Ru #2!!!