My niece

A few weeks ago my niece broke her leg after a fall. A couple of nights ago, she broke her other leg. Doctors think she might have brittle bone disease or osteogenesis imperfecta (OI). She is going to get tested soon to confirm their iniital diagnosis. I feel so much empathy for my brother and his wife. I worry about my 2 little boys, and here they are thrown into a nightmare of a situation. When I heard that she might have this and in thinking about all the worry and love Ernest and Lydia have for her, it breaks my heart. Elena is so beautiful and she looks so happy. Genetic disorders can be scary things. We are praying for your family Ernest and Lydia. We love you and hope for the best possible diagnosis.

One week old

Samuel is one week old today! He is sleeping lots and eating lots. I swear he must have a tooth in his little mouth. I will investigate later. Overall, being a parent twice over is interesting. Joseph wants someone to play with him all the time and gets sad when he doesn't have someone that can. Samuel may sleep a lot, but he is up often enough to disrupt play time. Joseph has been an angel overall. He has let me sleep in and lets the baby sleep too. He will bring toys into our room and play on the floor till I wake up. He has come into the room to sleep with Samuel and me. One night he came in at 3:30 a.m. and was wanting to sleep in the bed. When Samuel woke up hungry at about 5 a.m., I left the room so as not to wake Joseph up. As I sat in his room to feed the baby, Joseph staggered out of our room and yelled down the stairs, "mommy, is the baby not letting you sleep lots?" He stayed awake till I fed Samuel. He didn't fall asleep till 7 a.m. Joseph has done that a couple of nights. He is very tired. I am trying not to wake Joe and Joseph up as I care for Samuel.

Joseph likes to say his brother's name, "Samuel Goodwin." He also says, "Rankin baby." I point out that he is a Rankin too and he says, "No, I just Joseph." We have been playing since I have been home. He can count to 9 and recognizes the numbers. We need to practice the alphabet more. He still recognizes some of the letters. He has "read" books to Samuel as I feed him. He remembers the stories from his books very clearly.

Having Samuel reminds me of a lot of things that I had forgotten with Joseph. It brings back lots of memories. I love the inching that Samuel does to get into the feeding position. I will put him up at my shoulder to burp him and if he is hungry, he picks up his little neck and uses his arms and mainly his head to propel him towards the food. Joseph used to do the same thing. He looks like Joseph in so many ways.

Samuel Goodwin Rankin

Our little boy finally made his debut yesterday morning at 9:47 a.m. He weighed 7 pounds 10 ounces and is 20 inches long. He has a head full of short black hair (nothing compared to my niece Elena). His eyes are blue-gray and will more than likely turn a brownish color as he gets bigger. When he first came out, all of us pretty much thought the same thing...he is Joseph's twin born 3 years and a little bit later. He seems fairly calm at the moment.

I was induced on Monday because they wanted to reduce the risk of the baby getting an infection because it seemed that my water had broken or ruptured, but the tests were not confirming the suspicions. At 8:17 pm, they induced me and so began the long night. My brothers were there, as were my parents. Alison and Ryan watched Joseph at our house, but come bedtime, he wanted mommy home. I got a phone call from Alison with Joseph sobbing in the background with him saying he wanted me. It was so heart rending I almost started to cry. Joe rushed home and picked him up. He fell asleep later on that night and my parents took him home to sleep.

At 2 a.m., I fell asleep for a bit. The doctor did tell me that my platelet count was too low and that I might not be able to get an epidural. Boy did that remind me of Joseph's labor. They drew more blood and ran a platelet test as well as something called a HELP test. The HELP test would let them know if I needed a c-section instead of a vaginal delivery. That came back negative, so I didn't need a c-section (thank goodness). At 4 a.m., I started feeling discomfort from the contractions. Not so much the contractions, but in an old injury (a pulled groin muscle) from Joseph's pregnancy. At 5:30 a.m., I got my epidural. It was a fairly low dose because I could feel and wiggle my toes as well as move my legs. When they were checking for dilation, the only thing I felt was my old injury. From 6 a.m., till about 8:30 a.m., I screamed and cried with every contraction because I could feel them coming on with my old injury. It served as a good indicator of the strength and duration of the contraction, even with the epidural. At 8:40 a.m, I requested a stronger dose of the epidural. By 9:10 a.m., I could not feel a thing (YAY!!!)

I had specified that Joe should not do anything but be my side. I pushed and the baby came out really fast. It was probably a little over 30 minutes. I did not vomit (Woo Hoo), I did not tear (Whew), and my babies head was smaller than Joseph's, which made this delivery a cake walk in comparison to Joseph's. I was in induced labor for over 12 hours, but the delivery was as close to "heavenly" as you could get. Thank goodness for priesthood blessings and epidurals. I asked Joe and my brothers for a blessing before they came in to increase the dosage.

Joseph and mommy excited to be with little Samuel. Adam and Joe thought Joseph was acting jealous of the baby, but more than anything, I think he just missed being and seeing his parents. He heard the baby cry and said, "oh the poor baby." Today he was wanting to kiss and caress his baby brother. I guess we will see what it is like tomorrow. Good night!!

Delivery fears

Can I tell you I wish there was another way for the baby to come into the world. The transporter from Star Trek would be ideal. Of course, that won't happen. With Joseph, I was in labor from 10 at night till they had me start pushing at 8:30 pm the following night. Joseph's delivery took 3 hours. I am so NOT looking forward to delivery again. I don't want a c-section. I hate anesthetics...they make me super sick. I am scared that I will tear. I remember crying everytime I went to the bathroom for 2-3 weeks after Joseph was born. Of course, I know others who had it much worse than I did. I am just starting to freak out and have realized that I am kind of a wimp. I hate pain, vomiting, pain, worrying, pain. Eventually the baby will be here and I will be tired but grateful and less itchy.

I won't mention the other fears that creep into my mind. I wouldn't be able to sleep if I let myself think about it, plus it would make me cry. Tomorrow I start walking around a lot to help me progress more. I want the baby to come on his own and would prefer not to be induced (as long as I can have an epidural, it shouldn't be that bad. Not like last time). I will walk around and around now that the weekend is almost over. I guess there is the possibility that I will go into labor tonight.

Update

I went to the doctor today. While I was there, there was a little blood coming out, so I thought I was passing my plug. Apparently, that is already gone. I am 67% effaced and dilated to a 3 and a half. The baby could come at anytime, but if he doesn't come soon, they scheduled an induction for Thursday at 1 pm. I am under orders from Joe and my brother Ziggy to not do anything this weekend. They want a nice holiday break before the baby. Esteban has National Guard stuff next weekend, so he asked me not to have the baby on his due date. Geez, all these demands when I actually have no control over the timing.

Joseph is starting to have more attitude, especially when he is tired. The other day we went to look for curtains. He wanted to be carried and not put into a cart. He wouldn't walk either. Joe finally picked him up before he made a scene in the store. He looked at me over daddy's shoulder and smiled. Little stinker!! We walked to the toy section and he wanted to wiggle out of daddy's arms. We told him that because he was tired he couldn't get down and look at the toys. He could only pass by them. He reacted okay. No tantrums. Anyways...I need to run (translation: waddle ever so slowly and prop myself on the counter) to do dishes.

Would you eat them in a house, would you eat them with a mouse

Joseph is starting to recognize words that sound the same on his own. We have now talked about rhyming words. It all started because my friend Emily gave me a CD filled with dinosaur songs (Joseph loves to listen to it if we are in the car). The end of the CD is someone reading Green Eggs and Ham. We were driving and he heard them say house and mouse. He said, "They are the same...house, mouse." Since then, in books that we read, he has started to identify other words that sound the same like kitten and mitten. It was fun to see him pick up on it, especially because I hadn't thought of pointing it out to him.

Oh! I can count the number of days till the baby comes on 2 hands. Yay and yikes!! I think I have a smaller case of PUPPPs this time around. It itches so bad. It is not as wide spread as with Joseph, but I am hoping this little one will come out sooner than Joseph did. With Joseph I had it for 1 month. I am going on a little over a week with the itchiness. At least the palms of my hands and the tops of my feet and thighs are not itching, so therefore I have no need to scratch till it bleeds.

Building a snowman

Joe took Joseph outside to build a snowman the other night. We had received a ton of good packing snow, so we wanted to do it before it got hard and icy. We all were getting a little sick, but we played for a little bit. Joseph and I had very runny noses from being sick, but we still went out. This is a pic of Joseph before we went outside. He has on overalls and 2 layers of pants. He also has on 2 shirts on underneath the overalls and his blanket coat. I had to put a scarf on him because I had one on when we getting ready to go out. His little mittens are cut out of the pic. This is Joseph showing how deep the snow is. He is always making carpet angels or leaf angels, but he didn't dare make a snow angel. He did crawl/swim through the snow. As he approached the sidewalk, he asked for help because he was stuck.
Here are mommy and Joseph next to our snowman. It is not a very easy task to squat at this point. We had dinosaurs and buckets and sand toys so we could build and play. My little boy is so much fun!!! He is wearing one of mommy's scarves. He has declared that it is his.

Joseph misses all the company we had over the break. He asks where people are all the time. The other day he said that Michelle is like Meredith. I asked him why and he said that they both had babies. He still asks for his cousins Nathan and Mackenzie. Luckily, Mackenzie lives close by so when they visited on Friday night, Joseph was able to snuggle against the back of Kenzie's head. He was too sick for me to allow him to kiss her.

My doctor's appointment was on Thursday. I am dilated to a 2, 60% effaced, and the baby's head is down. The doctor wasn't very confident I would make it in for my appointment this coming Friday. We still don't have a name picked out. Hopefully we will be inspired. I know the nesting bug hasn't hit because I just want to sit down and do nothing. I have a messy house (which Joe keeps reminding me about). I don't have the energy to clean. I start and stop so many times. Add doing some grocery shopping and trying to entertain a sick little boy, I just want to sleep (which is hard to do).

More pics from the holidays

I thought I would add more pics. Hopefully my computer will cooperate.

This is my niece, Mackenzie, at the wedding. She and my nephew were not to happy to be part of the professional photographers pictures. I don't blame them. The sun was right in our faces. It made it hard to smile without squinty eyes.

This is grandma Rankin with 2 of her grandkids. In all the wedding hub bub, we never took pictures of the proud grandparents with their 3 grandkids alone. This was the first time that we had a chance to meet Nathan. As you can tell from the photo, Nathan is almost as big as Joseph.

Here is grandma Rankin with little Mackenzie. This is the first time that I have been able to catch her smiling on camera. Look how cute that is!

Merry Christmas! Happy Wedding day! Happy Birthday! Happy New Year!!

Joseph with only some of the many, many talking cars that he got from mommy, daddy, and Santa.

Okay. To begin. Christmas was fun! I love to watch Joseph open presents. He wants to play with each one and forgets that there are others. It takes a long time, but he is so excited about all of them (even the socks, shoes, and underwear). He got a slot car, a train rug, a lot of dinosaur skeletons, lots of talking cars, some games, and some books. He is busy trying to play with all of them. Joe got a few socks, some relaxation stuff, some slippers and some blu-ray movies. I got a camcorder (yay!!!), a cast iron skillet, a serving tray and a memory card. My camcorder is tiny and uses an SD card. It can record on the highest quality for over 6 hours with the card Joe gave me.
Here is Joseph with gifts that his cousin Elena sent him. Thank you Ernest, Lydia, and Elena!! Hopefully we will see ya'll soon. Joseph received great gifts from all of his aunts, uncles, and grandparents. He even got a dinosaur from his great uncle David (ya'll seem to young to be great uncles and aunts).


Joseph eating an eggnog candy while we wait for daddy to come down on Christmas morning. Daddy had fallen back asleep, so Joseph had to go and wake him up.

We went over to my parent's for a couple of hours on Christmas day to spend time with them. We love the gifts they gave us and we loved the excitement of the holidays around us. Joe's family got in on Christmas night. The weather was awful, so they sat at the airport waiting for Alison for a few hours before they headed down to Provo. Poor Grandpa Rankin had to go back to the airport. It was snowing and icy and he and Alison didn't get in till 3 in the morning. They have been staying at our house. It has been busy and crazy. I forgot how much insanity goes into planning a wedding. Grandpa also made trips to the airport of Saturday to pick up Alison's fiance (now husband), Ryan. He also went on Sunday to pick up Adam, Meredith, and Mackenzie from the airport.

The Wade clan family dinner on Sunday night was very nice. Thanks Connie for organizing it. I took peach cobbler and convince mom Rankin to bring frog-eye salad. It is something that I have been wanting for a little bit. We got to see lots of cousins.

My birthday was low key. Joe got me a book (thanks sweetie) and a carrying case for my camera. I went out to lunch with my parents. They gave me a very nice watch. I need to get the battery replaced. Jeff and Michelle came on Sunday night, so we finally got to meet our nephew Nathan. He is a solid little boy. He is adorable! Joe asked to carry him (I was shocked). He even carried Mackenzie (shocked yet again). She is getting so much bigger.

Congrats to the bride and groom! I hope that you and your ten children remember this day (and I hope you wrote down what the sealer said)!

Alison got married on Tuesday. The ceremony was beautiful. We drove down to Manti for the wedding. Luckily, the weather was nice. Of course, we did have to get by about 200 cows that were walking in the road.

Alison and her big brothers on her wedding day. She was such a gorgeous bride. I just hope that the zipper that broke on Tuesday will work again for tonight's reception.

Here is Michelle with Nathan. I love all the blue and how it brings out the blue in his eyes. I like this picture a lot and I don't think it makes you look funny Michelle.

The 2 newer daddies carrying their little bundles of joy. It was fun trying to take the family shots in front of the temple. Mackenzie was tired and cranky, so she started to cry. Nathan was okay for a minute, but he was tired also, so he started to cry. All in all, they were good babies, it was just a very long day for them.

Joseph with his daddy. Joseph was running around everywhere as pictures were being taken. At the end of the day, he gave daddy some kisses and we were off to Provo again.Joseph giving his aunt Alison a kiss goodbye. He wants to grow taller so he can dance with her tonight. He also said he was going to marry me and daddy needed to find a different special girl. Let's hope that doesn't happen for all of our sakes! ;)

Happy New Year! Only 22 more days and we will hopefully meet new baby Rankin. I don't know what we are going to name him, but we still have time to decide. I will try to post more pics later. My computer was acting up, so I didn't get to put all the photos here that I wanted too.