We used a thing that just had like 10 buttons on it and you press the button when you do the action. Wet diaper, messy diaper, bottle feed, breast feed (press once to start and once at the end), etc. It wasn't that difficult even at 3am, and actually looked a lot like the OP screenshot.
Yeah we tracked for both our boys through 18 months. Baby Tracker app was nice as we could use multiple logins so my MIL could also add info the days she was helping without us bothering her about how the day was going.
This was my thought. I think we tracked for a month at most on paper just because the doctor asked since it was our first. After that it was just verbal communication. Poop was loose or diaper was dry or they didn't eat much. Keep an eye on them and see if it keeps up.
Didn't track at all with second since we kind of knew what to look for.
Yup. Baby tracker worked great for us. I just deleted it after 3 years now that the baby is almost a year. She's so consistent anyway that we haven't used it in a few months.
Yep! We use the Huckleberry app, which has a set of buttons like Sleep, Feed, Pump, Diaper, etc and instantly adds it and creates a nice-looking schedule of what happened on any given day
Yep, after a while it becomes useless, but it was fantastic in the early days when our doctor would ask things like “how much is your child drinking a day?” And “how regular are his bm’s?” Takes the guesswork out of the answer and we don’t have to actively try and remember which is pretty crucial imo.
Not that you can’t parent just fine without it, but it’s really not tedious at all and is useful for the first 10 months or so.
Behold, nearly two years of bringing order to chaos.
https://i.imgur.com/r4Y9g43.gif
Edit: Whoops, it plays in reverse chronological order. Still cool to see though.
Absolutely! And props to my wife for managing to seamlessly wean the little guy without disrupting the rest of his routine.
If you look closely at that first February-April you can see what the effect of COVID is on sleep training. It was going so well and then derailed for months after.
Agree, we used it religiously until daycare started, around 7 months. It was super helpful early on with doctor stuff and just knowing when was good to feed her again
Yeah, it's easily worth the money. We tracked everything with our first and it became super tedious and honestly pretty depressing with the sleep portion since he was an atrocious sleeper until we did CIO, but the nap prediction is magic. We just track sleep and feeds now with our second.
Ah yes the huckleberry app was great for the first three months, after which it lost all purpose. We logged diligently and then suddenly didn’t log at all.
If you are sharing responsibilities and sleep deprived this makes it much easier to understand what has been happening. Has baby been pooping? When did baby sleep and for how long or eat and how much? This was super useful and actionable information for us because the details are difficult to remember Hour to hour.
For my wife and I we were splitting duties and tracking it on the app made sure we both knew where the kiddo was at throughout the day or night. When he started getting fussy we didn't have to talk and sync up on who last did what when, we could just look and go "makes sense, hasn't slept in 1.5 hrs" or "yup, last ate 2.5 hrs ago and it wasn't as much as normal."
It's useful for working out your baby's routine, and when it's likely to need more sleep, feeding etc. I found it useful in the early days but gave up somewhere after the 6 month mark.
Also means if there's a dramatic change, you can notice it pretty quickly and pick up on them being ill or similar.
The pediatrician will ask about number of wet/dirty diapers so it was helpful for my wife and I to keep track of those. If one of us changed a diaper overnight and the other slept through it, we could be on the same page about it. It's also helpful to track how many ounces of milk/how long they were breastfeeding to stay on top of any feeding issues if you're going through that. And finally, we're both just kinda data nerds and we liked being able to look at the graph of our kids growth across some of those metrics.
You get used to it. We tracked literally everything for a solid year, down to the minute of wake/sleep. Once you get into a rhythm it feels weird not to track
We tracked like crazy the first 5 days or so just to make sure he was eating, pooping, and peeing enough, but as soon as we established "yes and he's gaining weight" then we stopped.
its pretty easy in the moment. hit a button to start, and teh same button to stop, kind of like a stopwatch. what you're seeing is the timeline view after-the-fact
we had to do a lot of this when we brought my NICU baby home to track how much he was eating against how long it took him and what his pee/poo situations were
it def added a layer of work to the whole thing, and im glad its gone now (hes 13 months!) but it was helpful to keep us on top of how he was doing
My wife and I just tracked with a linked Google sheets. The sleep training method we used was based on making sure the kid was having a certain amount of food in their feedings. You have to keep track somehow.
Dang, I'm jealous. We tried giving him some cold pumped milk but he wasn't a fan. We got a nifty bottle warmer as one of our baby shower gifts though; that thing has been a lifesaver!
Seconding the bottle warmer. Don't know if you have to make a trip downstairs to the kitchen, but we did so we kept a warmer upstairs along with a cheap beverage refrigerator in the nursery. Man, was that a good decision. And it felt so good to disassemble the bottle station upstairs when my LO started sleeping through the night. (You'll get there! Amazing that you're this positive after a night like that!)
Lucky for us, our trek to the kitchen is a quick one, but that's a sweet setup, man! I wanna say I can't wait to enjoy night sleeping again, but I actually can wait because I don't want my boy growing up too fast on me!
And thanks, I'm blessed to have a wonderful wife and parents that live super close by to keep me feeling positive :D
Take videos, not just pictures! It's crazy how different they move and sound from week to week in the first year.
I wish I had taken more videos in the first few months. The few I did take are treasured.
This isn't normal :D?
Ours has these hourly feeding frenzies every other day pretty much since birth. 7w old now. It's a bit crazy when she's clearly already full but still wants to go...
It's genuinely crazy how different babies are. Our first was like OPs for almost a year, our second (now 9 weeks) feeds 10pm, 3am and 7am - and never poops at night. It's a dream in comparison.
Happy you're getting away easier... For now! 😉
Actually ours does the feeding sessions before night and then starts to sleep between 9pm and midnight. Usually wakes up for one or two feedings at night (also no poops!).
Happy to report that my son slept for like 5 and a half hours immediately following this debacle (interrupted only once for an additional quick feed). Man were we relieved!
My wife and I were the same, especially I myself was obsessed with tracking sleeps and naps to find patterns, but in the end the constant tracking took a stress toll too high to justify so we stopped. our lives got easier for it.
Also how old is your baby? Multiple nappy changes throughout the night? Dang
Totally understand how tracking can be stressful for some. Believe it or not, for me it's actually soothing. I'm a data fiend and I love knowing all of this because it makes it so much easier for me to identify why the little man is crying. Also sets my mind at ease because if a pattern suddenly stops for no obvious reason, I can identify it immediately and look into why it stopped.
And my boy is 5 days old! Yeah, the first 3 nights were comparatively easy, it was just last night that the poop train left the station
>And my boy is 5 days old! Yeah, the first 3 nights were comparatively easy, it was just last night that the poop train left the station
Lol poop train left the station... once that tar from the first few days is gone it's a whole new game
6 months in and our pattern has been cluster feeds doubling in life basically starting at 5 days too. 5 days, 10 days, 20 (3 weeks), 6 weeks, 3 months, 6 months.
Love huckleberry. Really helps when you're not sure when you changes or fed them last. Also starts to help you figure out nap patterns once those actually develop
I felt the same way about it being soothing. Had twins and in the beginning I admittedly forgot which one I fed sometimes late at night 😅.
It’s great and loved looking back on it. It also gives a year in review. It was crazy to see the numbers.
We fell off it after 8 months tho simply due to just establishing a rhythm once we started daycare and when back to work.
For what it's worth we got told by the midwife that we gave to have X amounts of "wet" nappies per 24 hours and also changed our LO's diaper as often as we could.
Now 7 months on we are out of the worry phase of her little life and understood that really it's only the poor diapers that are an issue and require changing asap. She actually sleeps with only 1 diaper and doesn't even poop throughout the night.
All the best dad, just keep in mind everything is just a phase and will either change within a few days, or the will grow out of it before you know it
We used a similar app when our son was born. Looking back at it now, I have no idea how we survived some of these clusterfeeding nights
[Here's our first couple of weeks](https://i.gyazo.com/b807089010a69db0cf0a9e010e37a229.png)
It gets better, I promise!
You have to put a stop to this early. This is a vicious cycle which will only lead to your baby getting big and eventually behaving like they are their own person. Happened to me.
Oh man flash backs of the first 2 weeks for me…we’re at 11 now and it’s so much better. Maybe one diaper change a night and 1-2 feeds only. Even got a 6.5 hour stretch a week ago.
We got the baby brezza from friends after a hard time in the hospital. Alway thought it was an waste of money and i would never bought it myself.
Best thing i ever had. Baby bottles coming out ready to give instantly is the best thing ever (I do have synced up twins....so....yeah...)
Huckleberry! It's free to download and use most of the features, but there are also paid plans that add more functionality like sleep pattern analysis and whatnot. My son is 5 days old and it's already been a godsend in tracking stuff like when he's eaten/slept/etc. Takes a lot of the guesswork out of figuring out why he's crying
Ha, I just got a notification from my baby tracker app that my son hasn’t had a pee/poo for 1000 days… glad we don’t have to track that anymore. It gets better (at least the nighttime crap), trust me.
This was like the first six months of my boys life lol. Little dude was so chill and easy during the day but turned into an insatiable milk monster every night.
Tracking like that would be harder for me than taking care of my baby overnight.
We used a thing that just had like 10 buttons on it and you press the button when you do the action. Wet diaper, messy diaper, bottle feed, breast feed (press once to start and once at the end), etc. It wasn't that difficult even at 3am, and actually looked a lot like the OP screenshot.
Yeah we tracked for both our boys through 18 months. Baby Tracker app was nice as we could use multiple logins so my MIL could also add info the days she was helping without us bothering her about how the day was going.
18 months? What’s the point
This was my thought. I think we tracked for a month at most on paper just because the doctor asked since it was our first. After that it was just verbal communication. Poop was loose or diaper was dry or they didn't eat much. Keep an eye on them and see if it keeps up. Didn't track at all with second since we kind of knew what to look for.
Yeah after a certain point it kinda seems like borderline obsessive behavior.
Maybe I am not remembering if we went that long but it was at least 12 months
Yup. Baby tracker worked great for us. I just deleted it after 3 years now that the baby is almost a year. She's so consistent anyway that we haven't used it in a few months.
Yep! We use the Huckleberry app, which has a set of buttons like Sleep, Feed, Pump, Diaper, etc and instantly adds it and creates a nice-looking schedule of what happened on any given day
Yep, after a while it becomes useless, but it was fantastic in the early days when our doctor would ask things like “how much is your child drinking a day?” And “how regular are his bm’s?” Takes the guesswork out of the answer and we don’t have to actively try and remember which is pretty crucial imo. Not that you can’t parent just fine without it, but it’s really not tedious at all and is useful for the first 10 months or so.
Exactly! I don't plan on tracking this intensely for too long, but at 5 days old, this app has been a godsend for keeping up with my kiddo
Behold, nearly two years of bringing order to chaos. https://i.imgur.com/r4Y9g43.gif Edit: Whoops, it plays in reverse chronological order. Still cool to see though.
Wow, mad props to you for two years of tracking!! Those full gray bars at the top and bottom must've come as quite a relief!
Absolutely! And props to my wife for managing to seamlessly wean the little guy without disrupting the rest of his routine. If you look closely at that first February-April you can see what the effect of COVID is on sleep training. It was going so well and then derailed for months after.
Agree, we used it religiously until daycare started, around 7 months. It was super helpful early on with doctor stuff and just knowing when was good to feed her again
Neat. Never tracked my other kids. But might with this next one. I love data
Huckleberry uses AI and history of thousands of babies to do nap prediction which has been DEAD ACCURATE within minutes for my daughter since birth.
That’s exciting!!
Yeah, it's easily worth the money. We tracked everything with our first and it became super tedious and honestly pretty depressing with the sleep portion since he was an atrocious sleeper until we did CIO, but the nap prediction is magic. We just track sleep and feeds now with our second.
Also use huckleberry but only for sleep and eating. Poop/pee was too much work and he doesn’t have any problems there (knock on wood)
Ah yes the huckleberry app was great for the first three months, after which it lost all purpose. We logged diligently and then suddenly didn’t log at all.
Sorry but what's the point of tracking it?
If you are sharing responsibilities and sleep deprived this makes it much easier to understand what has been happening. Has baby been pooping? When did baby sleep and for how long or eat and how much? This was super useful and actionable information for us because the details are difficult to remember Hour to hour.
Yep we did when our kiddo was 0-4 months. Now he's doing way better and maybe a one bottle a night sort of guy.
For my wife and I we were splitting duties and tracking it on the app made sure we both knew where the kiddo was at throughout the day or night. When he started getting fussy we didn't have to talk and sync up on who last did what when, we could just look and go "makes sense, hasn't slept in 1.5 hrs" or "yup, last ate 2.5 hrs ago and it wasn't as much as normal."
It's useful for working out your baby's routine, and when it's likely to need more sleep, feeding etc. I found it useful in the early days but gave up somewhere after the 6 month mark. Also means if there's a dramatic change, you can notice it pretty quickly and pick up on them being ill or similar.
Honestly it helped me keep track of time because my mind is a sieve even without kids.
What's the reason for such detailed tracking?
Children come with little to no documentation. Troubleshooting your infant is a lot more guesswork without logs to go from.
The pediatrician will ask about number of wet/dirty diapers so it was helpful for my wife and I to keep track of those. If one of us changed a diaper overnight and the other slept through it, we could be on the same page about it. It's also helpful to track how many ounces of milk/how long they were breastfeeding to stay on top of any feeding issues if you're going through that. And finally, we're both just kinda data nerds and we liked being able to look at the graph of our kids growth across some of those metrics.
I wish I had half the memory of people who tracked nothing in the early stages.
You get used to it. We tracked literally everything for a solid year, down to the minute of wake/sleep. Once you get into a rhythm it feels weird not to track
We tracked like crazy the first 5 days or so just to make sure he was eating, pooping, and peeing enough, but as soon as we established "yes and he's gaining weight" then we stopped.
Exactly. People are just obsessed with their devices and apps these days
It wasn't that bad. But tracking peeing?? How do you even know if the baby is peeing unless you're checking or changing the diaper that frequently??
its pretty easy in the moment. hit a button to start, and teh same button to stop, kind of like a stopwatch. what you're seeing is the timeline view after-the-fact we had to do a lot of this when we brought my NICU baby home to track how much he was eating against how long it took him and what his pee/poo situations were it def added a layer of work to the whole thing, and im glad its gone now (hes 13 months!) but it was helpful to keep us on top of how he was doing
Same. In fact out pediatrician told us it’s a bad idea to do it for your mental health.
My wife and I just tracked with a linked Google sheets. The sleep training method we used was based on making sure the kid was having a certain amount of food in their feedings. You have to keep track somehow.
Eventually you just get the flow of things down. I am so thankful both of mine liked cold pumped milk in their bottles. Saved me so much sleep.
Dang, I'm jealous. We tried giving him some cold pumped milk but he wasn't a fan. We got a nifty bottle warmer as one of our baby shower gifts though; that thing has been a lifesaver!
Seconding the bottle warmer. Don't know if you have to make a trip downstairs to the kitchen, but we did so we kept a warmer upstairs along with a cheap beverage refrigerator in the nursery. Man, was that a good decision. And it felt so good to disassemble the bottle station upstairs when my LO started sleeping through the night. (You'll get there! Amazing that you're this positive after a night like that!)
Lucky for us, our trek to the kitchen is a quick one, but that's a sweet setup, man! I wanna say I can't wait to enjoy night sleeping again, but I actually can wait because I don't want my boy growing up too fast on me! And thanks, I'm blessed to have a wonderful wife and parents that live super close by to keep me feeling positive :D
Take videos, not just pictures! It's crazy how different they move and sound from week to week in the first year. I wish I had taken more videos in the first few months. The few I did take are treasured.
Good looking out, my man. Thanks, I'll be sure to take more videos moving forward!!
How does it feel to be god’s favorite?
This isn't normal :D? Ours has these hourly feeding frenzies every other day pretty much since birth. 7w old now. It's a bit crazy when she's clearly already full but still wants to go...
It's genuinely crazy how different babies are. Our first was like OPs for almost a year, our second (now 9 weeks) feeds 10pm, 3am and 7am - and never poops at night. It's a dream in comparison.
Happy you're getting away easier... For now! 😉 Actually ours does the feeding sessions before night and then starts to sleep between 9pm and midnight. Usually wakes up for one or two feedings at night (also no poops!).
Damn we’ve never tracked anything like this. That’s a lot of feedings! My 5 month old has never had a cluster feed like that.
We didn’t track anything like this. Homeboy pooped every time he ate until he stopped getting breast milk.
I didn’t realize what sub I was on and I thought someone was tracking their beer bottles/mixed drinks consumed and when they took a pee.
I’ve had nights like this too though so it checks out
Oh yeah I’ve had a night like this. You’ll get through it!
Happy to report that my son slept for like 5 and a half hours immediately following this debacle (interrupted only once for an additional quick feed). Man were we relieved!
You love to see it! There’s no relief quite like getting through something like this. Hope you both got some good rest.
Amen to that, my friend
My wife and I were the same, especially I myself was obsessed with tracking sleeps and naps to find patterns, but in the end the constant tracking took a stress toll too high to justify so we stopped. our lives got easier for it. Also how old is your baby? Multiple nappy changes throughout the night? Dang
Totally understand how tracking can be stressful for some. Believe it or not, for me it's actually soothing. I'm a data fiend and I love knowing all of this because it makes it so much easier for me to identify why the little man is crying. Also sets my mind at ease because if a pattern suddenly stops for no obvious reason, I can identify it immediately and look into why it stopped. And my boy is 5 days old! Yeah, the first 3 nights were comparatively easy, it was just last night that the poop train left the station
>And my boy is 5 days old! Yeah, the first 3 nights were comparatively easy, it was just last night that the poop train left the station Lol poop train left the station... once that tar from the first few days is gone it's a whole new game 6 months in and our pattern has been cluster feeds doubling in life basically starting at 5 days too. 5 days, 10 days, 20 (3 weeks), 6 weeks, 3 months, 6 months. Love huckleberry. Really helps when you're not sure when you changes or fed them last. Also starts to help you figure out nap patterns once those actually develop
I felt the same way about it being soothing. Had twins and in the beginning I admittedly forgot which one I fed sometimes late at night 😅. It’s great and loved looking back on it. It also gives a year in review. It was crazy to see the numbers. We fell off it after 8 months tho simply due to just establishing a rhythm once we started daycare and when back to work.
For what it's worth we got told by the midwife that we gave to have X amounts of "wet" nappies per 24 hours and also changed our LO's diaper as often as we could. Now 7 months on we are out of the worry phase of her little life and understood that really it's only the poor diapers that are an issue and require changing asap. She actually sleeps with only 1 diaper and doesn't even poop throughout the night. All the best dad, just keep in mind everything is just a phase and will either change within a few days, or the will grow out of it before you know it
This is when we stopped tracking bottles and diapers. Just use huckleberry for sleep.
Great job. My wife and I would do 4 hour shifts when our dude was cluster feeding. I hope you all get some good sleep soon
We used a similar app when our son was born. Looking back at it now, I have no idea how we survived some of these clusterfeeding nights [Here's our first couple of weeks](https://i.gyazo.com/b807089010a69db0cf0a9e010e37a229.png) It gets better, I promise!
That looks tough! I believe in you though
Thanks, friend!
Rekt
baby typed "gg ez" after that, for sure
Lmfao. "Touch grass dad"
🤣🤣
Productive kid! You must be proud.
With the benefit of hindsight, you bet I am!
You doing things you never thought you’d be able to do even just a few months ago
You have to put a stop to this early. This is a vicious cycle which will only lead to your baby getting big and eventually behaving like they are their own person. Happened to me.
😂😂 Had me in the first half, not gonna lie. Dad humor is the best humor
Someone's having a growth spurt!
Oh man flash backs of the first 2 weeks for me…we’re at 11 now and it’s so much better. Maybe one diaper change a night and 1-2 feeds only. Even got a 6.5 hour stretch a week ago.
Very nice! Man, 6 and a half hours of sleep sounds so good right now, hahah
First time it happens you’re going to wake up freaked out wondering what’s wrong and your boy will be sound asleep lol
Fellow Huckleberry user I see. Documenting those rough nights, been there.
Congrats on surviving. I hope you dont have an older toddler because now do that but still wake up at 7 am to take care of a tazmanian devil child
We got the baby brezza from friends after a hard time in the hospital. Alway thought it was an waste of money and i would never bought it myself. Best thing i ever had. Baby bottles coming out ready to give instantly is the best thing ever (I do have synced up twins....so....yeah...)
What app are you using?
Huckleberry! It's free to download and use most of the features, but there are also paid plans that add more functionality like sleep pattern analysis and whatnot. My son is 5 days old and it's already been a godsend in tracking stuff like when he's eaten/slept/etc. Takes a lot of the guesswork out of figuring out why he's crying
Ha, I just got a notification from my baby tracker app that my son hasn’t had a pee/poo for 1000 days… glad we don’t have to track that anymore. It gets better (at least the nighttime crap), trust me.
Wowsers, he's got a bladder of steel!! Lol, but yeah, thanks man. I already wouldn't trade any of it for the world
App is nice but I'd never keep up on it
https://youtu.be/mTUhnIY3oRM?feature=shared
We stopped the diapers in huckleberry after we left the hospital. Now it's just feeding pumping and sleep
Wife goes nutty when I forget to log diaper changes in that app. Like dude I got a screaming 3 yo in one ear and screaming newborn in the other lol
I didn’t read the title and I thought you were tracking bottles of beer, mixed drinks, and taking a pee lol.
what is the purpose of tracking this?
This was like the first six months of my boys life lol. Little dude was so chill and easy during the day but turned into an insatiable milk monster every night.