Trixie Tracker: for the obsessed parent who has everything

Taking care of a newborn brings out any latent obsessional tendencies lurking in the recesses of your brain. Between lack of sleep and debilitating infatuation, the details of your baby's physical comings and goings can take on monumental importance. When did she last poop? 4 hours ago? 5? How long are her sleep cycles? Where's my notebook? Huh? HUH?

For you, there's Trixie Tracker, by the author of Trixie Update. Here's a dad who put his obsessiveness to good use.

Technorati Tags: Baby, Diapers, Feeding kids, Sleep

Comments

[Twinmama]

Oh, wow. What an extremely helpful tool for twin parents. I really wish that had existed three years ago!

[amy]

We used it in beta when we brought our preemie son home. I cannot tell you how valuable this tool was. I could keep track of what/how much he was eating and how he was sleeping, print it out and bring it to the doctor. It seriously helped me my sanity when he finally came home from the NICU.

[Parent Hacks Editor]

[feeling sheepish]

Twinmama's and Amy's comments make me realize that my post, which was supposed to be tongue-in-cheek, may have come across as a bit snide. I was just poking fun at how largely those fine-grain details loomed when I was a first-time mom of a healthy, full-term baby, and I didn't need to worry so much. The details are indeed critical when you have a baby with health challenges or you're the parent of multiples, and I know of nothing else that would track them as well. Sorry if that came off wrong --

[benmac]

Hi, thanks for writing about us! We appreciate the article even if it was tongue-in-cheek :)

But I would like to add that you don't have to be obsessive to use Trixie Tracker. For many folks, having a record of the data means you don't have to obsess -- it frees up your head. And many more folks just like the cool charts.

However, I will admit, when you are trying to get your child on a good sleep schedule it's ok to obsess a little. We won't tell anyone!

[Sara in Austin]

I remember being fascinated with the original non-productized Trixie-tracker when Trixie's dad first started posting all of his graphs. (This was pre-child...) I didn't use it when my daughter was born, but I did obsessively write down when and how much she ate and slept. It definitely helps on the "sleeping through the night" thing. It also helps when you are handing off feedings from one parent to the other, and you need to know when the last middle of the night feeding was.

I've been considering getting a subscription to trixie tracker for shower gifts... but only for the right type of people

[Twinmama]

No offense at all. And I have to agree, when it comes to getting kiddos to sleep well, no amount of obsessiveness is too much in my opinion!

[Shalini]

I have to admit, Trixie Tracker totally appeals to the geek in me. I am hooked after just a few days charting my 8 week old son!