When I suggested to my wife that we needed this item on our baby registry, she thought I was just feeding my gadget habit, baby-style. Having been a night nurse for newborn twins and triplets for years, she thought she would never need this item. Well, this item arrived on the second day after we got home from the hospital and my wife wishes that she had it on the first.You see, one of the skills that really suffers with sleep deprivation is math. If you can even mentally keep track of the times or write them down, doing the "hours" math on when our baby last fed, when she had her diaper changed, etc. is really not as easy as it sounds when you've had no more than about 45 minutes of continuous sleep for four days. So this does it for you four timers with little icons and a left/right slider for breastfeeding (which is also a tough thing to remember, but something you really don't want to forget). It is exceedingly simple press the icon button and it restarts the timer perfect for the sleep-deprived mind.
As for the suggestions by some reviewers that this timer needs additional features, such as feeding totals and quantity subtotals, I disagree. I think that additional features would likely take away from the simplicity of the device making it more complicated to operate on limited brainpower and thus less likely to be used. Those with more complex needs might consider a PDA with a spreadsheet or specially designed program.
It's not often I get to hear that I was right and my wife was wrong (we're usually on the same page). This was one of those times.
It's also great for team caregiving, as my husband can hand me the Itzbeen after doing his morning shift, and I automatically know when the last change and bottle were. We use the wildcard button to track bottle expirations too.
Thumbs up for the developers of this cool gadget I hope to see an "Itzbeen II" w/ some advanced features in time for my next baby although keeping it simple does help keep it easy and quick to use, especially in the fog of a 1am, 3am, and 5am feeding schedule! (my son never got the memo that full term babies are only supposed to eat every 3 or 4 hours :)
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Having twins we always had to write down everything, or we wouldn't remember whom we feed, when we feed them, or any details. We used to keep a chart, but then I received the Itzbeen as a gift. It is so much faster to press a button then to write everything down. When we go out I just toss it in my purse and when the babies start crying I can just pull out the itzbeen look at the timers and figure out if it is time to eat or they are just being fussy. If the boys do eat or require a diaper change, I can record it easily. no more carrying around a clipboard!I didn't give it 5 stars because it would be even better if it could track how many oz of formula the babies eat and if it could total the number of hours the baby slept.
But still it is a nice tool for forgetful people. I'm buying a 2nd one, so I have one for each of my twins.
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I got this product before our baby was born as a way to help my husband be involved with the care of our newborn--I figured that keeping track of things like diapering and feeding schedules would help him feel more integral to the life of the new baby since I would be breastfeeding and doing the lion's share of the feeding work. But it turned out to be more than just a good idea to have when my labor and delivery took 3 days in the hospital and produced one beautiful but tired infant. Our daughter took a couple of weeks to come out of her daze (3 days of being squeezed by contractions would stun anyone!), and in the meantime we had to wake her for feedings, which we juggled with a pumping schedule to help my milk supply come in and build up. This turned out to be an invaluable gadget during those first chaotic weeks. As a bonus, since it arrived two weeks before we delivered, we also used it to time my contractions at home.Pros:
-The four seperate timers are great. We managed to track our daughter's feedings, my breast pumping, her sleep cycles, and other miscellaneous events all at once. The option of being able to set an alarm (silent with flashing light or beeping with flashing light) for each of the timers was an extra bonus.
-The nightlight feature is fantastic. Even now when we're not using the timers that often I use the nightlight several times a night to check on our daughter without turning the lights on or disturbing my sleeping husband. When we were using the timers the seperate backlight feature was also critical since we could check the display without making it too bright.
-It's small and fits in the palm of your hand or clips onto your clothing. So it goes everywhere and I even slip it into the diaper bag when we're going out of town or even just headed out and about and I need to keep track of something.
-It did accomplish what I wanted it to: my husband was able to be very involved with our daughter's life in the first few weeks. Plus it helped me out that he could keep track of things that needed to be done when I was completely zoned out and sleep deprived.
Cons:
-There really aren't any. Some people complain that it should have more features, like keeping track of wet/dirty diapers or other feeding details. But that's really only something that you do for a short time, and adding features like that would detract from the simplicity of the device.
This is a great product. It had it's heaviest use in the first few weeks of my daughter's life, but we continue to use it and find ways to make it useful for all of us.
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My timer was defective in that LED screen for the top function (the diaper change button) was not complete...meaning you could not discern the digits (was it an 8 or 0?). Otherwise, the other functions worked and I was able to see how much time elapsed. Overall, though I stopped using the timer fairly quickly for a few reasons.1. I had a newborn and when she was yelling/screaming crying for her bottle or permanently attached to my breast...I just forgot to press that button to start the timer over.
2. For some reason, I envisioned a product that would not only keep time between feedings, diaper changes, etc. but would also keep track of the sleep time during the day, etc. or the number of diaper changes & feedings per day. BUT it only tells how much time has elapsed from the your last feeding, changing etc. Maybe I am asking too much, but I don't see what differentiates this product from a multi-use timer. It's essentially several times on one device. Overall, it is a good but for all the raving reviews I just expected more.
I came back and edited this review because I wanted to add that they company has fabulous customer service. I emailed the company to inquire about getting a replacement for the timer. The president of the company emailed me back promptly on a Sunday asking for my address. He did not ask me to send back the defective timer and must have shipped the replacement priority or overnight because I received the replacment in no time.
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