Nursery Organization

Happy Thursday friends!

Today on the blog is nursery organization. This was by far my absolute favorite part of nesting! Anyone who knows me knows my love for all things organizing and OCD and my son's room is likely the truest reflection of my addiction. There is literally a place for everything and since he's not old enough to dress and bathe himself it actually stays clean :-)

A little background about my sons room, it was also my room growing up so it has a lot of great memories :-). It may no longer have the bright pink carpet my mom let me pick out when I was 6 or  the suspended hammock filled with stuffed animals but it's still got some character from my childhood that makes me smile to see Jackson playing in it!

Okay so I'm going to start with my favorite storage space in the room and those are these 4 cream boxes I got from Ikea for $17 each. I love them and they fit perfectly in this sofa table we used as an alternative for the Expedit they no longer make. It ended up fitting perfectly in the room and we used the top for book storage. I can see it transitioning nicely into his "big boy room" one day.

Ikea sofa table with Kvarnvik boxes and lids

Inside each of the 4 boxes I stored different items including bath related items (wash clothes and towels, bath toys, bath wash/shampoo, etc), health stuff (baby medications, vitamin d drops, q tips and cotton balls, keepsakes and miscellaneous storage.

Bath Storage

Health Related Storage

Dresser Drawer Organization

His dresser is also from Ikea. It was once in the guest room and because I loved the stain it became inspiration for the nursery. Its drawers are very spacious and I love the yellow stripes on the inside. In the top drawer I keep changing and daily necessities in drawer organizers from Target. The second drawer houses pj's, onesie's and sweats.

Closet Organization

My OCD really comes in handy with our smaller closets, this one included. A friend gave me a tip to organize clothes starting from newborn to 9 months first and then swapping out larger sizes as they are outgrown. I also used little hangers that separated his clothes from newborn, 0 to 3 months, 3-6, 6-9 and so forth. You can make your own or purchase from places like Buy Buy Baby, Etsy or similar. I still use them and they go up to 2T. Pictured below are sizes 3 and 4 shoes and clothes sizes 9 to 18 months.

On the bottom of the closet is the Kallax shelving unit from Ikea with some random storage from home goods (gray bins with handles) and target (blue bins).  In the gray bins I keep bibs, burp cloths and like items in one, and hats, socks and like accessories in the other. The blue bins store current size diapers and wipes.

Paperwork Billfold

This was one of the best gifts I got at my baby shower, so much so that I make them for every shower I go to lol. It has 8 categories including birth certificate and social security card, keepsakes, milestones, pediatricians visits, immunization records, insurance paperwork, receipts and warranties, and manuals. I keep it right at the top of the closet and absolutely love it (thanks Jas!)

Toy Storage

Lastly are random bins around the room I use to keep small toys (larger toys I keep downstairs in his play space). My kid likes to push them over to play with the toys :-)

I'd love to hear about your nursery organizing tips or thoughts so please share in the comments! I also  plan to do a post soon on how to make the paperwork billfold :-)

Thanks for reading!

Britt

Baby Food Month 4, Week 4: Butternut Squash, Pear and Oats

This is the final week of baby's first month of puree's! We haven't run into any allergies so far and I've learned that I don't have a picky child (thank goodness)!  Now this was my first time making butternut squash ever lol. I had no idea how to even cook it so I took to Pinterest and found that you can cut it in half lengthwise and bake it in the oven. You can check this out on the website I used, The Healthy Foodie. I later found that I prefer to just peal the outer skin, cube it and steam it but both ways work good.

The pears were just pealed cut and steamed and then both were mixed together in the food processor with a couple tablespoons of oats.

The final result was more of the same and another successful batch my kiddo eagerly consumed.

My goal for Jackson is to introduce him to 50 different fruits and vegetables, chicken and cod, eggs, and some cheeses and herbs before his first birthday! If your following along our food list so far includes.

Bananas

Apples

Peaches

Pears

Avacado's 

Broccoli

Spinach

Butternut Squash

Oats

Next month begins more complex puree's where I did 3 to 4 ingredients per batch. We also started 2 meals per day in month 2!

Baby Food Month 4, Week 3: Spinach and Peaches

This spinach and peach batch was the last of the two ingredient, fruit and vegetable puree's. It really tasted just like peaches and was Jackson's favorite so far. Prep was the usual wash and cut.

The peaches and spinach steamed really quickly and blended smooth.

What I think I enjoy the most about making Jackson's food is how fresh it looks! When I was pregnant I came across the Yummy Spoonfuls Instagram page and saw the following picture. 

@Yummyspoonfuls Instagram

It shows the different between an Organic baby food from the shelf at the store and her Organic homemade baby food. This is when I new I was making my own food and if I didn't have time I would be ordering her's. I really do enjoy it though and I have even been recruited by a few friends to make their little one's food! I still follow the Yummy Spoonfuls page now and it has really helped me change how I grocery shop and prepare our foods as a family. Below are the finished packaged pouches of our spinach and peach batch! As always if you have any cool recipes please share in the comments!

Thanks for reading,

Brittini Rae

Baby Food Month 4, Week 2: Broccoli and Apple

Bananas and avocados went over very well week one so we moved on to broccoli and apple. I know it's kind of a weird combo but I've seen the contents of some of the store bought baby foods and to me it was no stranger than those lol. Side Note: Up until this point I had been pairing a fruit with a vegetable but I was later told by a few experts including Agatha Achindu CEO of Yummy Spoonfuls that you don't need to add something sweet and that your child's pallet is developing in these early months. So I learned from experience for the next time around.

Now this was another super easy puree. I steamed the broccoli and apples for a few minutes to cook and soften them, added a bit of the water they were steamed in and blended them in my Cuisine Art food processor. The one you see here was getting a little busted and I've since upgraded thanks to my in-laws and their awesome Christmas gift. Check out our new one here its great for typical daily use as well as baby food blending. I opted out of the smaller baby versions, the blade spins the same on all of them.

My husband gave it the side eye and said it looked gross but I tasted it and thought it was pretty good! I couldn't get anyone else to try it though. Nonetheless my test subject loved it and couldn't get enough and thats all that mattered to me! So this broccoli apple combo was a HIT! *pats self on back*

My Happy Baby :-)

Breastfeeding and Pumping Products; 5 must-haves and 5 wastes of money

Hi mommas! Today's post focuses on 5 products I loved when it came to breastfeeding/pumping and 5 products I'd never waste money on again. So let's have at it!

5 Must Have’s

1) Target brand milk storage bags - These are the best by a long shot! They are durable and inexpensive. I haven’t experienced one leak with these.

2) Latch Bottles by Munchkin - I bought mine from target but they are available at Babies "R" Us, Amazon and pretty much any baby store. We never even tried any other bottles but I own a daycare and my experiences with other bottles in comparison were lacking. For example Dr. Brown's bottles I found to leak often so those were off my list from the very beginning.

3) Madela pumps - Both the Harmony manual and the Pump in Style double electronic pump.

4) Washable Breast Pads - Any brand will do really and you can also make your own. My best friend Cassandra made mine and they were so cute!

5) Nipple Cream - I really don't think the brand matters as long as you use something. When I didn't I felt it! I got the honest company version at my baby shower and I stuck with that. The small jar lasted the entire 7 months.

5 Wastes of Money

1) Expensive Pumping Bra - make one yourself with an inexpensive sports bra and a pair of scissors. Pumping is so much easier hands free leaving you to multitask and get some paperwork done or nod off for a couple minutes lol.
2) Lanisol milk storage bags - Trust me you will waste so much liquid gold they leak like crazy. I've got a freezer full of them and my thawing technique has become so much more tedious trying to prevent wasting any milk. Next baby, I'll stick with the Target ones mentioned above.
3) Designer nursing covers - This was one of those things I got as a gift and never used. I know, I'm terrible. But when it came time to pump when I was out and about or over someone's house i grabbed one of my sons blankets and threw it over me. You carry around so much stuff daily as a mom you start to look for ways to minimize your baggage and for me a nursing cover just never made the cut.

4) Single electric breast pump - I personally didn't think it worked very well especially in comparison to Madela's manual handheld also mentioned above. For me the manual took some getting used to but it worked a lot faster in expressing milk and was a bit stronger too. I actually began to prefer it to my double electric pump after about month 5.

5) Bottle warmer - This may not be a popular one but I just don't think its worth it. If u can pop a mug half filled with water in the microwave for 1 minuts and put a bottle or frozen storage bag of milk in that mug for an additional two minute it will serve the same purpose. My suggestion; if you get one as a gift return it for store credit and use the money to buy diapers later *shrugs*

Well that concludes my list! And remember, what works for some of us may not work for others! Don't be afraid to follow your intuition!

Until next time friends,

Brittini Rae