For #3: I've lived in a 1 bedroom (420 sq ft) apartment with my husband and baby this first year of her life. The saving grace was the walk-in closet where we set up her mini crib. Whala, basically 2 bedrooms. Does your apartment have a spacious closet, by any chance (with good ventilation)? A small apartment is also nice when they start crawling and getting into everything because you can basically always see them from different vantage points. Other perks are that small spaces don't allow for extra junk (pro-tip: the baby bjorn bouncy seat is awesome because it folds up for storage when not in use) and it's so nice not to have to worry about the time and money required for maintenance (especially pool maintenance). Downsides are mostly feeling that her crying bothers the neighbors (although they often comment that they can't hear her) and the fact that my husband and I have to tiptoe around when she's napping as not to wake her. The very loud garbage truck also comes at 5am, so there's that. I would LOVE to stay in our space for at least a few more years, but if we have another baby next year, max capacity laws won't allow it. Babies are the best!
