Disclosure: This post is sponsored by Huggies. As always, all opinions are my own.

Nothing can really prepare you for that magical day when your baby arrives home for the very first time and all of a sudden you’ve truly become a family. You’ve spent months dreaming about this day and making sure every single detail is in order. The nesting stage seems to have put you in overdrive when it comes to making sure that everything your baby will need to feel welcomed, safe and loved is all set.

While there are many essentials our bebesitos need as soon as they are born, the reality is that all they truly desire is to be nurtured and cared by you and papá. To be able to fully be there and present for your little one at all times during those critical first weeks of birth, mamá needs to take care of herself and make sure that once you arrive home you have what you need to be comfortable and rested so you can focus on bonding with your child.

Aside from making sure the nursery is fully equipped to welcome baby, make sure you also prepare your home to meet your immediate needs in this new stage of life. Prepare yourself for a few weeks of new emotions, feelings, sensations and a different pace in your life from what you’ve been used to.

Taking some time beforehand to have a few things around the house taken care of prior to baby’s arrival and checking out other details on Huggies Latino’s Respuestas para Mamá, will make the transition smoother for you. Here are six ideas you might not have considered yet, but that can be very useful:

1. Batch cook a few meals to keep in the freezer and heat up to serve a meal at anytime. It’s essential you’re feeding yourself well, especially if you’re nursing your baby.

2. Have plenty of water at hand. Invest in a filter or make sure to have a refillable water bottle to just keep at your side at all times. Hydration is key as you recover from labor and get back into a sleeping routine.

3. Get a notebook and pen, or a good app on your smartphone, to keep a diary of your baby’s feedings, bowel movements and sleep. This is all essential information that your pediatrician will ask you during your visits and the more detailed information you have, the more useful it is.

4. Keep a digital camera or smartphone close to you at all times because these precious first moments only happen once.

5. In advance of baby’s arrival, find an online site that delivers the baby essentials you will need to replenish on a constant basis, such as Huggies Little Snugglers Diapers, Huggies Natural Care Wipes and formula, if needed. Create an account so that you can quickly access it to have your basics shipped to you immediately. Most don’t charge shipping costs and arrive quickly to your doorstep.

6. Create a playlist of your favorite nursery rhymes and soothing white noise to help baby calm down and ease into sleep.

These first days and weeks are the most intense, yet the most memorable and important for your baby’s development. You will definitely be focused on him, but don’t forget to take care of yourself so you can truly enjoy these moments.

Photo credit: Gabi Menashe on Flickr

Disclosure: This post is sponsored by Huggies. As always, all opinions are my own.

As soon as the first trimester uneasiness starts to subside, most new moms start to focus their attention on getting ready for the arrival of their baby. A highlight of all that expectation is preparing the nursery and setting up the baby registry. For moms like me that have family and friends spread out all over the country and even internationally, it’s important to have a well-curated list online that allows anyone to be part of the gift-giving to welcome in the little one, and that also meets the needs of new parents entering this stage in their life.

The first time you go through the process of selecting new baby essentials for your registry can be incredibly overwhelming. We worry about safety, price, durability, ratings, comfort, and so many other things. Now there are great tools like Huggies Respuestas de Mamá and the very useful Guía Bienvenida a tu Bebé that provide lists and endless information to help new moms. It’s also wise to spend some time researching and polling your friends for recommendations on the pricier and most-used items like your baby’s crib, car seat and stroller. Besides those three essentials, here are 10 more that all new moms should include in their baby registry list.

1. Diapers and wipes

Of course you know you’ll need diapers, but you probably still don’t realize exactly how many diapers a tiny person feeding on milk can go through in a day. Huggies Little Snugglers and Huggies Natural Care Wipes are essential to stock up on, especially for newborn babies.

2. Onesies

This sounds a bit obvious and you might think that you’ll probably be gifted so many of these that there’s no point to get more. Trust me on this one — you can never have enough onesies. Put on your registry many options from sizes 0 months-1 year. Infants are messy by nature and you’ll be glad to always have a new and fresh onesie in his dresser and diaper bag to grab at a moment’s notice.

3. Swaddle blankets

These are a life-saver. Babies sleep so much better when they are wrapped snug and tight. Stock up on these for the first months and make sure to get the appropriate thickness and fabric for your climate when your baby is born.

4. Diaper bag

This item will become an essential part of your personality and style for a while. The best diaper bags are a bit pricey, but most are worth it. You want a bag that’s durable, easy to clean, that has many easy to reach compartments to keep things organized, and one that both you and your husband will feel comfortable carrying around.

5. Baby swing or bouncy seat

Want a few minutes to yourself to grab breakfast or even attempt to shower? Get a baby swing or a bouncy seat! Babies love the constant motion and laying them in one of these is very soothing to them. Swings may take up a lot of space, but you will not regret it.

6. A set of baby bottles

Even if you plan to breastfeed your baby, you should have a set of baby bottles to use at any time.

7. Baby sling or carrier

There’s no doubt that babies need to be as close to you as possible, and nothing calms them down more than being next to you. However, mom also needs to get things done and use her hands. Make sure you have a few slings and/or carriers and find the most comfortable one for both you and baby.

8. Baby monitor

Nowadays, these come with so much range in technology that you’ll have to select based on your needs. You might consider choosing one with video so you won’t have to open baby’s door to check on her once you’ve finally put her down to sleep!

9. Diaper pail

At first they look like just a fancy trash can, but the reality is that diaper pails are made to keep both the sight and odors of your baby’s multiple daily dirty diapers far away. You’ll want one.

10. Glider or rocking chair

This one you’ll have to test out for yourself before you add it to your registry. It might be a pricey gift for one person, but perfect for a group gift. Make sure the chair is comfortable for you to sit in while holding a few pounds for a while and that the movement is effortless.

Photo credit: Lisa Rosario on Flickr

This is a sponsored post from One2One Network and ICAN. All opinions stated are our own.

As parents we only want the best for our babies. We know that for the first few months of their lives they are delicate little beings and we want to make sure no harm reaches them. We take time to arranged their cribs with soft blankets, bumpers or teddy bears to create a comfortable and loving environment. But what if the place where we thought they are safest turned out to be a hazard?

Last week we were invited to a Safe Sleep for Baby event that left us shocked and grateful to be there so we could pass on the knowledge that was made available to us. Did you know that approximately 70 infants die from suffocation while sleeping every year in Los Angeles county? This represents one infant every five days!

What exactly is causing infants to suffocate while sleeping? The answer is bed-sharing and unsafe sleeping environments such as sleeping on a couch or having pillows, soft or excessive bedding and stuffed toys in a baby’s crib or bassinet.

Below we’ve put together a list of data that was shared with us and that we want to pass on to all our readers. It’s also data that will hopefully answer some questions and highlight the seriousness of this issue:

• Bed-sharing and unsafe sleeping conditions accounted for 62% of all undetermined child deaths in L.A. county in 2011. 38% of those were due to bed-sharing and 24% were due to unsafe sleeping environments like those we mentioned above. 
• The majority of bed-sharing and unsafe sleep child deaths were infants between 0-6 months of age.
• For the first three to four months of life babies can only breathe through their nose.
• A baby’s nose doesn’t have cartilage yet, so it can easily flatten and block airflow causing them to suffocate.

Some of this data might seem only logical and common sense, but the facts don’t lie. The truth is that families are still waking up to a tragedies that could have been easily avoided. That’s why we urge you to share and pass on this knowledge. If it can reach the ears of one person who was unaware of the dangers of unsafe sleep we could all be preventing a tragedy.

For more information please visit the Safe Sleep for Baby website and like them on Facebook.

This post is sponsored by Huggies Latino.

As a first-time expectant mother the list of things to think about, prepare for, rejoice in and even panic over seems to be endless. It feels like every day not only brings you closer to holding your bebecito in your arms, but also takes you on that magical roller coaster of new emotions.

When my belly started growing with my little girl and I started talking more and more to her, I realized that I also had the additional burden of figuring out if my Mexican-born husband and I should speak to her in our native language of Spanish or in English. En la casa sólo hablamos español, so I knew that it would be very odd for my husband and I to switch to English with our daughter — it just wouldn’t be natural for us. At the same time, we knew English would be the language she’d absorb from her environment no matter what we did, but we still wondered if that would confuse her.

We weren’t alone in our fears that being exposed to multiple languages early on could confuse our baby. We did later find out that our fear was based on misconceptions and lack of knowledge. The scientific fact is that the earlier we start exposing babies to a second language, the more flexible their bilingual brains will be and the more they can identify and separate the sounds of the different languages they are exposed to.

The first window of opportunity to expose babies to multiple languages is during their first year of life (and even starting in the womb!). Babies should be exposed through rich interactions to the two languages at home so their brains can absorb all the sounds and retain them by the time they turn a year old and this window starts to close.

So, as you get ready for your baby’s much-expected arrival by checking out tools like Huggies Respuestas de Mamá and the very useful Guía Bienvenida a tu Bebé, you should also think about the many ways you could expose your child to as many languages as possible. His brain is wired for it, the rest is up to you. I like to say bilingualism is a gift we give our children that no one can take away from them. Plus, if you start immersing them in Spanish right now, they won’t be able to complain or rebel against it — it will just be a natural process.

While raising completely fluent bilingual kids is a commitment and takes a real conscious effort, there are relatively simple ways to kick start the baby’s language exposure even before she’s born.

1. Talk as much as you can. Talking to your baby in the womb and as a newborn is one of the best ways to bond with him. He’s getting used to your loving voice and it gives him comfort. If you or your partner speak Spanish, make sure that you speak it to him a lot. Talk about anything, sing, read, recite a poem — ¡lo que sea! What’s important is that he’s absorbing the sounds of the language and recognizing them from you.

2. It takes a village. Start scoping out your family, friends and community and see who can also provide the necessary language exposure to your child. Abuelas and abuelos that speak Spanish are such a blessing to have. Make sure you make them aware of your wishes and have them become your bilingual accomplices.

3. Stock up on Spanish-language books, toys, music and games. If you’re still being showered with gifts or just starting to plan your registry, make sure you also include some books, music and toys in Spanish to start building your immersive and fun arsenal.

Share: When did you start exposing your child to Spanish or your second language? How did you do it?

As I get ready to send my 5-year-old boy to kindergarten, I also get to start the journey over again….with a new baby! I’m currently 11 weeks pregnant (due right around Christmas!), and couldn’t be more excited to welcome a sweet SpanglishBaby into our home. This will be our fourth child in total, but our first child together.

I feel fully prepared for the pregnancy and birth itself, but as we all know, having a newborn in the house brings a different set of concerns altogether. Ironically, the part I’m most thrilled about is also strapping me with anxiety: making sure this child is also bilingual.

We have become so used to speaking mostly English in our home, since my son gets his Spanish at his father’s house and my stepdaughters reinforce theirs at church, with their abuelos, and at school. It will be an adjustment to speak more Spanish in general, and especially to the degree of exposure that a new baby will require. My husband and I have discussed the many ways we could approach it, and have decided to try the One Parent One Language method — he will speak Spanish and I’ll speak English to the baby. Although I’m confident that this will be effective, I’m apprehensive about the new rules we’ll have to remember to follow.

In addition to sticking to one language each, we know that we need to have more Spanish in our house in general to compensate for the English our child will be hearing from his/her siblings. So, my husband and I are also going to try speaking exclusively Spanish to each other. This will be a 180-degree switch for us, since we currently only use Spanish with each other when we’re around Spanish-speaking friends and family. I guess it’s always been more comfortable for us to have our private conversations and daily exchanges in English, so it’s going to take some effort to change that.

Of course, a new life is always worth the sacrifices and changes we parents make! I anticipate that we’ll have to get a head start and try switching to Spanish in the coming weeks, because our Navidad baby will be here before we know it.

Perhaps the hardest part of the language transition will be stepping back a bit from Spanish myself. I know that it is best for a little one to hear native speakers, and since I’m a native English speaker and my husband is a native Spanish speaker, we need to stick to those languages, respectively. However, it bums me out a little that I won’t be able to exercise my Spanish skills with my child until we have established a pattern and decide it’s okay to deviate from that occasionally. I spoke only Spanish to my son for nearly three years, so it may be a tough reality to use English with my new bebé. My only exception is reading: I can’t see myself giving up Spanish bedtime stories with either of my kids!

Hopefully the strange mix of ages, language use and schedules in our home will only serve to make our busy life more fun.

Do you have any suggestions for making the switch to OPOL or speaking to your spouse in your second language?

 {Image by tommo4074 }

Baby Trend seems to have designed a car seat that is perfect for all parents, but in my opinion, they definitely had the first-time parent in mind. With my first-born we got a car seat that wasn’t as user-friendly as the New Inertia Car Seat. Not only were we able to easily secure this new seat in our car but it offers an ergonomic design tailored to fit baby comfortably. In fact, the multi-grip carry handle and overall lightweight assume a natural and easy position on my arm when carrying it from the car to our home. I speak from experience in that this is definitely a feature new parents will appreciate from their very first outing with baby to the numerous errands and events they will take their little one.

What I love about the New Inertia Car Seat are all the additional features it has which will meet the needs of various climates. For instance, the canopy (used to block the sun or wind) can be adjusted from one end of the car seat to the other without a problem. It also comes with a removable fitted boot to help keep baby warm during the colder winter months, which is always nice because if your baby is like mine, s/he may end up kicking it off over and over.

Aside from the comfort features I was attracted to, I think Baby Trend would love Spanglish Baby readers to know that they have designed a product with a highly secure system in place, hence the name New Inertia Car Seat. In addition to installing an EPS energy-absorbing foam for state-of-the-art head impact protection Baby Trend has also included a steel frame with a control motion system that will help protect your baby from impact in the unlikely event of a car accident.

From my family to yours, I hope you enjoy your new little one along with Baby Trend’s stylish New Inertia Car Seat!

The Giveaway!

We are giving away one Baby Trend Inertia Car Seat to one lucky winner! To enter leave us a comment telling us which Inertia car seat feature you like the most, then enter the rafflecopter below.

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{All images courtesy of Baby Trend Inc }

My second child is approaching his first birthday, and with this milestone comes the excitement of new words spoken and understood. Also, as it relates to our bilingual ambitions, this age is my favorite because success is defined in a measure that is achievable for our monolingual household. It’s cheating, I know, but at almost one year old, my hijo is completely bilingual! Actually, just today, he said “más” and used the sign for more. I was ecstatic! I continued to ask him, “¿quieres más plátano?” and he continued to use sign language to reinforce his baby talk, which clearly was the word más.

My child understands Spanish! He speaks Spanish! That feeling of success never gets old. As a parent who strives for moderately achievable, highly ambitious language goals, hearing my kids speak Spanish is more than a simple pleasure.

I remember that exhilaration when my oldest was his age. The excitement of hearing her speak simple words in Spanish has since been overcome with the challenge to immerse her in environments where dialogue is conducted in Spanish — not just simple words or directives from Mom. I want her to engage in Spanish; to hear words combined into a sentence and for her to understand. I’m not even asking for her to respond in Spanish, but I very much expect her to comprehend. At the very least, to understand the love of her great grandmother as I did when I was in young – in Spanish.

As Sebastian grows, I’m sure we will continue this uphill battle of language immersion and comprehension. As his communication improves, and he becomes conscious of the world around, I know that the challenges will also grow. But, for now, I am enjoying this milestone of bilingual success.

We always want more; to understand more, comprehend more, and engage more. I am constantly asking myself if I am doing enough to celebrate the culture of my heritage and language with my children. But, for today, Sebastian’s más is enough for me.

{Photo courtesy of Vanessa Bell}

I’ve had baby names on the mind lately, and at this late stage of my pregnancy it’s kind of hard not to. Every sharp kick, jab and foretelling Braxton Hicks contraction is a reminder to stop procrastinating and decide on something, anything, before delivery day.

For my first pregnancy four years ago, it was different, as most first pregnancies tend to be. I was so excited that I basically peed on a stick and ran to a bookstore to purchase a baby name book and started scouring baby name websites immediately in search of a name I would fall in love with. But if you’ve ever looked at one of these books or been on any of these websites, you’ll see that the possibilities are seriously endless. In much the same way I feel when I enter a multi-story department store, I was totally overwhelmed by all the categories, meanings, spelling variations, etc. etc. So many choices, too many choices, and you get to pick just one (well, two, if you use a middle name). One name that will be with your child FOREVER. So I took a breath and a step back and asked myself: Well, what do you want in a name?

Read: In The Name… of Culture?

So I started sorting things out in my head: Do I go with trendy, traditional, classic, cool, strong, sweet or unique? Should it be international, American as apple pie, or a name in Spanish picked off the family tree? Does it have to flow with our last name? How is it going to come off once he or she becomes an adult? Are there any weird nicknames that could come out of it? And importantly, if it’s English-sounding, how will the abuelos and my husband’s family in Central America pronounce or butcher it?

With the first one, once my husband and I found out we were having a girl, it made one part of our baby naming job easier. Her middle name would be the same as mine, Leonor, which is also my mother and grandmother’s name. Now that I’m an adult, I absolutely cherish this name, but truth be told, as a kid, I despised this name. It felt so old-fashioned. But that’s exactly why I love the name now, and the fact that it was passed on to me makes me feel more connected to my family and my roots. I think of my great-grandparents, and what they must have been thinking when they gave this name to my grandmother. Of course, it’s also kind of cool that in recent years, la Infanta Leonor of Spain brought the name back in vogue, and other variations of the name have become a popular choice in naming the newest little princesas of Europe.

After we settled on Leonor for a middle name, picking the all-important first name wasn’t too difficult. We wanted something that flowed nicely into the last name, so we soon settled on Kalila Leonor. Kalila is Arabic in origin. We liked the way it sounded, plus, it has a wonderful meaning: beloved. And yes, the abuelos have no trouble pronouncing it.

In the end, we went down a route that is fairly telling of our hybrid, bicultural and bilingual American-Latino lives. We were definitely very American in giving our daughter an uncommon first name, something that would distinguish her from the herd. But we are also very proud of our culture and heritage and wanted a name that reflected that. And since I already had a family name that had been passed on to me it was easy to pass along the torch.

We’ll probably go down the same route of choosing a not-so-common first name and family middle name for this new baby girl. I do have a short list, and that’s a good thing because we have a short amount of time to decide. As I write, I’m feeling those practice contractions, yikes!

How did you chose your children’s names? Did your heritage play a part in the decision?

{Photo courtesy of Cynthia Leonor Garza}

Here at the very busy familia, we are getting ready for baby número dos in February and of course a new car seat was on the list.  Recently the American Academy of Pediatrics put out a new policy which advises parents to keep their toddlers rear-facing in car seats until the age of two.

Did you know that? I sure didn’t! And I can guarantee many other parents out there are unaware of it as well.

When Graco and SpanglishBaby asked me to review the new SnugRide Click Connect car seat – the ONLY newborn to  2-year infant car seat on the market that provides rear-facing protection for babies from birth to 2- years-old (from 4 – 40 lbs) I happily agreed to knowing that other parents-to-be may be looking for guidance  in the car seat deparment.  I like to think of myself as a practical mamá and only purchase what is needed. The fact that the SnugRide actually saves you having to buy additional car seat accessories was a very good starting and selling point with me.

It used to be that we celebrated our children turning two by happily turning their car seat to face the front  – which of course was standard before the policy was issued. Clearly my baby hasn’t tried and tested the seat yet, but obviously as parents we purchase accessories before our babies are born and we like to be given the hard cold facts on safety and what is best for our childrens’ well-being.

The SnugRide Click Connect gives me peace of mind and I know the little one will be safe and snug in this car seat. Here are the features it offers:

• 8-position adjustable base grows with your child, providing the most legroom and a comfortable ride for up to two years.
• Simply Safe Adjust Harness System is safe and simple with one hand-harness and headrest adjustment.
• Click Connect technology provides a one step secure attachment to all Graco Click Connect strollers to create a travel system.

Good stuff, right?!  I certainly think so. And having never owned a Graco product before, my husband and I were both impressed by the high quality and sturdiness of the car seat.  And obviously it complies with the updated car seat regulations.

I strongly encourage you to visit their site to get the instructional and safety videos directly from the experts. As for us, we can’t wait to bring home our little girl in it this February!

You can buy the SnugRide at your local Babies R Us.

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The Giveaway!

Enter for your chance to win one Graco Snug Ride car seat! Just leave us a comment telling us what your favorite Graco Snug Ride feature is and make sure you do so by entering with the rafflecopter widget below!

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{Photographs courtesy of María José Ovalle}

Disclosure: No monetary compensation was received for this review. SpanglishBaby received one product as a review item. All opinions are our own.

If you are like me and constantly in search of bilingual items for your child then this one is sure to be a hit! The Bright Starts ™ Having a Ball™ Get Rollin’ Activity Table offers you and your little one the option of learning in English or Spanish. We always keep it in Spanish mode, except during play dates when we sometimes use the English version, but only at the parents or English-speaking child’s request.There are plenty of features to learn from on this activity table and it includes over 60 songs and activities across 8 play areas.

What makes this activity table very accommodating is how suitable it is for crawling babies to walking toddlers! The legs are detachable so that a curious crawler can engage with the table. As a table it helps support babies getting ready to walk, while at the same time challenging the two to three year old to explore numbers, colors, and words in Spanish! My two-year-old’s favorite thing to play with is the ball ramp & bowl while learning to sing the ABC song! I hope you enjoy this wonderful activity table as much as we have! Suerte!

The Giveaway!

We’re giving away one Having a Ball™ Get Rollin’ Activity Table to one lucy winner.

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