Easter

This year for Easter, we went to my brother's house in Omaha with my parents and my grandma. We got there late Friday afternoon and had supper at their house. The weather the whole weekend was awesome out there, so the kids played outside that night until it got too dark.

Saturday morning started with dyeing Easter eggs.

Gotta have some personalized ones!

While the eggs were drying, we headed off to the zoo. We just LOVE the zoo. The gorillas are my favorite :) Owen said he liked the giraffes the best.

Had to get Owen's picture in front of the Owen Gorilla House!

This picture sums up her first trip to the zoo perfectly! : )

While we were at the zoo, the Easter Bunny had come to Darrin and Colleen's house and hid all the eggs!

Opening Easter baskets

Oriana hung out on the blanket while the big kids headed outside to find their eggs

Filling his bucket!

Found one!

Owen and Ian

Since my grandma came along, my mom wanted to get a 4 generation picture of the line of girls. My brother's friend, Noah, was nice enough to take these awesome pictures for us.

4 generations of ladies : )

Oriana and her Great Grandma

Another spin on the 4 generation picture

And a Burke family picture

Cheese!

The rest of the day/night was spent by enjoying an awesome supper and the kids playing outside some more. Thank goodness the weather was awesome!

Before we left on Sunday morning, we had to get a few more pictures!

Annaliese is going to make a good mommy someday!

Telling their new cousin goodbye

Boppa being silly with Owen

Oriana is SOOO big! 

Ian said she felt wet, but we brushed it off. When he was done holding her, we saw that she was indeed "wet". Her poopy diaper leaked and got on him! 

When we got home, I got a couple more cute pictures of my babes.

She's so happy it's Easter! And look at her dimple!

Owen showing his muscles : )

Happy Easter!

The Last Six Weeks

Oriana is now 6 weeks old! How did that happen already?

The time has flown by, looking back. The first few weeks were rough at night, with Ori's schedule all messed up. She had her days and nights switched and was having some gas issues that made her very uncomfortable.
Nursing started out a little bit challenging, with her fussing and crying when I tried to feed her, but that has changed for the most part. Sometimes during the night feeding(s) she can get pretty frustrated, but all in all things are going well in the feeding department. She is gaining weight and her gas issues are better. She is known for spitting up quite a bit, so we both spent 6 weeks on maternity constantly smelling like spit up, but what can you do? If I changed clothes and changed her every time she spit up, I'd be doing laundry 24/7! 

2 days old - Owen said, "She looks like a zebra!" the first time she wore this. Now he will argue that she's a tiger, because the stripes are brown. : )

1 week - She LOVES to swing, and apparently has LOTS of pink!

Daddy bought her a monkey when he went to MN for work. He bought Owen a Vikings one just like this when he was a baby, too. : )

1.5 weeks - Valentine's Day kisses

2.5 weeks - Enjoying her new vibrating rocking chair

3 weeks - She looks ready to punch me!

4 weeks - Their first bath together.

Getting to know her Great Grandma Kuehl

She really enjoys baths.

4.5 weeks - Thinking hard!

5 weeks - Enjoying our last week of snuggling before going back to work!

Checking herself out in the mirror.

Now, at 6 weeks, things are going much smoother (knock on wood!). She's sleeping much better for me at night, which is awesome because I'm back at work, and she is starting to be more alert during the day. I'm still waiting for her to give me a real, genuine smile. We've gotten lots of gas smiles, and I've gotten a couple of pictures where it looks like she's smiling, but they aren't the real, "I'm so happy!" types of smiles. They're mostly just fluke facial expressions at the time of the picture.

6 weeks - Passed out after eating

Let's go to daycare! Her first day.

She seems to be doing just fine at daycare. I made sure Owen knew ahead of time that Ori was going to be going with him, but apparently I must have given him the impression that it was just going to be that first day, because when I picked them up the second day, Moe (our new daycare lady) told me that Owen said, "Why is she here today? She needs to go back home!"

Owen is a really good big brother. He's still doing a great job at bringing me things when I ask, and if she's crying, sometimes he will sing the ABCs to her. He'll give her kisses on her head and little hugs. Sometimes he will try putting the pacifier back in her mouth. That's really cute to me for some reason. I'm so excited to see them really start to interact. I know he's going to be a goofball for her when she starts smiling and laughing. He's always a goofball!

Owen and Ryan being goofballs!

She's Finally Here!

Warning: This is a long, fairly detailed description of labor and delivery. Some parts may be considered Too Much Information! : ) I like being able to go back and read my posts months and years later, so I sometimes put in more details than some would think necessary. I promise not to be too gross.

Oriana Marilynn Burke finally made her way into the world at 11:43 am on February 4, 2013 when I was 41 weeks and 1 day pregnant. I was scheduled to be induced that morning at 7 am, but luckily she changed those plans. I really wanted to have the experience of going into labor on my own, and my baby girl gave me that! She waited until the last minute, but that's ok! : )

The night before "my induction", my mom came to town so that she could stay with Owen while we were at the hospital, and we are lucky she did! The night before was also the Super Bowl, and Ryan went to a friend's house to watch the game and eat yummy party food. Owen, my mom and I went out to eat and then headed home to relax. I was excited for the next day, but also a little anxious that when I called the hospital the next morning, they were going to tell me they were full and couldn't take me. I was ready to have this baby!

I didn't sleep that great that night (not that that was a change). I was tossing and turning and thinking about the next day. I also had a dream that I was at the hospital and Angelina Jolie was my nurse. She was about to give me medicine to start my induction when I woke up to a gush. I looked at Ryan, who was awake, but didn't say anything and just ran to the bathroom. My water had broken! Luckily, it wasn't a whole lot and I didn't have a mess to clean. I went and told Ryan and my mom what happened. It was about 4:40 in the morning. Ryan started getting dressed and mentioned he had been up since about 1:00 because he didn't feel well. GREAT. I'm about to have a baby and my hubby is sick! My mom asked if I was having any pain or contractions. I wasn't, so we decided to wait a while before going in. That way Ryan could try to sleep some more, and I wouldn't have to be in the hospital any longer than necessary. Ryan went back to bed, but had to get up a few minutes later because he was sick.

Over the next few hours, Ryan slept while my mom and I watched tv. My contractions started not too long after my water broke, but weren't bad. At 6:00, I called in like I was supposed to for my induction and at 6:30 I woke up Ryan to see how he was feeling. Not good. I told him my mom offered to take me to the hospital and he could stay in bed and come later, but would have to take care of Owen when he got up. So a few minutes later, my mom and I were on our way to the hospital.  The contractions were steadily getting more intense, but I wasn't really timing them because I figured there wasn't much point. My water had broken, so I was definitely in labor. By the time I finally got to my room, I could barely walk or talk through the contractions. And my water kept gushing out with almost every contraction.

My nurse didn't know yet that my water had broken, so she asked why my baby was being so stubborn that I had to be induced. I told her there was a change in plans! She got me settled in my room, asked me a bunch of questions and then said the midwife would be in soon to check me and see how things were going. When the midwife, Sandy, got there, she was happy to see on the monitors that I was contracting regularly. She checked me and I was at 4 centimeters and said she thought I'd have a lunchtime baby. She knew I wanted an epidural, but they needed to start an IV and check my platelet count before they could do that, so she put in the order for all of that so I could get it as soon as possible.  The nurse got all of that going and then told me the anesthesiologist was in a C-section right now and it would probably be another 30 minutes or so. By this time, I can't talk through the contractions and they seem to last a really long time. The nurse asked if I wanted some drugs to take the edge off while I wait, but that it would probably make me a little loopy. I said no. And then she came back about half an hour later and said it was still going to be at least 25 more minutes, and she had called the on call anesthesiologist and he was at home which was 20 mins away. Did I want some drugs now? YES! She only gave me half a dose (at my request because I didn't want  to be out of it) but it did help for a while. It was about that time that I called Ryan to see when or IF he was coming, and that it probably wasn't going to be too much longer and I'd be ready to push. He said he was coming and he and Owen would get ready and leave.

When the anesthesiologist finally got there, my drugs had worn off a little bit and I was in a lot of pain again. Thankfully, everything went well with the epidural and after that was in place and I was comfortable, the nurse checked me and I was at 8 cm, and Ryan and Owen had arrived. It was not our plan for Owen to be at the hospital at all until after she was born and I was off monitors and IVs, because I didn't want him to get scared, but I guess plans change. We all hung out in the room for awhile and when Owen got restless, my mom took him for a walk around the hospital. While they were gone, I started feeling pressure, like she was ready to come out, so I called for the nurse. And yes, she was ready! I was at 10 cm and her head was "right there".

Since Ryan wasn't feeling well, I told him that if he wasn't able to stay in the room, that was fine, but he said he was fine. Luckily, there were two nurses and the midwife there, so he didn't have to do anything but stay by my head and be there for me. I don't know how long I pushed, but it was longer than with Owen. I had some scar tissue from Owen's delivery that wouldn't stretch like normal tissue, so it was making things more difficult. My midwife ended up having to cut that tissue a little bit, and soon after, Oriana was born! The nurses, midwife and Ryan were surprised at how big she was and started making guesses at how much she weighed. I really couldn't tell that she was any bigger than a "normal" baby, but she ended up being 9 lbs 5.6 ounces! Then I was surprised! She was also pretty long, at 22 inches, so she really wasn't too chubby. I have a friend that had her baby just the week before, and her baby was 9 lbs 2 oz, and when I saw a picture of her, she was a CHUBBY baby and I remember thinking, 'Poor girl, having to push that big baby out!' And then I go and have a baby even a bit bigger! Thank God for epidurals! Although I don't know if my friend had one or not. I just know I am thankful for them!


Now for some pictures.

Fresh from my belly : )

Big girl!

There was a little bruising on her face because she was stuck for a while before my midwife made the decision to do a small episiotemy. 

Meeting big brother Owen

Owen wasn't too sure about her for a while, which I kind of expected. But we had gotten a gift for Oriana to give to her big brother, a Jake and the Neverland Pirates treasure chest, and after he got that he was a bit more comfortable. He didn't want to hold or touch her until a few days later, though. : )

My dad arrived not long after she was born.

Nana and her new granddaughter

Since everything went really well with my delivery and Oriana was given a clean bill of health, we were able to go home the next day, which was really awesome. Hospitals are boring and since Ryan was sick, he left a few hours after she was born and didn't come back until the next day when it was time to leave. It must have been something he ate or a quick 24 hour bug, because he was fine the day AFTER she was born.

First day home

What a good big brother! - 3 days old -

So far things are going pretty good. Her days and nights are mixed around, but that's pretty normal. I'm feeling pretty good - I can tell a difference between recovery with Owen and with Oriana. Much easier this time around, since I had fewer stitches. I also know that getting out of the house and walking around help the body and the mind. When Owen was born it was so miserably cold outside that I never wanted to leave the house, which can make for a sad, hormonal momma!

My mom got to stay with us for the week, too, which was a big help. The worst part was that Ryan had to work Friday and Saturday nights and then had to go out of town Sunday through Tuesday for work, and my mom went back on Saturday, so I was a "single mom" for a few days right off the bat. I was pretty nervous about being the only one, but things went really well while Ryan was gone. Owen is a really good helper, always eager to get diapers or wipes for me (or even find the remote for me!).

Owen will be going to daycare three times a week while I'm off work so he can have time with his friends and it gives me a bit of a break. I have a hard time getting him to nap anymore, so on days when he is home, I don't get to sleep when Ori sleeps.

Ryan's family will be coming to town this weekend to meet Ori. Owen's excited because he knows he will get to swim at the hotel with his cousins. He LOVES to swim!

Ok, now time for a nap...



Read about the day Owen was born here.