McCarthy 4.0

Announcing McCarthy version 4.0:

"Toad"

Born 11/25/16 3:19 AM

7 lbs. 7 oz.

21" long (although this is debatable...)

Me and the shiny new babe

Daddy and "mini me"

Big sisters

Peach is thrilled!

He is much loved by all- the girls are constantly making up excuses to sneak peak at him while he sleeps and argue about who gets to hold him next.  The Frog, at first a bit more nervous about holding him for extended periods (and I don't get the feeling it's because The Frog always seems to be the one who gets spit up upon), does enjoy Toad's funny baby facial expressions (there are so many!) and likes to pretend he's getting punched across the room by Toad's wild arm movements.  I think the most endearing act of love is that The Frog put his favorite stuffed animal in Toad's crib when we got home from the hospital, and it is still there.  The Frog is now as obsessed with getting in his cuddle-time.

Cousins Came to Visit

Cousins came to visit

Auntie saved me from horrible hospital food

Toad is so far a pretty good baby- I won't say he's the easiest or the hardest.  His schedule is still, well, not really any kind of schedule yet, but I am getting *some* sleep, *most* nights- which is an improvement because when he was born he would have wakeful moments at about 2 in the afternoon and 2 in the morning.

I knew babies were a lot of work when I signed up for this, but I did kind of forget...  I would be lying if I didn't say I was relishing every moment, however.  Hazel used to seem so small, but now she's practically a giant by comparison, and I remember feeling the same way about Peach when Hazel was born.  They really do get big sooo fast, and I'm determined to enjoy every squiggley, fuzzy, squishy, twitchy, hiccupy, spit-uppy moment.

As far as pregnancies go, it was better than the last one.  Or maybe it wasn't...  but I was expecting it to be worse, and it wasn't!  So in my mind, it was better :)  It was nice not having 2 toddlers to pick up after and no diapers to change.  My hips hurt much much more at night this time around, though.

Labor was by far the shortest, and I think it's because it was the first time when my water broke before I started having contractions.  If you're not a fan of birth stories, go ahead and skip the next couple of paragraphs :D

I told Toad that he either needed to come by Monday before Thanksgiving, or wait until after Thanksgiving because I was NOT going to spend Thanksgiving in the hospital.  He obediently obliged and my water broke at about 11:45 PM- after Thanksgiving dinner.  Luckily, I was sleeping on a towel, and being paranoid about ruining my mattress, I got out of bed as fast as a beached walrus could muster.  No contractions yet, so I decided to take a shower, as per tradition.  (After #1, I learned to always shower before going to the hospital because I feel too light headed for the next couple of days to do it and let's just say, I'm not the kind of person who can hide how long it's been since they've bathed...)  Contractions started at 2.5 minutes apart while I was showering.  We texted Jay's mom (the saint had just hosted Thanksgiving and, we found out later, was coming down with something!!  We <3 12:30="" 3="" again="" and="" at="" away.="" came="" do="" don="" great="" hair="" happen="" i="" in="" knows="" look="" made="" morning.="" my="" nbsp="" over="" p="" pam="" promise="" right="" she="" shortly.="" since="" so="" sure="" t="" that="" the="" this="" to="" usually="" when="" who="" will="" you="">

We got to the hospital at about 1 AM, dilated to 5cm.  This was my best labor, I think, because I finally found a way to be comfortable while lying down!  They had this awesome peanut thing that I put between my knees to help support my hips while I laid down on my side (I would have slept with that thing every night if I had known it existed!  Wicked hip pain this pregnancy).  It was the most relaxed I've ever been during labor.  Once again, he was caught by the nurse (even though I warned her that once I was ready to push, he'd be out).  It was the most painful one I remember, but usually it takes a couple pushes and this time it was just one really prolonged one.  I remember, at least with Hazel, pushing once, feeling like there was a rock (her head) in my birth canal but feeling no pain until she actually emerged.  This time, he must have been at a weird angle or something because it was so uncomfortable! I just had to get him out!

I'm awake, I promise...

He'

Ok!  I've sat down to work on this over a dozen times and keep getting interrupted!  No idea what I was about to say.  I better quit while I'm ahead :)

An apology to those who are finding out on my blog and deserve a phone call and deserve a phone call...

Here are a few unrelated things I would like to remember/feel the need to share.

 My favorite Japanese treat has come out with a grape flavor!  Iris's mom knows it's my favorite, so she sent us some to try.

The verdict?  It tastes exactly like grape bubblegum.  I prefer the original.

 This is what Peach does when you're eating something and she wants some...  Except she comes at you like this, like you had better hurry and share or she might eat YOU!

 Another classic Peach face.  She is such a spaz sometimes.

Oh, and here's me on a typical morning, changing Peach's diaper.

 And The Frog requested we take the next one.  He's been requesting photos of himself and his achievements lately.  This next achievement is probably one of the top 10...

 And Peach looking adorable as usual.  How can you say no to this?

 This is a stuffed raccoon I found in the garden when I prepped it.  It had decided to hibernate in the dirt, under the leaves, all winter long.  I somehow convinced Peach to release it from her clutches long enough for me to throw it in the washer.  (but not the drier.  It's wet here...)

 It's one of her new favorite things.

This is after helping me make some bread.  She knows how to make it look like serious work.

Oh yeah, have I not mentioned I'm preggo?

huh...

Yep.

Swimming, no pics, and no baby.

Jay took The Frog swimming twice in the last week (though I only went once and discovered a dead battery after I arrived) and he had a great time going down the huge waterslide with daddy, and finally swimming around on his own!! We have a life-vest-ish thing he wears in the pool (not quite as restraining though) and he can actually kick and doggy paddle well enough to follow Jay around!

Other than that, I'm continually planning on every day to be "the day", but so far, no baby. Were she on The Frog's timetable, we would have had her already. Needless to say, I'm muy disappointed. Looks like I'm going to have to start breaking out the spicy food and running up and down the stairs :) (haha, as if I could)

6 Weeks and Counting

We are about 6 weeks away from getting our baby girl (finally!) and I'm praying she'll be 2 weeks early like The Frog was. This pregnancy has been a LOT harder than the last one (which isn't really saying much since the last one was soooo easy), and I'm very ready to be done with the gigantic belly. None of my summer maternity clothes fit anymore... thank goodness for my two tummy sleeves that I wear with everything to cover what my shirt no longer does. I think I'm officially out of the "basketball" stage and fully into the "watermelon" stage.


I think the most fun thing about being pregnant has been talking about the baby with The Frog. He already knows her name and talks about her and gives her kisses and pats. It's adorable. I only hope he'll be enamored with her when she gets here and not completely jealous (which is what I suspect will happen).

Mentioning her now reminds me that we're going to need to come up with a "blog name" for her. Probably we'll wait until she gets here for the final say but does anyone have any suggestions? (It was hard enough coming up with her real name.)

A Bit of Everything, Mostly Nothing

Though lots has been happening lately, I haven't felt very inspired about documenting it.  I think I've had too many journal-ish entries as of late, and was hoping for something more interesting.  However, I've just been spending most of my time keeping up with the cleaning, reading other peoples' blogs, and noticing my belly increasing in size.

One bit of excitement- we've started getting tomatoes on our plants!!  So far, only our mini, yellow, pear-tomatoes have ripened, and I haven't yet had a big enough harvest to populate an entire salad, but they're yummy enough to pop in plain.  Even though I didn't spend one cent on plants for our garden, between gifts from my mother and a neighbor, we somehow ended up with 12 tomato plants of various species- all planted within two 3x4 foot boxes.  Here's a glimpse of the massiveness of our tomato tangle- I hope I'll be able to reach them all! Needless to say, I've already started researching tomato recipes... if you have any great ones, I'm alllll ears.

Everything else seems to be going just great!  Jay has started having "official business" to attend to, and I've been lucky enough be be invited to a couple of faculty breakfasts the past couple of days.  It's funny to all of a sudden be on the other end of the spectrum in academia.  I'm not old enough to be married to a professor.

We had another uneventful baby check-up on Monday, and I've so far gained 19 pounds during this pregnancy, which means I'm allowed 6 more pounds in the next 3.5 weeks.  Wahoo! Bring on the ice cream :)  I must admit, for as comfortable as I've been the last 8 months, I really can't complain about anything.  However, in the past couple of days, I've noticed that it takes a great amount of effort to get out of my chair, so I have to be sure I don't need to get up for awhile, every time I sit somewhere comfy.  (Which is usually to read yet another birthing/nursing/baby book.)  I have three more preggy-books to finish and 2 more to peruse before I'm willing to lose the belly, and then I can get back to reading "normal" things...  I have a real hankering to read a really great novel.  Any recommendations?

Awesome Pants and Giant Ants

A couple of things:

1)  My life just got 10 times better yesterday - I got a new pair of pants!

Usually, though it's fun to get new clothes, a new piece of wearable fashion rarely does more for me than allow me to brag about how cheap it was (because if I bought it, it was cheap) and make me feel a bit more "hip" or "cute" or "stylin" for a little while.  But this new article is an extraordinary bit of fabric.  Indeed.  And anyone who knows me, and finds out that I paid FULL PRICE for these (i.e. they were not on sale-  I'm no thief!) would instantly have gigantic red flags furiously waving in their brains because Libby never buys clothing unless it's on sale.  

Until yesterday.

These pants are a breath of fresh air.  Literally.  What's so great about them, you ask?  Well, honestly, I don't think anyone could possible understand until they've carried around a small child (that feels really huge) as if someone has decided to attach a watermelon to their front.  I didn't realize how uncomfortable all my other maternity pants were until I tried Motherhood Maternity's Secret-fit Belly. Sitting is once again comfortable!  No red lines under the belly and I have lost that breezy, I-feel-like-a-disgusting-man-with-a-beer-belly-so-huge-that-no-shirt-will-cover-it sensation.  All I can say is I'll be wearing these every day until the little one decides to emerge and I'm not looking back.

2) We have ants.  Big ones.

It's weird though because I'm not really sure what they're doing.  I've watched and watched their trail and they are not headed anywhere near our food.  They commence from a small hole between the molding and tile right next to the front door on the right side.  Then they crawl along the base of the door into another hole in the molding and tile on the other side of the door (on the left).  A little bit later it emerges and returns to the initial hole (on the right).  There is no sign of food or carrying anything of any kind.  Very strange.  Also, I rarely see more than one or two out at a time.

I have considered that maybe the ant that reappears from the left side is not the same one that entered, so I started sucking them up with a vacuum.  It seems that nothing comes out unless something went in.  (unless they're smart enough to wait for me to leave...)  

We tried squirting that ant food stuff that they're supposed to eat up and take back to the colony to kill the whole lot, but it hasn't worked.  I might add that we had some much smaller ants in the guest-bath shower, and the same ant food seemed to work like a charm.  But these ants won't even touch the ant-food.  

Any suggestions?

In the mean time, I have permanently parked our vacuum right next to the front door, and every time I pass by, I look for my next victim.  I don't think I've killed so many bugs in my life as I have this week alone.  I probably suck up about 20 ants everyday and they just keep coming.