love Archives - Heydy Lopez

Giveaways December 1, 2015

Memories stamped in time with Canvas Pop

The first thing I have to do when moving into a new place, is decorate the walls with all the possible photos and prints we have! So naturally, when the opportunity arose to work with www.canvaspop.com came up, I obviously jumped with excitement [ I may or may not have actually done this 😉].

I absolutely love capturing photos of our family, especially of Jayden and Abel. Growing up, taking pictures was a rare occasion. Our family, didn’t have the luxury of owning a camera, let alone a digital camera. When we did eventually fill up the roll of film with our beat up disposal camera, we could barely afford to take the film to the local supermarket to get the photos developed!

Fast forward a couple decades later, I vowed that my children would have tons of photo albums filled with all their pictures! I know that seems like a lot and it was so I stopped doing that. I felt guilty, but gradually with time, we have been introduced to digital photo albums that are ridiculously easy for us to access and thats where I store the thousands of photos I have [anybody else’s IPhone have low storage ALL the time?].

However, there are some pictures that deserve to be gazed upon at all times. You know, the ones that warm your heart from simply looking at them? The ones that you can’t wait to share with your family and friends!? The ones that remind you of how incredible that day was!?

Whats the story behind this photo? I was about to spend 30 days in Calgary, AB with Miguel’s parents. We wanted to have a day to ourselves. No parties, no dinners, no markets. Just us. We decided to head to New Westminster Quay. A place that brought both of us memories of family, fun and laughter. Miguel and I wanted to bring Abel there and take some photos. After playing around for awhile, Miguel captured this beautiful photo of Abel….Something had caught his eye, but what we saw, was our beautiful son’s eyelashes, his droopy cheeks, his curly hair, his pointy ears and his soft and pouty lips. He would never be this young again! This photo will be cherished for years to come!

With all the new technology around us, you can forget the importance of memories stamped in time with just a simple photo. Thats why I am so thrilled that one of you will be able to win a 16 x 20 canvas print from www.canvaspop.com stretched on a .75″ frame depth with free shipping within Canada, the USA and the EU! Enter by clicking on the image below, and following the instructions there. Good luck everyone!

Connect with Canvas Pop
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Can’t wait for the giveaway to be over? Canvas Pop has generously offered a discount code for Raising Jay and Abel readers! Use code RAISING35 at checkout to receive 35% off your order. It will be valid until Midnight on December 31, 2015, pacific time. It is applicable to all print orders, however, it is not valid towards shipping or gift cards. The discount code cannot be combined with any other discounts or promotions.

with love,

HEYDY

Motherhood September 3, 2015

Just the two of us

Hello Kismetlove readers !

My name is Heydy. I am Jayden and Abel’s mommy. I blog over at www. raisingjayandabel.blogspot.com. I am so thrilled and honoured to be sharing my breastfeeding journey with you!

Our breastfeeding journey has been…well.. quite a rollercoaster [and I’m still on it]. I knew that breastfeeding wasn’t going to be a breeze for the first couple weeks [at least for me]. I had to learn a new, world changing, skill in just a few short days. But, I didn’t want to let my anxiety and exhaustion stop me from reaching my breastfeeding milestones.

While I was pregnant I had set some personal breastfeeding goals for myself. Since I never got to breastfeed Jayden, reaching these goals were [and are] very important to me.

Our little feeding captures

The first was reaching 3 months of exclusive breastfeeding. Now I will admit, it was tough for me. At first, all I wanted to do was give up. I was exhausted, I was emotional, I was frustrated. I would think to myself “why isn’t Abel latching”, “what am I doing wrong” and “will it ever get better?” I obviously didn’t have the answers, so I reached out and asked for help. I read tons of articles and watched tons of videos! I slowly started applying what I was learning to our breastfeeding attempts.

Slowly, but surely, I started to enjoy breastfeeding. I found that the best feeding position for us was when laid down together. Abel could latch easier and we both could rest.

Breastfeeding was second nature while we waved goodbye to the 3 month mark and said hello to our 6 months of exclusive breastfeeding!
I was so ecstatic that I reached my second goal ! Still had some trouble with sore nipples but nothing that I couldn’t handle. Sleepless nights were starting to become just a mere memory, then it hit us hard. Just when I thought that we were settling into a routine, Abel began to cluster feed.

Abel at 6 months

This happened around the 7 month mark and this is were we are currently.

I wake up 3-4 times a night to feed Abel. Just as much as I did when Abel was a newborn. To top it all off, he is also cutting his two bottom teeth while dealing with his separation anxiety stage.
Needless to say, this mama is tired.
I continue to take our breastfeeding journey day by day. Sometimes I just want to cave in and give him formula, because I am so exhausted. Then I remember, I might not get this moment with him again and then I pause..and take a breath.
I know some mama’s have no issues when it comes to their breastfeeding journey with their Little’s. I am, unfortunately, not one of them.
We will be celebrating our 8 month breastfeeding anniversary in a couple days and all I can think about is how far we both come. I know we will get through our little hump. We just have to keep pushing through.
xoxo,
Heydy

Motherhood April 11, 2015

Teen mom OG

Hey guys!!
First off, thank you to all the people who took the time to read my “20 Facts” post! I received incredible feed back 😀
This post is a little bit more serious… I decided to write about my experience as a Teen mom.
Many of you reading know…or found out by reading my last post that my oldest son, Jayden Ray, was born when I was 16 years old… automatically classifying me as a quote on quote “Teen mom”.
I want to be honest with you all, I had such a hard time trying to figure out how I would write going forward. but I decided to just write my posts the way I would talk to my family and friends. I don’t want to put up a front on my blog because that’s not me. ANYWHO, I will stop rambling now…. 😉
I’ve always wanted to share my story..when I was 15 years old, I found out what I was pregnant with Jayden…I still remember the day like it was yesterday. I couldn’t believe it. I was SO scared.. especially to tell my mom. She worked so hard to try to avoid this. She WAS NOT happy at all to say the least. But she stuck by me and said “Heydy, you want to act like an adult, you have to deal with consequences”. So I did just that. I went through my pregnancy and did all the necessary steps to be successful. I was SO adamant that I was not going to be a statistic.
So I enrolled into the Young Parent Program that is offered here in Vancouver. If you are wondering what that is.. It is a program to help “Young Parents” who are pregnant, have a newborn, toddler, or child, complete high school. It is actually an amazing program and if it wasn’t for that program I don’t know where I would be right now.
Dragging myself out of bed every morning, with little to no sleep, to go to school was difficult. Especially, knowing that I had to commute 45 mins, on a bus & train, with a baby, to get to there . BUT, I did it, every school day for two years (unless my mom was feeling nice and drove me :P). You never really know what your capable of until you have no other choice.
Well, I’m lucky that I did drag myself out of bed, because I was able to get a scholarship to go to college. Which, coming from a low-income family, was a huge deal.
I graduated from high school in June 2009 and I knew if I didn’t go to college right away, I wouldn’t want to go in the future. So, I decided to take the Legal Administrative Assistant program and started that in September 2009. I was also able to manage to work P/T on the weekends so I had money to support myself.
I really didn’t want to go on welfare…so this was my life for 5 years, going to school and working. I hated the fact that I had to put Jay in daycare since birth. It hurts me to think I missed out on some of his milestones.
I managed to get a job as a LAA 6 months after I graduated from college in Feb 2011, and while I was looking for a LAA position I worked as a sales associate at one of the malls in Vancouver.

FINALLY! the day came that I was able to support myself and Jayden (that took a while) and I got a position as a LAA. All my hard work had paid off. I LOVE that I decided to go school, and I really want to go back to school to become a Paralegal.
I could go on and on, but I won’t because Abel is getting up. If you are wondering, I did go through a lot of trial and tribulations. I’ve moved countless of times, I worked so many different jobs, I went through a major break-up with Jayden’s dad causing many times in the courtroom. I’ve gotten plenty of stares from strangers, called names, and been told that I made a mistake keeping Jayden. I kept my head held high and of course I wanted to give up, but it just wasn’t an option for me.
IT WAS ALL WORTH IT & I would not take anything back.

Jayden will be turning 8 this September and it brings tears to my eyes thinking of everything we had to go through together. He made me who I am today. I believe that God sent Jayden to me at the right time and I’m so glad he did because I was headed down the wrong path.

I really want my experience as a teen mom to be heard so that any other young mom who is currently going through what I went through, knows, that it is NOT impossible to be successful, you just have to work EXTRA hard for it. I may not be rich with money, but I am rich with so many other things.

I wouldn’t be here without the support of my family and friends. They constantly encouraged me to move forward and to never give up. Because, in the end, after all my struggles and hardships as a teen mom, I am HAPPY with my life. I mean isn’t that the ultimate goal ?Thank you to all for reading and if you would like to ask me any question feel free to do so!
If you know a young/teen mom, lift them up, empower them, encourage them. If you are a teen/young mom then keep going because all the hardships are worth the rewards.
Lots of Love,
Heydy xoxo