Babble Soft™ has partnered with Midwest Nannies agency to give parents a FREE one-month subscription to the Baby Insights Day Tracker™ when they sign on for childcare at Midwest Nannies.

We are excited about partnering with Midwest Nannies to offer their customers an easy way to try our Baby Insights application. Our goal is to make the transition into parenthood easier by taking away some of the worry about whether baby is getting what he or she needs. We know Midwest Nannies offers quality care, which makes our partnership such a good fit. The partnership with Midwest Nannies and using the Baby Insights Day Tracker can be a critical component to any family-friendly back-to-work arrangement.

After returning to work, new moms and dads will want to know how much baby ate or slept, how many wet diapers they had, or what their mood was throughout the day. If their baby is on medication, then it’s also important to know when dosages where given. The Baby Insights Day Tracker makes it easy for parents and caregivers to track and share this information. Not only can working parents easily access and track how their baby is doing on a daily basis, but it also helps the caregiver to track and see patterns over time or to provide parents with the ability to see weekly reports. Tracking data and information in Baby Insights also helps parents to feel bonded with baby and to lessen feelings of missing out on baby’s daily activities and developmental milestones.

Parents and caregivers both have the same goal…to make sure baby is receiving the best care possible. Using the Baby Insights Day Tracker can help bridge the information gap between parents and caregivers. For instance, if baby is not sleeping well at night, parents can easily go in see their napping pattern for the past two weeks along with their nighttime sleep and identify patterns or areas to work on to help improve baby’s sleep. It also helps to be able to combine the sleeping patterns with baby’s eating habits as another way to gauge why baby may not be sleeping well. These data can also be used when parents meet with baby’s pediatrician for well baby check-ups.

For mom who is still breastfeeding and pumping while at work, using Baby Insights Day Tracker can help mom adjust her pumping schedule to make sure baby has enough milk during the day and caregivers can use it to help support mom with her breastfeeding efforts by planning or scheduling baby’s feedings to coincide with mom’s breastfeeding schedule.

Keeping a daily record of baby’s eating and sleeping habits not only helps to ensure good quality care for baby but it supports good communication between parents and caregivers which leads to the best possible care for baby.

If you have a nanny agency, contact us for your free subscriptions today. If you are a parent working with a nanny agency talk to your nanny agency about partnering with Babble Soft.

Contact Babble Soft Here

About Midwest Nannies, Ltd.

Midwest Nannies, Ltd. is a private employment agency specializing in childcare needs. Midwest Nannies, Ltd. recognizes the importance of having quality childcare. We believe your childcare provider has the most important job there is; caring for your children! Midwest Nannies, Ltd. knows the worry and frustration parents go through while searching for childcare. Midwest Nannies, Ltd. is committed to serve our clients on an individual basis to meet their special needs and/or requirements. Midwest Nannies, Ltd. is “Committed to Personal and Quality Service.” We stress service, honesty and a caring attitude!

When a new mom leaves her infant in the care of a nanny or newborn care specialist, what are her concerns? What does she want to know?

 

How can a nanny help her feel more connected to her baby and help her deal with possible feelings of guilt over leaving her baby? 

A new mom’s perspective

As a new mom, I was so concerned about leaving my baby with anyone else … even my husband! When I returned, I wanted to know when he ate, if he slept, and practically everything he did. Now that I have two kids, I still ask their teachers and care providers what they did during the day. It’s so comforting to have an idea of how their day went. I sent our son to a home care on a part-time basis when he was a baby. I felt frustrated by the vague answers I received when I asked about the details of his day; but I bit my tongue, felt guilty, and walked away wondering what I had missed. 

It was difficult to leave my son with someone else and thereafter, leave my daughter – but I wanted to work. My career is very important to me and I knew I would be a better mom if I was able to pursue my passion. However, I still wanted to stay connected to my babies. It would have been a pleasure to receive an email, a text message, a picture, or even have the ability to log in to a website to see how my babies were doing. It would have made my life so much easier if I was assured that although they might have cried a bit when left them, they were eating well, sleeping well, learning and having fun. 

I was still breastfeeding when I returned to work, and I made every attempt to time my pumping sessions so that I could nurse my babies when I picked them up. If I arrived only to find out they had just been fed, I would have to go home and pump instead of feed them, making me feel very disappointed.  On the other hand, it was nice having breastfeeding support and knowing that I had expressed enough milk for them while I was away made me feel more connected to them. 

What moms want to know

In the “old days,” moms had no choice but to stay at home.  They could get advice and make decisions based on one-on-one face time with baby, family members, and friends. Nowadays, moms rely on their nannies to communicate their baby’s daily activities, issues, fussy periods, smiles, and schedules. When moms are not present, having the opportunity to review their baby’s activities at a glance in a daily journal or report is not only powerful, it helps them and their nanny make better baby care decisions. It is also a great way to provide records for their pediatricians, which can aid in making medical decisions. Here are more examples that illustrate the importance of keeping a daily journal: 

• A new mom misses important milestones. While she is at work, baby shows off her biggest smile or makes a first attempt at crawling. Imagine a caregiver who captures the moment via a picture, includes a milestone caption, and emails it to the mom. What a way to brighten her day. Although the mom is not present physically, she can take delight in knowing that the true “first” was captured.

• An infant spits up often but with no discernible pattern. Both the mom and nanny are busy and jot down handwritten notes, which might be stained or misplaced by the next day! Maintaining an online daily record of the baby’s feedings (with corresponding spit-up times) can help to establish a pattern of feeding times and a correlation between the feeding quantity and spit-up periods. The mom can forward the reports to the doctor to aid in a decision regarding whether her baby needs medicine for acid reflux or if there is a need to simply change the baby’s feeding schedule.

• A baby has difficulty sleeping. Mom (or dad) puts the baby down in a specific manner and in a specific place during the weekends. The nanny arrives and puts the baby down in a different manner, thus she witnesses a different outcome. The baby appears confused, which results in additional stress for both the nanny and family. One solution is to review online reports that are designed to track a baby’s sleep patterns and reveal how the baby was put to sleep. The reports can serve as physical proof that specific baby sleep positions or methods work better than others for the baby. The reports can also give parents the assurance that their baby is okay, and shifting their behavior or the nanny’s behavior can make life easier for everyone.

• A baby needs regular medications. Administering medications is a critical part of providing childcare. Therefore, it is beneficial to have a central place where medicine doses are recorded. This procedure can allow both the mom and nanny to ensure medicine doses, reactions, and duration are properly recorded and timed. Proper daily record keeping can help to avoid accidental overdoses and ensure a dose is not missed.

• The nanny runs out of expressed breast milk for baby. If the mom keeps daily pumping records and both the nanny and mom keep daily bottle-feeding records, Mom can adjust her breastfeeding and pumping schedule to ensure there is enough expressed milk for her baby.

There are many more sound reasons to keep daily records. However, the most important reasons in my opinion, are for the health and well-being of the baby, and improved communication between the nanny and family. Although moms today have many more opportunities than they did in the past, they also have more decisions to make and more balls to juggle. Keeping daily records of an infant’s activities helps nannies and moms make better baby care decisions – and it helps moms feel more connected to their baby. A happy mom means a happier baby!

By Aruni Gunasegaram, President and Founder of Babble Soft
Written for the International Nanny Association Spring 2008 newsletter