Rachel Bowman

When Your Toddler Sleeps Good at Night, What Happens in the Morning?

February 2, 2018 by Rachel Bowman Leave a Comment

Our soon-to-be 3 year old, Ivy, was not in a great mood last night. When I was putting the girls to bed she did the usual 2 year old thing of crying and getting upset about me doing what she asked me to do. She wasn’t happy with any of the choices I gave her. Nothing was right. She didn’t want the pillows there. I didn’t set them up right. Her water bottle didn’t go there. I couldn’t even decipher most of the requests. But in the end, Ivy and Emma went to sleep really fast and no one besides Ivy got upset.

It was a pretty big deal for me. I didn’t lose my cool. I didn’t threaten. I just gave them choices. It was going much better than what I wrote about in this post. And they did good, even though there was some crying and yelling (mostly directed at me).

Then, we only got woken up one time last night (by the baby). This was also a big deal, since we’ve been woken up probably four times a night for the past several nights.

I woke up on my own this morning. No one was crying. It was awesome.

I was in a great mood. I thought everyone else would be too.

I was wrong, of course.

Toddler Struggles – Sleep and Frustration

January 31, 2018 by Rachel Bowman Leave a Comment

We have been struggling lately with a couple of related issues: sleep and frustration/attitude. My husband and I are having a hard time staying calm with the children because we have just lost all of our patience. One of the reasons we currently have such a bad attitude is because we are not getting enough sleeping. Sound familiar?

The sleep struggle is about more than just us not sleeping enough, though. Sleep became an issue when our two older daughters started sharing a room. This, in and of itself, caused a ton of frustration.

For several weeks our entire evening was consumed with the struggle and frustration of getting the girls to sleep. For 2-3 hours, we would just get more and more frustrated until one of us lost our cool and then the girls would finally go to sleep.

My husband and I were going to bed later than usual because we needed at least a little bit of time to recover before we actually felt like sleeping. And of course, we have a baby that still wakes up during the night.

It was not fun. It felt like it would never end.

Take Me to Church or, How to Turn Words into Action

January 24, 2018 by Rachel Bowman Leave a Comment

This Christmas Eve I went to church with my older girls, and something interesting happened.

The pastor was a woman who shared a story about her 6 year old son.

She talked about how he didn’t want to be in the play the church was doing. It was kind of funny because he was the pastor’s son, so she had to explain why he should do it without really pushing him to do it.

Then, in the end he was really excited about it because he got a different part that he really wanted to play.

The best part of the story wasn’t the story itself, it was how the pastor delivered it.

Spectra Baby USA S2 Pump Review – Spectra vs Medela

January 23, 2018 by Rachel Bowman Leave a Comment

Are you thinking about buying a Spectra pump? Had a Medela and want to know how it compares? Just looking for your first pump? I wrote this review of the Spectra S2 pump so I could answer all the questions I think are important, but if you have more just let me know. I also posted a video review here: Spectra S2 Pump video review but I’m going to break it down for you below.

First, a little background. I’m using this as my primary pump with my third child. I work full-time so I use this 5 days a week. I’ve been back to work for two and a half months. At the time of writing, my baby is almost 6 months old. I have no supply issues and have never had any issues with pumping. Except that I don’t really love to do it so I pretty much only do it at work. With my first two children I used Medela Pump in Style (PISA) pumps.

Spectra Baby USA S2 Pump Review - Spectra vs Medela at Just Getting Things Done

Best thing about the Spectra?

Spoiler alert, the best thing about it is that it’s gentle. Their tagline is awesome, “Our pumps don’t suck, they suckle.” Of course it’s not the same as actually feeding your baby (assuming everything is going well and you’re not in pain), but it’s so much gentler than the Medela pumps I’ve used in the past. [Read more…] about Spectra Baby USA S2 Pump Review – Spectra vs Medela

Turning Procrastination into Reward

December 7, 2017 by Rachel Bowman Leave a Comment

Procrastination into Reward

The other day I had the day off but my husband had to work and daycare was open. By 7:30 I was home alone and had the whole day to myself. I thought since I had so much time to myself I’d get a ton of things done.

I knew I should write a list so I’d have a better chance of actually doing them, but I had hot coffee and I never get to drink my coffee while it’s still hot, so I sat on the couch and turned on the news. I figured I deserved to drink my coffee hot at least once in awhile. I didn’t really care about the weather or any of the stories I saw, so I decided to look for something more interesting.

I saw that Bravo was doing a marathon of a show called Flipping Out and I decided to check it out. After the first episode I looked at the clock, saw how late it was and realized I really needed to eat. So I paused the show and went and got breakfast.

When I got some food, I figured I might as well watch some more tv while I ate breakfast because I couldn’t accomplish anything else while I ate. So I watched another episode.

I was feeling guilty because I couldn’t believe I was watching this crazy show about a guy running a design business in LA and all the drama with his employees and personal life, but I was totally hooked. Didn’t I deserve to hang out and watch some tv? I should be able to relax a little bit on my day off, right?

I mean, I had intentions of accomplishing all kinds of things, even though I didn’t really know what they were. I was going to get the house cleaned up, put everything away, do all those little things I never feel like I have time for. Instead I’m sitting on the couch watching reality tv. But I couldn’t stop watching.

It was just so easy to sit on the couch, even though in my mind I knew I should be doing something else.

Going Back to Work After Maternity Leave – Week Two

November 22, 2017 by Rachel Bowman Leave a Comment

As a working mom, returning to work after maternity leave is a time of major changes and major emotions. There are so many thoughts and feelings that go through my head, I wanted to chronicle it because, well, it may never happen again. I hope my journey can provide some comfort to other women that are going through the same thing. (This is the third post in this series, the first post is here and the second post is here.)

Going Back to Work After Maternity Leave - Week Two - Just Getting Things Done — Getting out the door in the morning (you can only see half the bags I’m carrying)

The Weekend

Saturday morning I ran errands, got groceries and was way more productive than I usually am on the weekends. I knew I was going to be tired in the afternoon either way, so I wanted to get everything done in the morning. Most weekends 10am rolls around and we’ve done nothing. Not today.

The in-laws came on Saturday while I was still running errands with Ivy and were here almost until dinner time. I was tired and really wanted to take a nap but didn’t because they were here. After they left I realized I should have just taken a nap anyway instead of sitting around wishing I could. I don’t think I was very fun.

My sister stopped by shortly after they left, and I started making dinner while she was still here. It was a busy day.

Sunday was more relaxed, since we’d even managed to get most of the laundry done the day before. I was brushing Emma’s hair and decided it really was time for a haircut. Like now. We talked about it for months because it was so long and hard to brush, but I hadn’t made it happen. I didn’t know where we should get it cut. I didn’t make an appointment. I was just indecisive. Well, today I decided we were going to Great Clips and doing it.

My husband needed a haircut too so we all piled in the car. Haircuts went well and were pretty fast, but by the time we got home it was practically lunchtime. I didn’t get a nap on Sunday either because I had my own hair appointment that afternoon. I guess it was haircut weekend.

I remember now how fast the weekends go too. [Read more…] about Going Back to Work After Maternity Leave – Week Two

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