Yes. I tracked every time we BF'ed until he refused at 6 months. It served 2 purposes for me-one to keep track of the last time he ate so I could watch for patterns/timing, and to keep track of the last side I fed on.
I tracked everything I pumped until I quit at 10 months. It's what let me know what mixture of formula and BM I needed to make for his bottles for the next day.
We tracked diaper changes until he passed his birth weight... this was at the pedi's request since he was slow to gain.
I still use the Total Baby app pretty religiously. The only time I don't really do it is in the morning when he nurses for as long as he wants in bed because I'm half asleep.
We still need to track diapers because I'm paranoid about his kidney issues.
I tracked nursing with an app for the first 2 months, because we had a rough/slow start. I stopped once we were totally settled into a routine.
We tracked sleep in the same app, through 8 mo. Just liked to be able to see the pattern, and I was too tired during part of that to remember when he was up.
Love of my life baby boy born 11/11. One and done not by choice; 3 years of TTC yielded 4 MMC and 2 CPs, through 4 IUIs and 2 IVFs. Focusing on making the world a better place instead...and running.
Post by ilikedonuts on Dec 21, 2012 18:36:48 GMT -5
I used the app for like 2 weeks. We FF though so I didn't have to keep track of sides and stuff like if I was BFing. I always remembered the last time she had a bottle. I never kept track of diapers.
Post by gibbinator on Dec 21, 2012 19:01:53 GMT -5
I track breastfeeding and naps religiously. I've recently started tracking poop again since he often goes 9days without going #2. I have apps on my phone for these purposes. I just like knowing his schedule and I get so scatterbrained
Post by water*drop on Dec 21, 2012 19:02:03 GMT -5
We still use BabyESP. DD is 7 months old. We use it to see sleep patterns, keep track of which side she last nursed on, when she was changed last, how much I pumped, track medications, immunizations, height/weight, and milestones, etc. It's really just habit now, but we rely on it a lot. It syncs between our phones, which is nice for stuff like medications where I'm home for one dose and DH does the next one.
No. I didn't feel it was important or hard to remember.
I kind of assumed Ashley did that tracking for just a few days so she could post a question here. I had no idea people tracked all that crap beyond the first few weeks of their baby's life!
At ~12 hrs I was already annoyed with tracking that stuff. I really had to concentrate to do it in the hospital let alone for any length of time after.
Post by Ashley&Scott on Dec 21, 2012 20:36:05 GMT -5
We track pretty much everything. Bfing, solids, diapers, sleep, baths, meds, growth, milestones... It's on our iPod, not really a big deal to enter info.
It is helpful for us. We know if he hasn't slept in a few hours or pooped in a few days. It's easier to plan because we can look at the patterns.
Bonus for MMM: I can look back & tell you what he was doing at X months when someone asks.
I still track feedings and poopy diapers. I am not as religious with the feedings as much anymore, but she is an infrequent pooper so I like to know when they occur.
I did for a week or two, on paper. I still have them in her baby book. At that point it was clear that she was gaining weight, eating regularly, and peeing/pooping at appropriate intervals, so I just stopped at that point.
I still mentally kept track of the last feeding/diaper change/nap. I joke that DH could never do it as well as I could, because he's a failure at multitasking, LOL
Tracking makes me panicky. I remember using an itzbeen when dd was a few days old to make sure she was bfing 15 min on each side like the lc told me to. Well, she was never a 15 min nurser. She could finish a side in 7. As soon as I quit that sucker, life got much easier. Also, dd quickly developed an every 2 hrs during the day nursing schedule, so it was pretty easy to keep up with. I just changed her on the same schedule unless she pooped.
I kept a notes on when the baby last ate and dirty and wet diapers for the 36 hours or so we were in the hospital because I knew the nurses would ask. Once we were home I didn't track. Totally not my style.
Post by pierogigirl on Dec 21, 2012 21:02:43 GMT -5
With DS1 I tracked bf-ing and diapers for the first year. With DS2 I tracked bf-ing and diapers for 10 months. I never got engorged or leaked and both kids ate every 2 hours and I was always paranoid that they weren't getting enough. Tracking made me feel better and it was no biggie.
Post by hannamaren on Dec 21, 2012 21:10:33 GMT -5
I would track a couple weeks but no patterns would emerge (at all) so I would stop. Then start again a month later. By the time she was 5 mths, I said "screw it"
I've never officially tracked. E was born 7 lb. 12 oz., dropped to 7 lb. 9 oz. before we checked out of the hospital, and was up to 8 lb. five days after birth... so we never needed to wake him to eat, and we just knew he pooped and peed plenty. He still poops at least twice daily, usually three times, and wets plenty of diapers. These days I keep a mental tally of how many times he's nursed so far that day--I like to get in six, sometimes seven feedings between waking and bedtime. That includes cluster feeding leading up to bedtime.
We did for like a day. We had a form with each babies name to fill in diaper and feeding info. Between DH, my Mom and me none of us were keeping up with it so we ditched it. It is overkill IMO unless you have a baby with a health condition or something where you really need to pay attention to how much they ate.
We never intentionally tracked. We knew that she kind of operated on a 3 hour change/feed schedule while she was in NICU, so we just did the same at home.
I had good intentions of doing so, but after a week, it would be noon and I would forget for the rest of the day. She nursed all.day.long, so not an issue. I used a hair tie on my wrist to remember which side to use next.