Cincy fun!

Our little family arrived in Cincinnati on Saturday and have had a really busy few days! Saturday we got a family picture taken - Owen even managed to smile.

He is talking soooo much these days... gooing and cooing and babbling along. His little personality is coming out.... he's so darn cute it's hard to keep from hugging and kissing him, even when he is crying. And he is very close to rolling over. Go Owen!

Sunday we celebrated an early Easter in the afternoon, and in the evening we were thrown a fun baby shower! Owen was a super star and calmly hung out with a ton of new people. He was great. Everyone was really generous - we got so much stuff. Here's a picture of him getting his Easter basket from Grandma and Grandpa. He loved it! This week has been so fun so far. We've got to hang out with all of our new family - including cousin Brooke tonight! Owen and Brooke are only 2 weeks apart so are destined to be good buddies.

Off to bed - another fun day is waiting for us tomorrow!

Too good to be true?

11 hours sleep? Two nights in a row? Could it be our little man takes after his momma, who looooves her sleep?

Don't even pretend you can handle the cuteness below. Photo credit: Ericka Clouther, taken during her visit to us last weekend. Thanks for coming to visit and taking some great photos, Ericka!!!!

Owen is getting psyched to see his Dad tomorrow night and the Cincy crew on Saturday! He's pretty sure Saturday is going to be a looooong day but he told me he will try his best to be a happy camper. No promises though.

Age: 15 weeks, 2 days
Weight: Must be well over 15 pounds by now! My arm aches when I carry him around for too long. Which was the case quite a bit today as he was super cranky.
Best and worst nights sleep this week, in longest stretch of sleep: BEST - 11 hours (Tuesday and Wednesday night - oh my god!!!!); WORST - I think it was 9.5 hours. Wow. Fingers crossed he keeps this up!
Best moment this week: For me? Owen sleeping 11 hours. Sorry to keep harping on this but it's freakin' amazing.

Sleep champion (knock wood)

So last night, I put Owen to bed at 8:40, and got up to feed him at 6:30. Now, he was up a few times in the night sucking away on his hand and thumb, but he never cried so I didn't pick him up or bother him. Almost 10 hours sleep little buddy! Can we really be that lucky?

He's also been doing his exercises on cousin Matthew's bouncy chair. Check it out!

Today we will meet Ericka, Chris's high school friend whose wedding Owen was at (in utero). Then, we attempt to babysit cousin Matthew... with Grandpa's help.

Have a great weekend, everyone!

NJ fun!

We are hanging out in NJ! Happy St Patty's Day!

We've had a great few days meeting family and bonding. Went for a nice walk yesterday and today - once the monsoon passed it's been great weather here. Keep it up. Also, we would like to order some more nice weather for Cincy. Thanks.

Unfortunately, Dad headed back to London a few hours ago. Owen and I miss him SO MUCH already. ):

Age: 13 weeks this past Monday!
Weight: Last Tuesday Owen weighed in at 14 pounds, 5 ounces. He is a big guy now, moving from the 25th percentile up to almost the 75th percentile. Woo!
Best and worst nights sleep this week, in longest stretch of sleep: BEST - 8 hours (several nights!); WORST - my memory has blocked it out, so I kind of forget, but I think the shortest was on Monday night which was 4.5 hours, but then he slept another 3 or 4 after a short feed, so not too bad!
Milestones: Sucking his thumb - so cute. He wakes up most nights after 4 or 5 hours sleep but sooths himself back to sleep by eating his hand/ fingers/ thumb. He's been in a crib with us the past 4 nights and as Jason put it, "goes to town on his hand" in the middle of the night.
Best moment this week: Meeting Aunt Gwen, Uncle Jim and Cousin Matthew. Owen loves meeting the people he's just seen pictures of until now!

Frequent flyer

Maybe not. While Owen did great on his 14 hour door-to-door journey from the London flat to his grandparents' house in New Jersey, no baby is an angel for that long. He had his meltdowns... but didn't use all of the 15 diapers I packed (1 for every hour, just in case) nor the 4 spare outfits. As a matter of fact, he made it to NJ in the same outfit he left London in. And, he was a pretty good sleeper that first night, sleeping for 8 hours with 1 4am feed. Last night - 8 hours. What a great little guy! Fingers crossed he keeps it up for the rest of the trip.
He's had so much fun hanging out with cousin Matthew! Owen was fascinated by Matthew. Matthew was good with Owen too, petting his feet and his head, very gently.

This has been such an exciting trip so far. We also made our first family outing to Babies R Us - wooooaaahhhhh retail overload! I could have spent hours and hours in there, but Owen's tolerance was quite a bit less.

Anyway... that's all for now! Hope everyone is having a great week! x

Coming to America

Good news... we've booked our plane tickets home so pretty soon little Owen will be meeting the rest of his family! He can't wait!!

Owen was not impressed with his mom on Tuesday. I took him to the doctor to get his 12 week shots. Poor little guy was completely asleep in my arms when the first jab came. He SCREAMED bloody murder... I calmed him down just in time for the second one. He was so upset, I fed him for a few minutes, then took him to the clinic to get weighed, which entails me stripping him naked. Owen was not a happy camper. But, he is getting fatter and cuter (if possible)! Owen now weighs 14 pounds, 5 ounces. The health visitor (the people who run the clinic) was disbelieving that I am only breast feeding as Owen started out in the 25th percentile in weight and is now almost in the 75th percentile. Go little man!

Here's our little rock star wearing a drummer shirt given to him by Grandpa Dan. Is he a future sports guy? Or a band guy? Not sure if this means anything in that regard, but he puked on the shirt moments after I put it on (and seconds after the picture was taken). (:

One more thing... last night Owen stayed in his bed for over 7 hours. Holy crap! I got him out of bed when he started fussing, fed him and put him back, where he's now been for another 1.5 hours so far. I need to adjust his sleep (he currently goes to bed at midnight and sleeps with a food break till about 10) but will wait until after the US trip. Jet lag will not be fun. An 8 hour plane ride with an infant... oh good lord....

12 weeks old!

We hope everyone had a great weekend! We had some good sun but it's still pretty chilly here. Dad worked some long hours last week which was tough for everyone, but hopefully things will let up this week. Ok, I'm going to try a new structure for my posts a la my pregnancy posts.

Age: 12 weeks on Monday!

Weight: 2 weeks ago Owen was 13 pounds 2 ounces... Tuesday we will have an update but our bets are on almost 14.5 pounds

Best and worst nights sleep this week, in longest stretch of sleep: BEST - 6 hours (Friday); WORST - 1.5 hours (Saturday... ouch)

Milestones: Owen is talking to us so much more these days! His 'goos' are getting louder and stronger. We have conversations with him every day. It's awesome! He's starting to put his hands together but hasn't quite figured out he's got them.

Best moment this week: We babysat on Friday night for friends who have a 1 year old and a 3 year old. They had a balloon and Owen was playing with it and talking to it. SO CUTE! We got it on video.

Here are some photos from the week. Highlights are Owen in his Bengals tracksuit, hanging out with his friend Conor who is 2 days younger than him (neither were impressed with the other), and spending some time by the pond on one of the nice days last week.

http://www3.snapfish.co.uk/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=3269566010/a=159224501_159224501/otsc=SHR/otsi=SALBlink/COBRAND_NAME=snapfishuk/

Wow!

Another 6 hour night last night! So awesome. Thanks Owen!

That's all. (:

Sleep progress?

We might have made some sleep progress! Owen had 3 nights in a row of 5.5+ hours sleep, with Friday being the lifetime record of 6 hours sleep in a row. It was amazing, especially as when he woke up at 6am on Satuday, I was only up for about 20 minutes to help dad with the bottle and pump (to ensure availability of future bottles), then went back to bed... I got about 8 hours total sleep Friday night. I was a normal human being!

Then, last night, I messed with it by (finally) moving Owen into his own room from the living room. The living room faces our backyard and a quiet side street so is really quiet.... his bedroom, as ours, faces a busy street. He woke up after 3 hours for a quick feed, then was restless for 3 more hours, then woke up for a feed again, then restless for a few more hours. Total time in his bed was good, but he was tossing and turning a bunch. Hopefully tonight will be better! Fingers crossed, everyone.

We are still waiting for our passports back from the UK Home Office with Owen's visa, but soon after that we'll be booking flights to the US. Owen can't wait to see his grandparents again and meet all his aunts, uncles, cousins and friends!

Here are some cute week 11 photos, including Owen "helping" with the laundry, smiling at Dad at our favorite Sunday morning coffee shop, bathtime, and in general being super cute:
http://www3.snapfish.co.uk/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=3157022010/a=159224501_159224501/otsc=SHR/otsi=SALBlink/COBRAND_NAME=snapfishuk/