Baby Tracking Tips and More
Baby tracking isn't difficult and is tremendously rewarding. After only a few days of tracking your baby, you'll begin to see trends, patterns, or tendencies of your baby. The longer you track, the more information you’ll gather, the more you'll know about your baby.
For those who are just beginning to track, the process is actually quite simple. Here are a few quick tips:
Be Prepared
Whether you are measuring your baby's milk intake or sleep-training your baby, be ready to record the information. It might mean taking note of how much milk is in the bottle at the beginning versus at the end of the feeding or wearing a watch. Once you get your routine down, it will come naturally. For example, we strap a stop watch on our My Brest Friend to time our nursing sessions.
As Soon As Your Baby Allows You
Most people find tracking difficult because they tend to procrastinate and then they forget or get confused. Exhausted bodies and tired minds are simply not good at remembering things. Record as soon as you're done with handling your baby. It will only take a few seconds.
Relax!
Some parents get too stressed about the accuracy of the data. Trust us, we know. However, a few not-so-accurate data points will not break the overall trend. Just do the best you can and don't get discouraged when things get hectic.
Find the Right Tool
Bobohelper provides many ways of looking at the data (including charts and tables). Some of you may find one way easier than the others. Feel free to explore.
While we rely on Bobohelper ourselves, we understand that not everyone likes to do everything on the computer.
If you feel more comfortable with pen and paper, download the
Bobohelper Newborn Tracking Form
or the
Bobohelper Infant Tracking Form
which is the predecessor of the software version.
Help from the Experts
We try to get as much help from various resources as possible when it comes to our pregnancy and bringing up our baby. While every parent is different and there are so many baby and parenting books out there, these are the ones we found useful.
Pregnancy
The most famous pregnancy book as far as I know. A must-read although I got a cold once from the book's advice...!
A light-hearted read that I actually enjoyed from cover to cover!
My "bible" when it came to shopping for my baby--I carried it with me to all the baby stores!
Becoming a Dad
A very funny book with practical information. We recommend it to all of our fathers-to-be.
General Baby Care
Because the American Academy Of Pediatrics was prominently on the cover, I read this a lot more than other baby books and trusted the information.
A good go-to book when I had a specific question.
Frankly I didn't read this book much because I didn't think my baby was fussy!
Breastfeeding
Breastfeeding came pretty easily to me, so I didn't read this book much, but whenever I had questions, I did find helpful answers here!
Sleep Training
Very informative read that provides more "science" behind the more simplistic Sleepeasy Solution book.
Easy read plus couple of my girlfriends swear by this book.
I would have read this had I decided to go with the no-cry method!
Frankly I didn't read the book but my husband and I watched the DVD that came with the book! Since we thought the swaddling technique was the most helpful tip out of this "book", watching the DVD made a lot more sense!
Once I decided a bit of CIO (crying it out) was necessary, this was the sleep training book I relied on. I found it really understands the baby's behavior and needs.
Solids
The moms in my baby's playgroup all seem to have this book (except my husband is an excellent cook, so he's concocting his own "super baby food" for our baby!)
Toddler
I don't read many books cover to cover, but this is one of the very few, probably because our pediatrician recommended it, but it's also a very interesting read.
Preschools
I can't wait till my Amazon shipment arrives! I'm sure it'll be dog-eared book by the time I'm done reading it!
