Tudor: The Family Story

By: Leanda De Lisle I was fortunate enough to receive an advanced reader copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for my review of the book.

  Disclaimer: I am not being in any way compensated for this review outside of getting to read the book before it's released on October 8, 2013. 

Beginning not with Henry VII taking the throne but with the death of Catherine of Valois and the history of her marriage to the squire Owen Tudor, Leanda De Lisle takes the accepted story of the Tudor dynasty and gives the reader a more complex and detailed history.

 She goes on to discuss Margaret Beaufort and her role in the Tudor ascendancy, as well as the more well-known elements of the Tudor history, such as Henry VIII and Elizabeth I.

 She then proceeds to write a fascinating and factual book that reads like a novel. While Ms. De Lisle provides the dates and details of the history of the Tudors, she also gives life to the events and people that keep the story interesting.

 I've read many books on the Tudor family, and this is definitely one of, if not the best. It is well researched and referenced while remaining accessible to someone new to reading historical nonfiction.  Tudor

Weightless Wednesday #1

Starting/current Weight: 125.5
Goal Weight: 115


What I'm doing to achieve my goal:
Using my fitness pal, and exercising 5 days a week alternating cardio with yoga. It's working when I stick to it and I've lost 9.5 lbs so far.

Goals other than weight:
Get back into a size 6
Increase my odds of a successful VBAC (85% at 115)
Be better able to keep up with Sweetpea.

Busy, Busy

Sweetpea is all about climbing right now. She's managed to climb on the coffee table but is too short to manage the couch yet and that drives her crazy.
A lot of my day is spent helping her on and off the couch or telling her to sit down on the chair/sofa/whatever she's climbing or standing on.
We're starting "home school" this week and doing some early learning. I'll post more about it but basically we're introducing letters and colors.
I love being a SAHM but we need some mental stimulation so we're trying this out!

Putting the cart before the horse...

I want to get into blogging again so I'm setting a goal of posting every Sunday.
Sweetpea is wonderful, she's 16 months and a normal happy busy toddler. She loves Yo Gabba Gabba, Dogs, and Mama.
She's a complete Mama's girl and I love it.
I'm so happy being a SAHM, we've found a great Mom's group and we have a blast doing library time and mommy and me class.

I've got baby fever bad and can't wait to try for baby #2. With a little luck sometime this spring/summer we'll be able to try.
I got ahead of myself and I bought the hypnobabies set this weekend, I stumbled across a fantastic deal buying it from someone and went for it.
After the farce that was Sweetpea's delivery I'm starting early in preparing for a VBAC birth next time.
I want my next delivery to be a much calmer simpler affair. I want to learn from some of the choices I made and have a much better experience the next time.
I attribute Sweetpea flipping to the hypnobabies flip breech baby track that I listened too. So I'm using that program for natural birth. Plus Banks was useless as a labor coach so with HB I can just listen to the tracks and not need much from him.
As the title says I'm getting ahead of myself but I'm still in the positive thinking stage. ;-)
I'm adding a pic of Sweetpea

One Year Ago...

We had our transfer that brought us our beautiful daughter.
I'm sorry for not updating but I got lazy and then busy w/ my
darling daughter.
Birth Story
DD was breach at our 38 week appointment and I wasn't a good
candidate for a version so a c-section was scheduled.
We get to the hospital at 5 am on delivery day and baby
had flipped head down. I'm 2 cm and having a few contractions
So an induction is started. Things go smoothly except for a few
decels on the fetal monitor and by early afternoon I'm 10 cm and
ready to go. Unfortunately sweetpea does not handle pushing
well and gets stuck.
We're taken for a c-section and our beautiful baby girl is born.
It was an amazing day. She is the light of my life and I
Couldn't be happier!

30 weeks! Frustration and a little vent

I had my 30 wk appt and it went really well. Baby and I are doing great and right on track. I go back in 2 weeks and the only kinda bad thing is he strongly recommends/prefers continuous fetal monitoring which I wanted to avoid but I'll trust his judgment and go w/ it. He also said to bring in my birth plan and we'd discuss it so we're on the same page.

Since I want to go med free there are some things I'd prefer that should make it easier, at least based on what I've learned/read. Of course the only thing that matters is the baby is born safe and healthy. Once I've hashed it out I'll post my final birth plan and any changes the Dr. recommends.

My frustration comes from the fact that we still don't have the nursery set up or even started. FIL is supposed to help Banks paint the nursery but he keeps putting off coming over. I can't convince DH to just do it already. It wouldn't be as big a deal if we didn't have a ton of gifts and nursery items stuck in the guest room. Everyone was very generous at our first shower and I have nowhere to put the baby items and it's driving me crazy. I might could deal if my Mom and BFF weren't coming out for my 2nd shower but the guestroom HAS to be ready by the time they come out which is ~ 2.5 weeks from now.

I keep telling DH that the EDD is a guess and the baby can come anytime from 38 wks to 41+ weeks but he seems to think that the baby won't be here until Aug. 31st and we have all the time in the world. I'd love to have things settled and set up by 35 wks so that whenever that baby comes we're ready. Not to mention I know I'm only gong to get more tired as time passes.

Anyway, that's what's up w/ us!

24 weeks

Sorry for the delay but I couldn't find my camera and I wanted to post a belly pic.

I'm doing great. I quit my job and my last day is next week! I can't wait I've hated every single day at the job. I'm so excited to be a sahw and mom. Banks is less thrilled but agreed the stress wasn't good for me or sweetpea and is ok with it.
I'm hoping that now that I'll be home I'll have more time to blog and will do better w/ updates

We're taking our babymoon this weekend and I can't wait. I'll post all about it once we get back.