Tyler's Baptism

 A whirlwind weekend.  Many family members converged on Charlottesville to share in this special event, the most since our wedding. 

The prep work started last Monday when I scoped out food at Sam's Club and picked up supplies at Wal-mart (a special outing for me because Tom watched Tyler during the day).  Then Tuesday we started cleaning the house.  I spent all day Friday picking up with the help of my friend Rachel.  The first guests arrived Friday evening: Bobby (Tom's brother), Megan (Bobby's girlfriend), and their dog Ginger.  They drove over 8 hours from Ohio.

Tom shopped for the reception on Friday, and prepped all day Saturday.  More cleaning and picking up by me on Saturday.  Then my family arrived Saturday afternoon: My mom, dad, brother Eric, and his wife Elizabeth.  They stayed in a hotel.  Megan and I ran to Kohl's to shop for clothes for the service. 

Tom's family arrive Saturday evening: Tom's mom, dad, sister Christiana, Aunt Ria, and Grandmother.  They stayed at the same hotel as my family. They drove over 6 hours and hit a lot of traffic.

We all met around 6pm for dinner at Bonefish Grill in Hollymead.  Tyler got fussy and tired halfway through and slept in his car seat, thank goodness.  Then we hung out at our house and the weather was nice so some of us sat out on the back deck.

Tom woke early Sunday morning for more prep work and to pack the car.  The family attended Mass together, except for me, Tyler, my mom, and Elizabeth, who helped me get out the door.  Tyler does not get up until 10 or 11 every day, and I was not about to wake him!

The baptism was beautiful.  Bobby and Christianna are his Godparents.  Tyler was a little fussy during the service, and I used his pacifier to keep him quiet, something I don't normally do.

The reception was at the church and went great, thanks to Tom's prep work and our Cville friends for setting up things.  We had deli meat sandwiches, fruit, corn-tomato-avocado salad and chocolate cake. 

Tyler had a lot of trouble getting to sleep Friday, Saturday, and Sunday nights.  He was overtired and I got him to bed a little too late every night.  He took a lot of naps Monday, as if to make up for lost sleep.  But overall he did great all weekend being social with minimal fussiness during the day.

"Easist Bedtime Ever"

I got to go to Birth Circle last night and Tom watched Tyler and put him to bed.  Tom said it was his easiest bedtime ever.  Tom gave him a bath starting around 7pm, gave him a bottle and he was off to sleep by 8:15pm.  Lately Tyler has not been doing well at night - taking a long time to rock to sleep, and then waking again 10 minutes after putting him down.  Usually because Tyler missed naps and/or got to bed too late.  This causes fussiness in the evening and trouble falling asleep.  This good bedtime last night was a breakthrough for all of us, and made me feel better about getting out and leaving Tyler with Tom.  Tom does great, but if there is a chance of fussiness, it is hard to handle on your own! 


And then Tyler did not wake until 6am!  After a full feeding he went back to sleep until 11am!  Wow.  What a great sleeper.

Wow, if we had weather every day like today, it would be much easier to be in a good mood every day.  Sunny, warm but not too hot, and low humidity.  I took Tyler for a nice long walk in the stroller and he just loved it. 

3 Months Old

Happy birthday to my wonderful baby boy Tyler who is three months old today.  Yesterday at the doctor's we weighed 12 pounds 10 ounces (45%) and measured 25 1/4 inches long (90%).  I am not too worried about growth curves, and thankfully neither is my doctor.  Tyler is long and lean like his dad and is growing quickly and will soon fill out. 

From Tyler William

Yesterday Tyler had is first round of vaccines. We got them all--DTaP, Polio, HIB, Pn.  My normally mellow baby has been fussy and crying a lot and not sleeping well.  

Sleep.

Sleep.  Sleep.  Sleep.  Amount and quality.  Day or night.  Babies and adults.  This is my new reading topic of interest.  I am currently reading "Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child" by Marc Weissbluth, and have cued up other sleep books.  I am fascinated by this subject not only because I don't get much of it, but it has always been an issue for me, and I want the best for Tyler as a baby, child, and adult. 

I am only a few chapters into Weisbluth, but he says that a lot of childhood behavior problems stem from parents bad sleep habits on their children.  "My research has shown that when infants who are easy at five months of age develop into crabbier, more difficult three-year-old children...I think that parents' helping or hindering regular sleep patterns caused these shifts to occur."  Tyler has definitely been a mellow baby so far, but lately has needed regular naps to prevent fussiness. 

My new goal with my baby care has been to be more aware of Tyler's sleep cues and make sure he gets his naps.  No rigid schedule, but protect his sleep time, especially during the day when it is tempting to run errands and socialize.  This means shorter outings and making sure he is back in his crib before he gets crabby and hard to fall asleep.  A big sacrifice but well worth it so far.

My return to blogging.

My Blog Fernweh started out as a way to tell friends and family my ski injury story and recovery and grew into my travel blog.  Some ordinary life stuff too, but mostly travel was my interesting thing to talk about.  Now that we have Tyler, I was thinking of starting a new blog, but what the heck, lets just continue with this blog, and call it the Schultz Life Blog.  Nothing amazing or profound here, just a way to keep up with our life, if you are interested.

April 9, 2011 my life changed forever.  Tyler was born at 8:06 pm, 8 pounds, 12 ounces.  I have most of my birth story type up, thanks to my mom, but I have not decided if I am going to publish it.

For now I will just update with Tyler's progress and work backwards as I think of things.  On July 1st at 12 weeks old, he weighed 12 lbs, 2 oz.  This is about the 50-percentile, and our doctor is happy with our progress (this is significant, a story I will share later).  He seems long and slim to me (like his dad) with some nice rolls around his thighs.

We spend our day in a constant eat-play-nap cycle, with each stage of various lengths depending on the time of day and where we are (home or on the go).  I am still breastfeeding which has it's advantages and challenges.

Tyler's personality is very easy-going for the most part.  As long as I read his cues and get him to take a nap before he gets cranky, there is minimal crying.  He plays in his crib looking at the mobile, on the play mat, in his swing, bouncy seat, or his favorite, looking at mom and dad.  I lay him on his tummy for a few minutes every day but he does not seem to like it much.

Washington Pictures

Tom and I spent 10 wonderful days in Washington.  We visited North Cascades NP, Mount Rainier NP, Olympic NP and Seattle.  All camping except Seattle where we stayed with an old friend of Tom's.

I was inspired to visit the area after watching the PBS series The National Parks: America's Best Idea.  The mountains and rain forests of the area reminded me of New Zealand.  Tom and I planned the trip ourselves, and this was our first big solo trip since Maine in 2007.  All others since then have been with OASC.  We definitely enjoy traveling with friends, but this time it was nice, like a second honeymoon.  And it allowed flexibility in our schedule.

I will write more about details of the trip as I think of them.  For now, I hope you enjoy the photo album.

The Evergreen State