Happy Mother's Day to Me

We spent Mother's Day weekend in San Diego, and it was just wonderful. I like California and we all love the beach. We we're definitely due for a vacation, and decided to buy the annual pass for Sea World, hoping that we would be able to make it out there again before next May. We thought Taylor would love Sea World, and showed him the website before we left. At that time, he could have cared less for Shamu and was actually most excited about seeing the penguins!

We bought a new camera to take on this trip, since our was going wonky. We didn't even bother to read the instructions before taking it out with us to Sea World, but we managed to figure some stuff out throughout the day. We had to stop at the Penguin exhibit first, then of course, hit the penguin gift shop. We also saw the Sesame Street show, then the dolphin show and had lunch after that. Jazzy was great, she is such a content little baby. Tay decided he wasn't too into walking and wanted to be held, so since he weighs a bunch, we took turns we each kid. We saw the star fish, or 'sea stars' as Tay calls them, and he even held one! Then, we went to Shamu. Boy, was Tay surprised- he loved it! So our next stop was the Shamu gift shop. We also stopped and bought a hat for Jazzy. Both the kids had sunscreen on, but the two of us did not and actually got sunburned! It was a nice day, about 65 degrees outside. Brooks won Taylor a big Spiderman at the carnival games, and it was a full, but fun day.

Our hotel was pretty close to Sea World, but that didn't make it any easier on Brooks, who had his fill of California freeways and their lack of signage. On Mother's Day, we went to Balboa Park and the Air and Space Museum for Tay, the space expert. The hotel recommended we go to La Jolla Cove, so we headed there next and it was just beautiful! Seals actually come up to the shore to rest, and the beach itself is pretty nice. It was so busy though, so we parked pretty far away and the kids were hungry and cranky by the time we made it out there. We found a Hard Rock Cafe and went there for lunch, then went back to the beach and walked what seemed like ten miles back to the car. Tay sill wanted to be carried, so we took turns with the kids again. That afternoon, our little man was still a bundle of energy, so we picked up 'My Donalds', as Tay calls it, and found a park that he could play at.

We stopped at Pacific Beach on Monday, then headed back home. We all love the beach, and Tay is still talking about the ocean. I am sure Jazzy loved it too, although she didn't say much :) Brooks was disappointed with San Diego, this was actually his first time there. We'll be going back, so that we can use our Sea World passes again, and this time we'll plan it out a little better to see some more kid and stroller friendly places. It was nice, as we love going places with the kids.

Cooties and Smiles!

We have been running a special on cooties for anyone who is interested! Free cooties! Get your cooties here!

Taylor has lots of little friends, he is just a social guy. All that socializing comes at a price though, and this past week we have been paying for it.

Taylor first came down with a cold. You know, the typical flu with a running nose, cough, congestion and temperature. Thursday evening he had a swollen eye- it looked like he had a black eye almost. The next morning it had turned a lovely shade of -you guessed it- PINK. I had called the pediatrician the day before when I noticed his eye. Since it was after hours, she said to bring him in the next day. Before I had a chance to call the office, they called me back and asked how he was doing. We made the appointment for that day. He actually fell asleep on the table, which made the exam super easy. So pink eye it was. This was a total bummer because his cousins were already on the road to come up for a visit. Bummer we didn't get to visit long, but they wanted to go to Ikea and I am sure they hit the In N Out (my brother in law would probably cater his own wedding with In N Out). So, now Tay had pink eye and a cold.

The weekend stunk having a sick kid, and Brooks stayed home on Monday since things were so hairy. Monday morning Jasmine had her well check with Dr. Sudha, and I ended up taking Tay back in with me because his cold was still hanging on. Tay looked all clear on the pink eye, but now poor little Jazzy had it in both eyes! That day Daddy started running a fever of 102 and having the same cold symptoms of Tay. We both could not sleep that night and woke up to discover we had pink eye too! By Wednesday I had gotten Tay's cold.

So, now it is Friday, and Brooks is back at work, but still running a temp, and feeling bad. His pink eye appears to be cleared up, and so does mine. I am still sick, and Tay is a bundle of energy. Fortunately little Jazzy does not seem to have caught the cold, and her eyes appear clear. Oops! Scratch that. Tay was a bundle of energy. He woke up this morning with double gooey eyes- so looks like pink eye round two.

The one bright spot of this week is what a super smiley-happy baby we have! She coos and gurgles and giggles. She is so darn cute and fun and we love her bunches and bunches! She just smiles all the time and especially when she is talking with Daddy.

Babies and Toddlers

It's April already? This past month has just flown by! Jasmine is wonderful, just wonderful. She is very sweet, happy and content. She loves to be held, but is such a great baby and hardly cries. She also is still a great little sleeper at night, and we know how lucky we are to have her. When people tell me it is not fair, I have to disagree. Although we love Taylor very much, he is WILD. So, having one of each just balances everything out :)

Otherwise, things are great, just hectic. I became pretty sick with Mastitis, which was rough. I had a 104 temp for a few days, then was pretty run down and just beat otherwise. I am back in class, which is hard. Brooks is enjoying his promotion and we both love the new car.

Tay is really into space and planets now. This weekend, I think we are going to go to the library to rent some space videos. Unfortunately, they do not show space specials 24 hours on the Discovery Channel. Today I found him in his room reading to himself from his Solar System book that we bought at the Challenger Space Museum. Yesterday we watched a show on Jupiter, and he was pretty interested in the planet's big red spot and swirly lines. Yup, my kids a genius!

Lots of New!!

This month has been lots of fun, and has brought some new and exciting things!

#1 Of course, is baby Jasmine. It is a new, and fun experience having a baby girl! Taylor is doing pretty well, he has an attitude every now and then, but loves his little sister and loves to help out.

#2 New ring- given to me by Jasmine's daddy during labor. I love it!

#3 New car. Yes, a new car!! Who-hoo for us! We finally decided to trade the Mazda in and got a 2007 Chrysler Sebring. It is beautiful, and has lots of new, fancy features. Once we are settled in the house, hopefully I will get my SUV and Brooks can take the Sebring to work. It gets great gas mileage-26 in the city, 32 on the highway.

#4 New job! Brooks has officially received his promotion from Carlson and is now the assistant property manager. The senior director made the comment to him that this was the fastest anyone had been promoted to this position, and we are all super proud of him! Along with this promotion comes a nice pay raise (23%) plus the chance to bonus another 10%.

So, lots of new, and the month is only half over!

She's Here! She's Finally Here!!

Little Jasmine Natasha Wintemute was born March 4th at 11:01 a.m. She weighed 7 pounds 7 ounces and was 20.5 inches long. She is so darn cute and wonderful and we are the luckiest mommy and daddy in the world!!

Our adventures began on Monday, March 3rd at our 8:30 am doctors appointment. They did a non-stress test since Jasmine was over 40 weeks, and went ahead and scheduled an induction for Saturday the 8th. I was totally bummed- I did not want to wait until Saturday to meet her, even if it was only a few more days. But, during the NST, I was contracting every 5 minutes. "Textbook contractions" they called them, but although they were close enough together and lasted long enough, they weren't Strong enough. So, home we went expecting to see her on Saturday. Only the contractions did not stop, they did get stronger. But, I am a big weenie and did not want to go in because I thought they would just send me home. After Brooks put his foot down and my mom told me (not asked, but told) that she was coming up that night, off we went to the OB triage. I was having the same contractions, but was only 1 1/2 cm dilated. So we went walking around the hospital and found the cafeteria. One of the cafeteria workers came over and told us it was a special event and they had this buffet set up with free food. There was hamburgers, hot dogs, grilled chicken, corn on the cob, potato salad, baked beans, cookies, sodas and bottled water. We sat down and ate at about midnight, and it was delicious! Then I started thinking that probably was not the smartest thing to do, but it smelled so good! We walked around a bit more and went back to triage and when they checked again I was now 3 cm dilated. So, they sent us on one more walk and when we came back we were led to our new room in labor and delivery. I began asking for my epidural right away, and after some quick fluids was granted my wish. By now, Brooks was sleeping comfortable (really, this was a nice set-up). He slept through my epidural, catheter and all that fun stuff that goes along with labor preparations. We called my mom to let her know what happened, and off to sleep I went. Early the next am my doctor came in to check on me and I knew something was going on. I didn't feel so hot, but I couldn't really see the monitor to see what was going on with either me or Jasmine. My blood pressure was low they said, and put me on oxygen for a few hours and kept pumping fluids in me. My mom came in with the kids and Brooks went out to get himself some breakfast at the McDonalds about 2 miles away. They checked me again and I was now at 5-6. My blood pressure went even lower, Jasmine started to have more decelerations in her heart rate, then my water broke and I was at 7cm. I had my mom call Brooks to say hurry back. A few minutes later, I called him again. Then we called again. Where the heck was he? I had a super fast transition with Tay and this was going fast too. My went downstairs to get Tay some chocolate milk and I was all alone and ready to go. Brooks walked in with a jewelery box (some trip to McDonalds!) and I couldn't be mad anymore. He bought me a beautiful mothers ring, it is white gold with an aqua marine and two smaller stones on either side. I hardly had time to enjoy my pretty ring, before my mom walked back in, so did the nurse who checked again and I was at 10, fortunately she believed me when I said I transitioned fast, and had already called the doctor. I could not feel a thing, even though my epidural was totally off and had been for about 30-45 minutes since by blood pressure was so low. I gave two pushes and out Jasmine came! We had planned on Katie being there, as she had asked beforehand and really wanted to see Jasmine born. Brooks jokes because I was so doped up and was having a full conversation with my doctor as I was pushing. This was a super easy labor (aside from the waiting for the labor to begin). Tay was drawing a picture when Jasmine was born and we kept it for her baby book.

So now we are home, and doing pretty well. We are not as tired as we thought we would be, Jasmine is pretty easy going, and so far Taylor is decently interested in her. Brooks is home for a week. We received flowers in the hospital from Carlson and today went shopping to enjoy the $230 gift card to Babies R Us they gave us.

More to come, be prepared for more pics of the world's cutest little girl!

Still no baby...

For the past three nights, I have had very uncomfortable and painful contractions, even to the point where we decided to start timing, or when Brooks was not home, I was ready to call him. Then, they'd stop. This is completely unfair. Brooks had a talk with Jasmine and told her it was time to come out and that she should be sleeping in her own crib now, and not mommy's tummy.

While Jasmine is not cooperating, I am just trying to keep busy doing stuff. I am hoping when we go in on Monday the doctor will schedule the induction sooner rather than later. Brooks went in to work this weekend to get ahead, so that way he would have a little less to catch up on.

I have had lots of friends calling daily, which is very sweet and heartwarming. Currently in the BizEMoms agenda, Jasmine's birth is under the member brags section. The joke is they may have to change that to a brag about me for having the longest pregnancy. Taylor had been born by now, so what's the hold up Jasmine?

Is today the day?

Today at 11:30 we go in for the 40 week Jasmine check-up and, the doctor is going to strip my membranes, which means we may be having a baby today. We'll just have to wait and see :)

The past 2 weeks have been crazy, we have been cleaning and running around like crazy making sure everything is done. Tay and I put the crib together, Brooks and I bought a new bed, and we are stocked up on food, wipes and diapers for Tay. We didn't go crazy with Jasmine's diapers, just because we are not sure how fast she'll grow. If she is anything like her brother, she'll be in size 4's by the time she is one month :) We have also been to Babies R Us about 10 times.

We had professional pictures done and they turned out awesome! Taylor was pretty wild, but we did get some cute ones with him. The other day we went and played at the playground and he was having a blast with some other kids who were there. He let them bury him in the sand and it was too cute. After he was all covered, he told them "goodnight" and pretended to snore. I had already packed the camera in Jasmine's bag, so I missed my chance to take the picture. Some other mommy took one on her phone and said she'd send it to me, but I never received it :( Taylor also got the Once Upon a Potty video so hopefully he's ready to go with this big boy potty business. The thought of buying diapers for two is more excitement than we can stand.

Stay tuned for baby news...

UPDATE

Jasmine has apparently decided that mommy's tummy is a comfortable place to hang out, although mommy is not too comfortable with it :) If she has not arrived by Monday, then we will schedule an induction.