The Continuing Tales of Prince Philip and Princess Braewyn

We're honestly raising Philip and Braewyn to be normal kids who love God and treat others with kindness, but there's just so much going on that it seemed like a good title. Anyway... Things have been going well with a few bumps along the way. About a month ago, we drove up to spend the day with my brother Mike and his "with child" wife Andrea. It is so exciting counting the days down until "Baby Cousin" is born. Andrea is due November 8 and we know it's a boy, but don't know his name and can't wait to see what he looks like. Mom helped Mike paint a mural in the nursery while Matthew, Andrea, Philip and I drove through the campus of Winthrop University. It holds lots of memories as Mike, Andrea, Matthew and I all graduated from Winthrop and where each of us met our spouses. It was neat seeing all the improvements made to the campus and especially fun to watch Philip run around the sidewalks and grass lawns I had once occupied before he was even a thought in my mind!

A few weekends after that, Matthew, Ruth Ann, Philip, Braewyn and I went to Niven's Apple Farm for our second annual visit. We went last year to buy a pumpkin but Philip was just a tad bit small to really enjoy it. This year... he really, really enjoyed it! There is a tube to crawl through, giant inner tubes to jump on, a huge teepee to walk around inside, wood stand-ups to put your face through (see pics), animals to see, a huge tractor to see on and pumpkins to buy. We got there just as it was time for Braewyn to eat so I told Matthew and Ruth Ann to go ahead and take Philip on down to the farm. About 35 minutes later I finally come rolling along with Braewyn's little cheeks just jiggling from all the gravel the stroller was bumping over. She had nursed great but as is happening a lot recently, when she was almost done, she had a blow-out! A blow-out is when the poop erupts from her bottom spilling out over the top of her diaper and all clothes must be removed and a new outfit put on. And yes, I had to handle all in the back seat of the Trailblazer! Yuck!

Here are some pics of my beautiful baby girl. She really is growing up quite fast but there are days I still don't know what to do with her. The hardest thing we're facing is how to get her to sleep through the night. However, I should have posted this a few days ago because the last two nights she has slept from 9:00pm until 5:00am. PRAISE JESUS!! I was talking with Lori about it on Friday when I was still very much exhausted from being up most of Wednesday night and something she said clicked in my head. Lori asked if Braewyn was still taking an evening nap. Simple question enough but it made me realize I have totally been slack in keeping her on a schedule (I was almost militant about it with Philip!). Poor girl, she's just sort of floating through life so it's no wonder she's not sure when to sleep or wake up. Well, as I said she's slept until 5:00am the last two nights and last night she was not even swaddled! I have been better to bathe her by 7:30pm, take her to the office where I lotion, dress and nurse her. She is then put in the bassinet (decided to go back to that to allow Philip better nights' rest while we get her figured out) awake and I leave the room. I'm feeling much better today. The only struggles now are working with her over the next few weeks to move that 5:00am wake up time forward to at least 6:00am (when she wakes at 5:00am, I nurse and change her, put her back in the bassinet and go back to bed myself before we both officially start the day at 7:00am; if I could get myself in bed earlier at night, I could use that time for Bible study or something else productive). Also, we started Braewyn on rice cereal this week (pictures to come) so I'm having difficulting in getting her nursed and fed in a relative amount of time so it's not like nurse at 7:00am, cereal at 7:40am, finish nursing by 7:55am and then she's not really hungry when her next nursing time at 10:00am comes around. Well, if you're still reading I know this will all be behind me in a few months and I'll wonder why it was so stressful. Here are the pictures of my little "princess" Braewyn.