Big City, Little Space// Sophia's Nursery Nook

As you know,we live in a tiny apartment and we needed to make room for baby. We were looking to move but decided to stay in this apartment to save money and hopefully buy a house sometime in the next year or so. We have lived in this apartment for 3 years and is our home, Sophia's first home! Once we had decided to stay put, we reorganized and redecorated our tiny apartment. Painted our living room white from orange to make it seem more spacious. We threw out our TV stand, took out my dresser from the bedroom and put it in the living room to replace the TV stand. We now had room for a nursery nook in our bedroom!!  My grandmother got us a mini crib that fit perfectly in our space, then we got a dresser and a standing shelf to organize her little things. 

It's easy too make room when you need to, rearranging furniture, painting and adding mirrors will make a room look bigger. It's worked for us and I'm pretty proud of her first little nursery nook, it's still a work in progress, looking to add the alphabet somewhere. I've sang the alphabet song to Sophia since the day she was born, just because I didn't know many nursery rhymes and she loves it! 

Some pics of her little space! 

I made the garland, and cut out the heart shaped felt, hung one of my favorite dresses, (the first dress her daddy picked out for her) and added lots of boxes where I could organize diapers, blankets, towels, etc. I didn't want the traditional pink girls room, although I ended up getting lots of pink stuff, it doesn't feel very traditional to me and I love it!

Breastfeeding Week//

It's been breastfeeding week since last Thursday. As a nursing mom, I thought I would share my experiences so far. 

I will start by saying that its harder than I thought. Its not easy to be available for your little one every couple hours, to sit down, take your breast out and let them feed until whenever they want, it can be 10 minutes to 2 hours you never know. But it is the most amazing thing, to be able to nurse your baby and feel that incredible bond while they are looking up at you and and knowing that you are giving them the best that you can give them, and its coming from your own body. 

Sophia is 3 1/2 months, and the first month it was the hardest. In the hospital she would cry hysterically and her latch wasn't great, I felt horrible, I thought to myself, my baby is so hungry and I'm not producing enough milk to fill her up, whats wrong? The nurses knew I wanted to exclusively breastfeed. I spent 4 days in the hospital, I remember one of the sweetest nurses tell me, if you want, we can give her an ounce of formula. I was freaking out, Sophia was crying and not latching on, so painfully, I agreed. I started pumping after, and event though  I wasn't pumping a lot, I didn't give her anymore formula in the hospital. 

When we got home, my life consisted of pumping, pumping and more pumping. The most I would get was 3 ounces at one sitting. She would cry wanting more and it would break my heart, so I started supplementing with organic Earths Best formula, once or twice a day while still pumping and putting her on my breasts. I felt horrible, all I wanted to do was exclusively breastfeed my baby and it seemed impossible. 

I did this for a month and a half. One day a friend asked me on Facebook how breastfeeding was going, my breastfeeding angel! She introduced me to a breastfeeding support group on Facebook, thanks to them I was able to wean her off formula for good, and exclusively breastfeed!! I don't pump anymore, she latches on like a pro, my supply has increased and she's gaining weight perfectly. My goal was 6 months, after the support that I have received from the group, my goal is now 1 year! I love breastfeeding my baby, it's a great feeling and I look forward to it now. It does get easier with time and my advice to every woman who wants to breastfeed is to join a support group with women who are breastfeeding and have breastfeeding experience to help you and encourage you. Don't give up, breast is best! 

Here are some beautiful photos I found! 

            via: Sweetness and light photography

                                               via: Pinkle toes photography

                                                             via:Photos by Lei

Big City, Little Space//

Hello again! I wasn't around yesterday, we were out all day. Had a doctors appointment in the early afternoon, and after we headed to our friends BBQ gathering, there were kids in the kiddos pool, yummy BBQ foods, margaritas and NON alcoholic beer for me!! Since I'm nursing I can't go crazy on the drinking, I had half a corona and a few zips of a margarita, the rest of the night I stuck with my favorite non alcoholic beer, Becks! I'm kind of obsessed with the refreshing taste, I highly recommend it! We stuck around until 10pm, went home, bathed Sophia, and put her to bed. We were hungry so P went to our local Taco Truck and got himself a burrito and quesadillas for me, they were so good, I almost had him go back and get some more. Then to bed we went! It was a great Monday!

Anyways, I wanted to do a post about living in a big city with a new baby and the changes your lives encounter. New York City is amazing, there's is everything from the best restaurants to the best shopping, what it doesn't have is a lot of closet space, or any kind of living space for that matter, unless you have big bucks in the bank that is. Another thing that it does have is laundromat after laundromat, very rarely you will find an apartment with washer and dryer, there's no room for them! When I first moved to NY that was one of the biggest things I had to get used to, going and doing my laundry in a laundromat, ughhh, it's a pain! Now P takes our clothes to the closest laundromat drops them off, they wash them and then he picks them up, easy! 

But with Sophia now I was not having them wash our baby's clothes, and I did not want to use them washers that everyone and their mamas use. I would have to wash everything by hand I thought. A friend suggested I get a portable washer, I never heard of them before, but I immediately googled them. Wonder Washer to the rescue!!!

Bought one online, and when it arrived I was ecstatic, the simple things! I immediately opened it, put water in it, clothes and washed Sophia's clothes! It was fantastic!! I've had it now for about 2 months, and I can't say enough good things about it. It's convenient and it does its job, I mean you can't obviously wash your  load of jeans in it but for small things and especially babies clothes is perfect. The best thing is that it's small and you can store it in the corner and no one will know. 

Here are some photos of my Wonder Washer! Lol, I use it in the bathroom and keep it there too, I just washed two loads of her clothes and hanged them to dry in less than 30 minutes, it's great! 

If you have a baby and live in a tiny apartment in a big city with no washer, Wonder Washer is for you! Get one here.