I really needed something like this as a first time mom.

I had my daughter in the fall of 2023. She was born healthy and happy, and everything at the hospital went smoothly.
I did not realise that I had not been producing enough breastmilk for her until over a week later.

I thought we were tracking pee and poo diapers like we were told to. I thought the baby was latching properly like the nursing consultant said she was. It wasn’t until the 3rd day of constant crying that I felt something was really wrong. In my heart I knew it wasn’t colic, but I didn’t know what it was. We went to the ER at night because she was crying so much and even nursing wasn’t calming her down.

It turned out she was trying to nurse, but I just wasn’t producing hardly any breastmilk.

If my husband and I had tracked her diapers better, if we had noticed they were getting darker and fewer between, if I had better resources about caring for a newborn at home, then maybe I would have caught it much sooner.

The experience caused me to sink into PPD pretty hard. I felt so guilty thinking I was making my daughter SO hungry and miserable. She turned out to be just fine, thank goodness. We supplemented with formula, and I started pumping on a schedule. I was never able to produce much, but I was able to give her at least one full serving a day.

For this experience, I really wish I had something like this app so my husband and I could have accurately tracked her pee pee and poo poo diapers, taken notes about her behavior as the days went on, and had access to reliable resources instead of relying on Google, which just kept insisting she had colic and told me to learn how to cope with it. I also would have tracked my pumping sessions and how much I was producing, just to know if things were improving over time or not, and looked into resources for PPD.

I know there are baby apps, and pumping apps, but I haven’t come across any single one that does both, that’s customizable, where you can track and add notes, and actually have helpful care resources all in one place.

As a geriatric nurse in Germany and the at-home caregiver for my mother, I know just how much work goes into this field.

There is just a lot to keep track of. Medications, appointments, fluid restrictions, what goes in and what comes out, and even small side notes like how someone was feeling or what their vitals were at a certain time. These things might seem small in the moment, but they can become very important later.

Sometimes information is simply not communicated properly. Either it gets forgotten, misheard, or not shared at all. Even my mother once mentioned a new pill “for water” but didn’t say it was for fluid in her lungs, which is actually very important to know.

And then there is also the human side. Older people are often very set in their ways and don’t always want to accept help or share everything, even when they know it matters.

That’s why I really like the idea of being able to track everything and share it with other caregivers. Having it all in one place would make things clearer and reduce a lot of stress, especially in busy or difficult situations.

I am super excited about this App.I believe it would make a caregiver’s life and work much easier by helping keep track and share everything that’s being done. Even though most caregivers are very efficient, things still fall through the cracks or get lost in translation, especially in stressful situations. 

At the end of the day, we are all only human and can only keep track of so much.

There are two parts of caregiving that have been difficult for me...fleeting TIME and aching HEART. 

To increase TIME in my day, I need help to organize daily care needs, to track medicines, to maintain a shopping list for daily care supplies, to structure areas of the day for errands, appointments, and to leave instructions for sitters and eventual CNAs and therapy givers.  In writing this, I realize that TIME issues will also help my aching HEART issues. 

Building an ongoing record of what I am doing every day for my loved one can help ease the feelings that I am not doing enough when in reality I am doing a lot.  If I decide to employ a CNA to assist for at least hours a day I will have time to take care of any special needs for my loved one.  Creating more time in my day can also help me plan for a bit of daily respite for myself which will allow me to be more present with my loved one when I am needed.

It would also help my HEART to connect with other caregivers.  As a caregiver I know I will need love and encouragement to continue.  The love reservoir can quickly depleat in the face of the ongoing challenges of a family member dealing with dementia or in such pain and discomfort they cannot be thankful for the help they are receiving.  I need to find out how other caregivers are dealing with common issues.  I know that there are books on this topic, but I would like to quickly connect with real people to ask my own unique questions and find out about the many solutions others in similar circumstances could provide for me.

Thank you for the opportunity to express my feelings.