Meet our Gugu Guides! These expert moms in our community are here to provide wisdom, solutions and experience to help you make the best decisions about products and services for your growing family.
About Chelsea
Have you ever been to North Dakota? It consists of a lot of rolling hills and sage brush. Not many trees, lots of wind and cold winters. Summer lasts maybe 4 months but honestly it’s snowed in June before. Winter days are usually in the negatives which makes us seek alternatives to keep our two very active boys busy. In the summer we spend most of our days outside; going on bike rides, walks in the rolling hills, fishing, camping or just having a bbq with our friends. During winters we fortunately enough have an indoor trampoline park close by that we do utilize. We build projects indoors and our 4 year old loves to do science experiments. Baking keeps us motivated during the extra cold days along with having our friends join us.
Find out how she does it all, and check out her top 3 gear picks for babies and toddlers. Follow her on @chelsea_crowl2oo9 to learn more!
How do you balance your work and mom life?
Although I’m currently a stay at home mom I still try to earn a small income which is easier said than done with young children. Have you ever tried to bring out a laptop around young children? Key banging heaven! I am able to utilize my phone doing small income projects during the day while still caring for my boys. After 9 when they’re in bed I have a few hours to use my computer to work on anything I have going on.
Caring for your home and children are a full time job in itself. You can’t do everything every single day. Some days I don’t get time to do any income projects and just focus on my children and doing special things with them.
Planning out meals helps with not going to the grocery store multiple times a week and saves money if you can utilize the same ingredients in a few recipes.
Describe your baby and toddler gear style.
Funky, eco-friendly, light, multi-purpose, and quality affordable gear.
What’s been your biggest obstacle as a parent and what did you do to overcome it?
My oldest son just turned 4 so I’m sure I have a lot more hurdles to overcome. One of the hardest things I had to do with my first and am ready to start with my second is weaning from breastfeeding. I tried several different approaches with my first son and felt defeated and heartbroken at the same time. I hated seeing him so sad when I could easily help him but also needed to end our journey of breastfeeding as I was pregnant with out second son. We weaned our daytime feeds away first which i found keeping him active helped keep his mind busy and taking his nap just happened instead of me having to put him to sleep.
After having a few successful weeks we worked on night feedings, he was still waking up twice a night to feed. I tried just about everything I could think of. In the end I just resisted long enough he fell asleep while I held him. We only had 3 nights before he just stopped trying and in the end, he slept all night! I think I made it worse by dragging out trying different methods thinking it would make it easier.
Top 3 Gear Picks
Nuna Pipa Lite LX
The lightest carseat you’ll find that still has a high safety rating. The dreamshade will not disappoint!
Chicco Close 2 You Bedside Sleeper
This is the highest bassinet you’ll find to reach taller bedsides, great for csection moms! It has wheels to easily move and a convienet wheel lock system.
Belly Bandit Leggings
Belly Bandit has several different options for leggings and I loved the support they gave while being pregnant and while recovering from a cesarean.
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More to Read:
Gugu Guide Gear Picks: Megan Harper
Gugu Guide Gear Picks: Liz Teich
Baby Must-Haves from Dana Ivy
