Pages of Penrose: Books of April

Not an incredibly lengthy list this time.  I guess other things have kept me busy and these were longer books so somehow there are only two on my list for my Books of April...

I love Liane Moriarty.  She's such a great author that packs a lot into a storyline.  What Alice Forgot is another fantastic book from her!  I'm excited for her new book that is coming out in June because I have read almost everything she's written already!




Read my thoughts on Five Days at Memorial here.


Remember to follow along with me on Goodreads to see what books I'm loving these days.

Pages of Penrose Review: Five Days at Memorial by Sheri Fink

Wow, wow, wow. Where to begin with this book?  Sheri Fink does a great job at reporting the events that took place at Memorial Hospital in New Orleans during the Hurricane Katrina disaster.  The entire time that I was reading the story, thinking of what the doctors, nurses, and patients were going through is unimaginable.  If you or someone you know is in the medical field, I highly recommend that they read this book.  It may open their eyes to some procedures that need fixing in their own hospital (although I know that after Katrina many hospitals did re-vamp policies specifically because of the issues that these people faced).

In terms of the actual book, Five Days at Memorial:  Life and Death in a Storm-Ravaged Hospital
, I understand why it was so lengthy--Sheri Fink certainly had a lot of information to tell.  However, that being said, as a busy mom with lots of other things going on each day it was a bit longer than I would have liked.  Perhaps instead of the book having two parts, it became two separate books in a set.  At 592 pages, it was a bit of an intimidating or daunting task to finish!

If you like books about true life events or natural disasters, make sure to grab a copy of Five Days at Memorial.

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*I received this book from Blogging for Books for this review. All opinions are my own.

Parenting Penrose: 12 Weeks with Baby#2

How am I feeling lately? This about sums it up....

and this...

and lots of this...

and unfortunately this...

How Far Along?  12 w + 2 d

Belly Progress:  I've gained 5 lbs and have officially graduated to belly-banding almost all of my pants.  Feeling (and possibly looking?) like I've just eaten a burrito 100% of the time.

Baby's Heartrate:  First appointment was 141, second appointment was 160.  

Common Questions we are getting:

--Do we hope it's a boy this time?  Sort of, but not really. We have pretty much decided to have 3 kids, so I guess we feel like there is always another chance for a boy. Four years ago I never would have seen myself having daughters, but now that I'm a girl mom I do think it would be fun for Ryleigh to have a sister.  She is also pretty set on getting a "baby shishter" so we will see!  It sounds cliche to just say that we just want a healthy baby, but I'm not naive to the fact that a healthy baby is a blessing, so that really is all that we care about.

--Is this pregnancy similar to last time? So far, I would say it's been a bit different.  I'm having weirder cravings this time, and my morning sickness was also different.

--When is my actual due date?  October 30th

--Am I tired?  Extremely.

--When will we find out the sex of the baby? If we wait until my doctor's office does the anatomy ultrasound, it will be sometime around the 1st or 2nd week of June. Not at my next appointment, but the one after.  Jake doesn't do well with surprises and waiting, so he's trying to convince me to go to 3D Dreams in Fort Mill to do their Gender Determination ultrasound mid-May.

--Am I going to breastfeed again?  Yes, as long as I have the supply to do it.  I've learned some things I can do to hopefully improve the latching issues we had with Ryleigh so that I can actually breastfeed this baby, but if that doesn't work I will be exclusively pumping again.  The goal would be 12 months again, but I know that adjusting to two kids will be a new challenge so if I can't do it that long, that will be okay too.  #FedIsBest

--Is there anything that we want to do differently this time around?  I'm sure there will be a few things.  I feel smarter now about things that we had to learn as we went the first time around so I'm sure there will be some changes and some things we keep the same.  I know every baby is different so we will just have to see what works!