The Tommerdahls

Tuesday July 1 - Welcome Larkyn Emery!

After my parents arrived at 5:30 am to stay with sleeping Summer and Colton (because my water had broken two hours earlier) we headed out the door to the hospital. We got to the hospital about 6am.

Ready to meet our little girl!

After checking in, they hooked me up to the machines and started me on Pitocin to get the contractions going a bit faster since my water had broken. In the meantime, Paul and I chatted about meeting baby, wondered if she would come before the 3pm United States vs Belgium World Cup Soccer game would be on ;), looked at how tiny the first diaper was that our little girl would wear, and watched some Full House DVD's we had brought along to help pass the time between contractions.

TINY DIAPER!

My doctor was on vacation in Iowa, but wanted to come back to deliver our 3rd child (she is so great and delivered both Summer and Colton). By about 1:30pm I knew baby was going to be coming soon. As Paul and I watched the clock to see how much longer before Dr. Young arrived, the nurse turned off the Pitocin, to try and slow things down. I honestly wondered if my doctor was going to make it before our little girl made her entrance into the world! Amidst the toughest contractions I remember mouthing the word, "Hurry!" to Paul...and thankfully a few minutes later Dr. Young came running through the door! With literally the next set of contractions out came Larkyn Emery!!

Video: Larkyn Getting Measured:

Video: Larkyn sucking her finger

Seriously, LOVE at first sight. I was and still am in absolute awe of God's creation in Larkyn Emery. I am so in love.

Not long after Larkyn was born, we were visited by a very excited big sister, and very rambunctious big brother ;), four amazing grandparents, two uncles and an aunt :).

Grandma and Grandpa K helped Summer and Colton pick out presents for Larkyn before they came to the hospital. Summer chose a Minnie Mouse blanket and Colton chose a pink hippo rattle and some little socks.

Both Grandma and Grandpa's tag teamed at taking care of our kids for two days while we stayed at the hospital and loved on Larkyn :).

My good friend Jessi had her son less than 24 hours after Larkyn, and had the room across the hall from us! (Jessi's older two girls are close in age to Summer and Colton!)

On Wednesday the kids came for a second visit, and I just love how these pictures capture the total excitement of Summer to have a little sister, Colton showing Larkyn his Lightning McQueen car, and the special moments of looking at Larkyn's tiny feet and hands.

Belly Pics - 38 Weeks

At 3:30 am on Tuesday July 1st, my water broke! Although I didn't realize it at first! Throughout the coming hour I would run to the bathroom several times, call the nurse care line, and we would be in contact with our parents. After a shower, packing our bags, putting the baby car seat in the car, and getting things ready for our parents to stay with our kiddos for the following days while we were in the hospital, I realized I never took the "belly pics" I took with both Summer and Colton at 39 weeks (click here for that post)! I knew we needed belly pics for this little girl's baby book, so at 5:30 that morning we quick tried to reinact the same belly pics I had taken for the other two kiddos :).

Then we were on our way out the door....to meet BABY GIRL!

Wrapping Up June

Well, most of you know that we were pleasantly surprised to meet our little baby girl two weeks early on July 1st (which is why I have been a bit MIA in the blog world!), however, before I catch up on that exciting news, I have a few final pictures from when our family was "four" to share :)

Family Zoo Day

Fish tanks!

Climbing at the Park

Colton "driving" the fishing boat

The girls :)

Fun to see this bear up close!

Family Visit to the Children's Museum

Giant Train Table

Grocery Store

Checking out :)

Sleepy Colton cuddles with Daddy :)

Nursery

In my "nesting" phase (two days before baby girl would come!), I rearranged the nursery and added some more pink touches :). I brought in some toys as I knew the kids would likely be playing in there a lot while I nursed/changed/etc Baby Girl.

Nursery

The Day Before Baby Arrived...

Little did we know on Monday June 30th that Baby would be joining us the following day! Its fun for me to remember this day in detail as we had no idea what the next day would bring!!! On the day before Baby arrived we went to the zoo, played at the splash pad there until it rained, ate our picnic lunch by the giant fish tank, and came home for naps (I took one too!). In the evening we had a fun family night of campfire and S'Mores. The kids were seriously ECSTATIC about the bonfire and literally jumped up and down / ran around with excitement for the entire 30 minutes it took us to find the S'More's sticks and get the fire going! After the kids went to bed I got our vegetable garden all weeded and did some cleaning (good thing as I wouldn't be home for several days and we would have lots of company!) while Paul went for a run. Here are the pictures I took from our last day before we would meet our littlest girl...