Soldier's Wife, Crazy Life

military kids

My Daddy is a Soldier Book Review

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books for military kids

I love it when Military spouses write books. They can bring reality to the subject they are writing about and have a good point of view on the subject.

I was given the chance to review the book, My Daddy is a Soldier. Written and Illustrated by Brittany Mayfield.

The book is written from the point of view of a child talking about their father who is a soldier. It talks about what he can do because he is one. The illustrations show a multicultural mix of soldiers which is nice to see.

books for military kids

This book is perfect for the Military child. Either those first learning to read or to be read to by a parent or older sibling.

The book is available in paperback on Amazon 🙂

 

 

* I was provided a free copy of the book for review! 

Cooper and Me and the Military book review and giveaway

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Cooper and Me and the Military

 

Raising children in a Military family has its challenges. It is nice to come across anything that can help in that journey. Books are a great resource for children in the Military. I was given the book Cooper and Me and the Military by Monique and Alexa Peters to review.

Cooper and Me is a children’s book series was started by a young girl, Alexa Peters (now 13), who has always loved to write stories and draw pictures about her experiences as a means of expressing her feelings. Cooper and Me grew out of Alexa’s gift for storytelling and compassion for other kids. The mission of Cooper and Me is to both entertain young children and help them gain emotional resilience as they navigate the challenges of everyday living.

Alexa Peters (age 13) was inspired to write a story about family friends who were separated by deployment. She wanted to write this book to help kids process their feelings about loved ones being away from home and honor those in service.
Overview:
Meet Trooper, Cooper’s best friend, and learn how he was adopted by Gracie and Joe and their parents, who both serve in the military. Find out how this family stays close despite being separated.
A must-read during patriotic holidays and for anyone with friends and family in the military, this book helps children know, that even when loved ones aren’t with us, they still love us and think about us. This book, along with all the other books in the Cooper and Me series, includes these interactive features:
• A Special Memory Creation
• Life Lesson
• Connections
• Learning Together
In addition to a fun adventure, each Cooper and Me story teaches an important Life Lesson and features interactive materials at the back of the book to drive the message home. Included are activities that help children name and process their own feelings about what they’ve read.
Julie’s thoughts on the book:
As soon as I took the book out of the mailer I knew I was going to love it. The cover is bright and has some pretty cool illustrations on it. The story is interesting and I think a lot of Military children can relate to it. My son said it was “cute” and enjoyed it. I also really liked that at the end of the book there were questions I could ask my son about it. One of them was “Have you ever missed someone? How does that feel?” I thought it was a great way to connect with your children through the book.
I know we plan to check out other books in the Cooper and Me series!
Please visit these sites to learn more about the book:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/#!/cooper_and_me

“Disclosure of Material Connection: I received one or more of the products or services mentioned above for free in the hope that I would mention it on my blog. Regardless, I ONLY recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

The Birth Story

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My Birth Story

On Tues, Nov 16th I had a rough day.  I had met Ben for lunch and we walked around the PX a bit.  Oliver North was doing a book signing so I got some pictures of that.  Then I planned to do some shopping after Ben went back to work.  I just wasn’t feeling it.  I felt icky & tired.  I finally made it home just a bit before DW’s bus came home.  I just wanted to lay down.  Later that night after everyone else was asleep I sat in the rocker and tried to watch some of my tv shows.  I started feeling some pains.  Keep in mind that for the past 2 weeks or so I was having some very random contractions that had no pattern to them.  But these seemed to have some sort of rhythm.  It was 12:30 and I wasn’t sure what to do.  I decided that I would try to sleep.  If I could, I could.  If the pain kept me up, well something was happening.

I was able to sleep a little but woke up at about 2:45ish with pain.  This pain was worse and I wasn’t sure I could sleep again.  After about 15 mins of trying I couldn’t.  Ben had been up off and on all night and was having trouble sleeping himself.  So between 3:00-3:30 we watched and debated on what to do.  Finally decided to call my friend to come over to be with the sleeping boys and head to the hospital.

We got there right about 4 am.  They had us wait about 10 minutes in the waiting room and then took me back.  They asked me a ton of questions and I was contracting through all of it.  They had me on the monitors and as I laid there I had to figure out my final decision about the epidural.  It was hard for me.  My other 2 I had totally natural.  I was super committed to that choice then and was able to do it.  I just wasn’t feeling it this time.  In the end, I made the decision to get one.  They checked me and I was at 4.  I had decided if I was less than that I would want to wait on the epidural but it felt like things were moving along.

They had to test my blood and put in an IV, which I just seemed to be okay with.  I went to the delivery room and everything got set up.  As we moved my contractions just kept coming on.  They were getting really painful and really uncomfortable.  I just kept trying to breathe through them while holding on tightly to Ben.  I was so thankful he was there with me.  Just feeling him around me was so nice.

Well by the time we got into the delivery room I want to say it was after 5?  I can’t totally remember.  I contracted a bit and was feeling like I was getting to a pretty painful place.  The lady came in with the epidural and putting it in went better than I thought.  Ben was right there with me the whole time too.  After it went in she told me it would take a few contractions to work.

This is when it got fun.  I had 2 contractions that felt really bad.  Like the end of labor, about to have the baby bad.  Then I felt tons and tons of pressure.  They checked me and the nurse say, “There is no more cervix” and I guess I said, “What?  Where did it go?”  Ben was cracking up.  But I knew I was complete and I knew that pressure was my body saying it was time to push.

The midwife was right there and told me to push once and so I did.  Then told me to do it again and he was out.  I was amazed at how fast it was!  He was born right at 6:11am.  His cord was wrapped around his neck so Ben didn’t get to cut it but that was ok.  I was just glad everything was going so well.

It was so weird as I felt like the last few weeks were dragging on and on.  I was feeling random contractions, so icky and then bam when active labor started, it started and he was born right away.

I really felt at peace with this birth.  I felt like I made the right decisions and that everything worked out ok.  Of course, I am dealing with the Bell’s Palsy which is not ideal but everything else seems to turn out well.  I was pleased with the hospital and how nice everyone was to us.  The only thing was how hard it is to be there, getting used to breastfeeding, finally having the baby sleep and then they come in to check your stats again.

I feel like this pregnancy was the hardest one, yet maybe the “easiest” labor.  It wasn’t easy of course but out of the 3 I felt it was.  I also feel totally content with this as my last baby.  Our family feels complete and it is a great feeling 🙂

And I am loving having THREE boys.  It’s great and it will be even more fun as Joshua gets older I imagine.  It’s like God knew this was the perfect family for me to have 🙂

And I thank God everyday that Ben was here and he is still home with us.  We are still in waiting mode to see when he has to go but I look at every extra day as a great thing.