Myra Staley Oblad

I've been meaning to post pictures. Here's our day in a nutshell:

After getting to the hospital, my cervix hadn't changed in 2 hours so they had me walk around to get the contractions going stronger.

After a long long long day, Myra made her appearance weighing in at 9 lbs 8 oz and 22 inches! My mom's plane landed in Dallas at 7:20 pm and Myra was born at 7:34 pm. Tyson's sister, who was with the kids, went to pick her up and they came directly to the hospital. Myra was less than an hour old when they arrived!

Myra with the kids and Grandma Lynnie

Big brother Lawson

We now have a family of 6! When did that happen? We love Myra and are so happy she's in our family. We're glad she got here safely!

Game On

Five days later and here we are back at the hospital. Sara and I spent the weekend doing all we could to get this baby to come on her own. She was scheduled to be induced tomorrow (10/25) but we had a feeling the baby would be here early. As I woke up for work Sara, this time with a far lesser zombie-like tone, let me know she'd been having contractions for quite a while. Because of heavier than normal traffic due to the very dense fog that has enveloped the DFW, we decided to come a little earlier than we otherwise would have. When we left, the contractions were about 6 minutes apart.

Because of the fog and traffic, it took twice as long to get here as it did last week. A few patches of fog were so thick we couldn't see more than 300 or 400 feet. We're back in the same room and with the same nurses as before and we're ready to roll. Still not very far along but we will provide some updates throughout the morning. We both think it's going to be a while until things get going. But, since Sara is now 39 weeks, 3 days along, they should be administering pitocin if this baby doesn't start coming on her own. Finally, I must state for the record that I am live blogging Sara's labor at her request and not because of any disinterest in Sara, her pregnancy or the baby.

8:49 am. Big news! I just had a fantastic breakfast here from the hospital cafeteria. I ate from the comfort of a rockingchair while Sara walked laps around the room. Watching her is making me tired though. Man, this is rough.

12:33 pm. Still waiting. Sara's contractions have been all over the map. Looks like they may have to bring in the pitocin. Her midwife (no we're not hippies!) will be here shortly. It seems like the nurses are trying to pressure us and let things happen naturally. Sara says that's not going to happen. We shall see who wins this battle of wills!

1:11 pm. Sara's contractions have begun to be stronger and more frequent. Her midwife (we're still not hippies) said she's dilated 5 cm and should be ready to go soon. They're about to draw bllod and then give her an IV and will be administering pitocin here very shortly. With Porter, it took several hours after the pitocin before he was born. We suspect it will go faster, but at this point who knows!?! Also, I just hit up Del Taco for some cheap Mexican fastfood. No zombies seen...yet.

1:53 pm. After a very eventful 3 attempts, the IV was finally put in (Sara has "special" veins) and the pitocin is just now being connected to the IV. I'll keep you posted on any further developments. Sara is ready for an epidural, but is going to wait until she's in a little more pain-right now she says it's mostly just discomfort and tightness. I thought I heard a zombie but then I realized it was just my stomach post-Spicy Jack Chicken Quesadilla.

4:04 pm. Things are going a bit quicker now. Sara is ready to get the show on the road!

4:35 pm. Contractions are now 2 minutes apart and stronger than they've ever been. Should be getting the epidural here soon.

5:03 pm. Waiting in the waiting room-they made me leave for sara's epideral.

5:27 pm. Procedure went well. I'm not saying that they replaced Sara with some type of cyborg duplicate, but I also haven't ruled it out yet. On a related note, I forgot my sharpie that I was going to use to mark the baby's head with a mark only I would recognize. Dang it.

5:38 pm. They just broke Sara's water-which I missed. [Stupid quesadilla!] She's at 6-7 cm. Could go quickly, but it seems like it'll still be a while until it's time to push. They're going to check on her every 15 minutes. Here's to hoping this baby is ready to go soon!!!

6:30 pm. Just upped her dosage to get things going quicker. Sara is completely numb now and ready to go.

6:56 pm. Onto nurse #2. Kelly is quite peppy. Maybe a bit too peppy.

7:25 pm. All of the sudden Sara feels like she needs to push. Here we go.

7:34 pm. Born after 2 pushes. Waiting on stats.

7:44 pm. 9 lbs, 8 oz; 22 inches total

8:04 pm. Started nursing immediately. Seriously. Latched on in less than 1 second.

We will have pictures of Myra Staley Oblad up later this evening, probably around 10 pm central time. Thanks for all your prayers and well wishes.

Baby, One More Time

Once again I have been called up from the minors (aka "being the male") to pinch hit for Sara today and to provide relief in the form of encouragement and blogging updates live from the DFW. Being that this town is eveloped in World Series fever, I felt a baseball theme would be appropriate for today. But, since we've recently got into the series "Walking Dead," don't be suprised if a few zombie references are thrown in there. And, if you're wondering-yes, I did use a Britney Spears song as the title of this blog entry.

This morning I woke to a low pitch moaning and was ready to knock some zombie skulls but then I realized it was just Sara having contractions. (Please don't tell her I compared her to the "walkers.") That was about 6:10. We timed a couple contractions and were ready to go and left at 6:30. We made it to the hospital in Denton in about 15 minutes, got all checked in and are now waiting for the labor to intensify a bit.

I will be posting updates here throughout the day. Play Ball!

8:42 am. We just got back from a 45-minute walk around the hospital that the nurse sent us on in the hope that it would speed up contractions. When we started they were 4-5 minutes apart and now they're between 2 and 2.5 minutes apart.

9:30 am. Contractions slowed down a bit so we're heading on another 45 minute walk. Also, we've decided it's a good time to start thinking of baby names.

10:30 am. Same as before. Contractions sped up during the walk and then slowed down once Sara laid back down. Looks like they may not even admit us and that we'll have to come back when things speed up. We hope we get to stick around, however, because the hospital is so far away and we've already been here for so long that we might as well just have this baby now!

10:45 am. Looks like they're sending us home until things get further along. It's strange to me because usually babies come faster when you've had a few, but we're actually going in the opposite direction as labor is lasting longer with each new baby!

3:00 pm. Today's game has been postponed due to unfavorable weather, er uh, cervical conditions. We hope to get a baby here soon. The good news is we now have time to come up with a name.

A Belly Picture

It's amazing how many less pictures I have of myself with each pregnancy. This is the first belly shot with this pregnancy! This was taken at 33 weeks. The pregnancy is going great. I've been a lot more swollen in the legs and feet this time around because of the heat here. I am constantly entertained by pushing my finger into my ankle area and my skin staying sunken in! My shirts are getting too short lately. I'm running out of stuff to wear. I'm physically ready for this girl to get here but not so much ready when it comes to having 4 kids!! I'm still in awe that I'm a mom and that I have 3 kids. I still feel like I just graduated from high school. We still don't have a name for this little girl (I'm still convinced it's going to be a boy- I've actually considered bringing a boy outfit too to the hospital to bring the baby home in). I'm scheduled to get induced on October 25th, which is only 17 days away!! Yikes!

A Visit from Grandpa Oblad

At the beginning of September, Tyson's dad came for a visit and to bring Cicily (Tyson's sister) down to work at Tyson's office as a legal assistant intern. While he was here we ate lots of good food and went to see the Dallas Temple.

Makayla & Lawson in front of the temple

A friend of mine gave a good talk in church about having your kids touch the temple as often as possible. (Thanks, Jenn!) In Provo, the temple was only minutes away. It's been different living in Texas where it takes about 30+ minutes to get to the nearest one. We took advantage of being near downtown and let the kids get out and touch the temple. Makayla has asked a few times since then if we can go touch the temple. :)

Grandpa Oblad, Cicily and the kids.

Struggles of a 2-year-old

Makayla doesn't do regular naps anymore. We have "quiet time" where she spends a couple of hours in her room (she is in and out more than I would like). One particular day I put her in her clean room fully clothed. After a bit, I could hear the cry she makes when she's frustrated. She never came out so I figured she was probably trying to change her clothes, which she does a lot. It was quiet for awhile so I went to check on her. This is what I found:

Makayla asleep with her swimming suit on and all of her toys scattered all over.

The frustrated cry came from putting the swim suit on but she did it! :)

So peaceful :)

First Day of School (Aug 22, 2011)

Lawson started Pre-K this year. He was so excited for his first day. I went in to wake him up and he was already awake in his bed just waiting for me to come!

He goes to school M-F from 7:50 to 10:50, which in my opinion, isn't long enough. :)

I couldn't get a good smile out of him.

Now that he's been in school nearly 2 months, he's still LOVING it! He loves "Circle Time" where they sing songs and learn different things. He has thrown little tantrums for the 2 holidays we've had so far because he loves going to school so much.

Utah- August 2011

On our way from Idaho to Tyson's family in Utah, we stopped at my Grandma's house. It was fun for the kids to see their great-grandma! Fun for us too!

Aunt McKinsie with Porter.

She took good care of the kids while we stayed at Tyson's dad's house in Salt Lake.

Playing in Uncle Jonathan's room.

Aunt Kjera and Makayla

Grandpa Oblad & Lawson

The bellies!

Kjera (Tyson's little sister) is having her first baby the beginning of January.

Lawson, Kinsie, Porter, and Chanse (Tyson's cousin)

We went to Chuck-A-Rama with the family.

Tickling Me Me (Tyson's Grandma)

Aunt Kjera & Uncle Mike

We took a little trip to Provo and saw some of our best friends, the Andersons.

Julian and Lawson were good little friends during Law School.

Tennyson & Lawson

We had to go to Brick Oven while we were there for old time's sake.

Tennyson & Makayla

They are only about 3 weeks apart in age. Sam and I were pregnant at the same time and bonded even more during that time! :) She was pregnant too (she's had her baby since then) when we went to see them. I've missed her during this pregnancy. :)

Oblads & Andersons

Makayla got some lip gloss from my mom and was showing Porter how to use it.

Makayla got quite a baby collection on our trip. Porter was babysitting for her. :)

We had such a fun time in Utah and were sad to leave family and friends. We did all the driving in 3 days each way-- 20 hours to Utah and another 3 1/2 to Idaho. The van that we got in April was a lifesaver and made the trip much more doable. The kids did great with no major mishaps to report! We miss family and hope to see some visitors soon!

Idaho- August 2011

A little bit late but better than never, right! So here is our trip out West. Tyson's mom and grandma came to Texas to caravan with us back to Utah. We stopped first in Lubbock where Tyson's younger brother and his family live while he's going to Texas Tech.

All the Oblad cousins.

Lawson, JJ, Makayla, Oliver, Grandma, Me Me, and Porter

We made it to Idaho!

My dad checks our teeth each time we go. Lawson was his little assistant.

Tyson had a cavity! I had none to keep my cavity-free streak of 29 years!

Looking at the cavity! :)


Uncle Landon (my little brother), Lawson and Porter

The girl cousins.

Molly is Makayla's only girl cousin on both sides of the family!

We had a bonfire in the backyard.

Makayla making her pirate face.

Landon, my dad, Lawson, and my little cousin Paige

Paige, Tyson, Devin (my little brother), and his wife Missy.

Devin and his family were also in town from Omaha for a couple of weeks so we made it a family reunion. It was so fun but went by too fast!

Grandma Lynnie with Mack (Devin's boy)

Grandma Lynnie with Makayla

Landon roasting a Starburst. Who knew?!

Lawson roasting a marshmallow

Molly and Porter.

Porter is 4 months older.

The Thompson cousins

Molly, Porter, Makayla, and Lawson, and Mack

Grandma & Grandpa with all their grandkids (minus baby girl due soon!)

We had so much fun in Idaho and were sad to leave! It was fun to see everyone. It had been since Christmas so a visit was much needed. We're excited to have Grandma Lynnie come when the baby comes in a few weeks!