What I'm Reading - Prima Donna

Honestly, I thought I would be able to read so much more on my maternity leave. Maybe, I've been watching too much TV. I'm on week five of my 10 week leave, and I'm only starting my third book. Oh well, life as a parent of two...

What I'm reading now...

I'm a fan of these kinds of books. Pretty simple and easy romance reads. I have a handful of authors that I always turn to when I need a good romance, and some of those authors were on the "if you like... then you'll love..." list. I was given a copy of this book by the publisher. Prima Donna was published on September 23rd. Below is the official synopsis...

Even when her hair salon goes under and she’s on the brink of breaking, Regan Burke keeps her “I’m just fine” attitude. She’s had a tough life, coping with a difficult family and keeping her act together . . . barely. Right now, she just needs a job, any job, so she can pay her mother’s medical bills. It’s the exact wrong time for Carter Scott to come into her life—and to be so damn sexy, so distracting, and so determined to get close. 

 

Carter isn’t looking for anything serious—his heart belongs to the kids who depend on his pediatric practice—but something about Regan makes him reconsider. Maybe it’s the scars she hides so well, the secrets she can’t share. Carter knows all about that kind of pain, and he wants to help. But offering Regan a job in his office only makes things worse, even if their chemistry is off the charts. Lucky for them both, Carter isn’t about to let go of love without a fight.

Be on the lookout for my review on Obsessive Book Nerd in the next couple of weeks. 

Happy Reading! 

What I'm Reading - No Weddings

Like I've mentioned before, I usally don't go more than 2 weeks between books. But with the recent birth of Baby T, I took almost 3 weeks off. I started feeling antsy about day 13 though, so I'm extremely happy to report that I've started a new book this morning and all is right in the world. 

What I'm reading now...

No Weddings by Kate Bastion and Stone Bastion. I was given an Advanced Reader Copy (ARC) of this book, but since I've been a bit preoccupied, I was unable to read it and review it before the release date, which was September 8th. This book is written by a bestselling author, Kate Bastion and her husband, Stone Bastion. I wanted to read this New Adult/Romance book becuase it is soley told from the male's point of view. While most romance books are writen by both the main female and male's POV, No Weddings promises to provide an interesting take on the Romance genere. 

Be on the lookout for my review on Obsessive Book Nerd in the next few weeks. Until then, below is the official synopsys...

Award-winning author Kat Bastion teams with her husband, Stone Bastion, in this first book in the No Weddings Series about Cade Michaelson, a successful man with his sights set on a new venture in business, and Hannah Martin, the woman who makes it personal.

I think I have my act together as a successful bar owner, my master’s degree within reach, and a list of no-strings-attached women warming my bed. Turns out, I don’t.

Hannah believes she has safeguarded her wounded heart by shunning men and focusing on her new baking business. The thing is, she hasn’t.

When my three sisters and I form an event-planning business with Hannah as our baker, I have no idea how my life is about to change. As Hannah and I work closely together, the attraction between us becomes irresistible. And complicated. I’ve promised my sisters I wouldn’t mix business with pleasure. But I’ve never been one to follow the rules.

Happy Reading! 

Baby Tessa's Birth Story

On Friday, August 29th, our family of three became a family of four! After a few weeks, I'm still having a hard time comprehending that I'm a mommy of two now. Probably because baby is so new, but I'm sure I'll get use to it. But I figured it would be a good idea to write down Tessa's birth story now before life with two gets a little crazy. So here goes...

Mommy and Baby Tessa 

Tessa Elizabeth was due on Sept. 1st but my water broke the morning of Aug. 29th. At 4am I was woken abruptly to my water breaking. While we are waiting for grandma and grandpa to come we woke up Sophia to tell her that her lil sis was ready to be born and she handled it like a trooper. She woke up bright eyed and ready to be a big sis, for she has been waiting for this moment for months now. 45 minutes later we found ourself at the hospital with Soph safely with the grandparents. 

Once I was in our labor and delivery room, my contractions started progressing, getting closer together and more intense. Since I was getting an epidural, I had to get a full IV bag in my body before I could get the epi. This seemed to take forever. The contractions were getting stronger and I was in pain. The anistigeologist was finally called, but my contactions only got worse. 

The first thing out of the anistigeologist mouth was "why didn't you call me sooner?" because I was almost at the point of no return. It took him four tries to give me the epi since my contactions were right  on top of each other. By the time they had me sitting up attempting to get the epi, I was having the urge to push. It's the most uncomfortable feeling I've ever experienced by far in my life. Finally, I was drugged and my body started to relax thanks to the epi. I was at 6cm and this was the point of no return, so I was honestly lucky that I got that epi. The nurse said that I had great control and could have had the baby without the epi, but all I could do was shake my head no and let my body rest from what it had just experienced. 

Unfortunately, I was having a bit of a low blood pressure issue. I couldn't lay on my back without it dropping and kept coming close to passing out, but the nurses were quick and able move me to my side (when you're having pushing intense contractions without any medicine, you can't move without help.) And after the epi kicked in, they had to give me a shot to boost it. 

Within 30 minutes of the epi, I was pushing and about 20 minutes after that we were the proud parents of another baby girl with a head full of hair. I mean a FULL head of hair. Tessa was born at 8:30 am - yeah, you read that right, I was only in labor for 4 1/2 hours. While I'm thankful labor was super short (Sophia's was only 10 hours, and I thought that was short) it was not with out stress and pain. Just another perk of bringing a new life into the world. :) 

Me and my girls! 

Lovin Bloglovin!

Blogs, blogs, blogs! They're so popular these days! Most people I know have at least a few blogs they follow. Of course, there are still a few people out there who haven't caught on to the craze. But when they do, they will probably wonder what the heck took them so long!

Anyways, there are a handful of good apps and services out there the group all the blogs YOU read and make pull in the RSS feeds into one easy location or way to read them. Personally, I loved Google Reader, but that service retired a couple of years ago. Since then I have moved a round trying to find the best fit for me. It wasn't until I got Obsessive Book Nerd up an running that I learned about Bloglovin. And oh my gosh! It's wonderful.

 There are lots of things you can do with Bloglovin, integrate all the blogs you follow into one place, find new blogs and monitor your personal blogs. You can add blogs by physically entering the address, or Bloglovin will populate suggested blogs based on what topics you enjoy. You can also like posts to bookmark them. If you are a blogger yourself, you "claim" your blog and it's added to the Bloglovin data base and you get nifty analytics on it once people start finding and reading it through Bloglovin.

There are tons of other nifty things you can do within Bloglovin, so I encourage you to check it out, play round. When you first sign in, you'll want to follow some of Bloglovin's most popular blogs, and of course, be sure to add Baking with Babies and Obsessive Book Nerd to your feed. Cool note, Bloglovin has a free iPhone and Android app to make following your blogs ever easier!

Click this super cool image to follow this blog! 

 

 

What I'm Reading Now - Book #46

Sometimes I read two to three books back to back, and that takes me about 9 days. Then sometimes I will take a week break before I start another book. It all depends on my mood really. But I never go more than two weeks without reading a book - it's an addiction. I can't help it!

Anyways, I'm starting my next book tonight. Actually, I think it's book #46 for the year. I'm excited for this book, since I know it will be a good one. Right Kind of Wrong by Chelsea Fine is the third book in her Finding Fate series. I have been lucky enough to have had the opportunity to read and review all in the series so far via the publisher.

I'll be posting my review over on Obsessive Book Nerd in the next couple of weeks - so be on the look out!

If you love New Adult Romance (for the 20 somethings) books, you will LOVE these books. I highly recommend these! They are quick and super fun! Click the book cover to read my review on the book!

Finding Fate #1

Finding Fate #2

Finding Fate #3

 Happy reading!





  

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