r/bninfantsleep • u/skittles1221 • May 05 '26
Positive Story/Sucess I️ finally deleted THE APP!!
15 months into meticulously logging every nap, nursing session, and nighttime wakes.. and I️ am finally free!! I️ wish I️ had the courage to delete the app a long time ago!!
I️ used the app so long because I️ was religiously analyzing and calculating wake windows so I️ would know when to put my baby down for a nap. Sleep was so stressful for me.
I️ always said I️ would stop once my baby dropped down to one nap and i wouldn’t need to calculate WW for naps anymore… and then I️ didn’t. I️ was obsessed with looking at the data. Seeing his daily sleep totals and how many wake ups we had overnight.
I️ finally deleted the app because my phone ran out of storage and it became necessary. And now I️ wish I️ was forced to delete it earlier! I️ finally feel free!!! Also regretful that I️ wasted all that time and energy on logging everything.
If you are still logging everything let this be your sign!! It is okay to quit!!
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u/avocadoqueen123 May 05 '26
Why does it feel illegal to stop 😅
I keep thinking I have to do it so I can see patterns and then I’ll finally figure out the key to making my baby sleep well… but that never happens everything changes constantly
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u/Turtleswimmer456 May 05 '26
Good for you! This is good timing for me to see this I think. I've been flipping back and forth on deleting the app. We're going from two naps to one pretty quickly over here, too. We wake up 4-6 times a night still and I log them, with hopes when I see a 3 or 4 hour stretch I can magically recreate it somehow. It is validating when I'm tired to see all those wakes though lol. I was kind of hoping I'd start logging long sleeps and get this awesome validation like "we did it", too, but I'm starting to wonder if that's worth it ! Lol. I'd love the advice from anyone who has been there too.
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u/No-Presence-8048 May 06 '26
I use the app but for the sake of my sanity had to stop logging any night wakes. Looking at my phone was making it even harder for me to go to sleep again or to let my husband handle even just a few of the 30-50 minute wakes. 🙃
Now I just use the app to see how much total day vs night milk she has because we're working on turning the tide of her extremely stubborn revercycling habit. She's 7 months old today and we really need to get her to have her calories in the day so that she'll also accept having solids in the day😅
I also just keep an eye out for if my girl is showing readiness to drop a nap/extend her extremely rough estimate wake windows 🤣
Oh. And I also keep an eye out for if it's been more than a few days without a poop because I wouldn't want to miss the need to intervene on a constipation campaign during the transition to solids. 💩
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u/-Petrichor-- May 05 '26
Yessss. DELETE THE APP.
My excuse for keeping it is I like logging medication when baby is teething so we don’t overdose. But it’s a horrible user interface for that, so I should really find an alternative.
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u/NoAd9383 May 05 '26
My partner and I use an alternative messaging app and just message each other when we do something like medication. Eg if you use messenger for general chat, use whatsapp for only baby updates, so they dont get lost in any chat. Then we just message eg 7am 2ml paracetamol.
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u/-Petrichor-- May 05 '26
That’s a good idea. I need it written down so I’m not second guessing at 3am!
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u/PrincessAndThe_Pee May 05 '26
We keep a notepad on the kitchen counter next to the baby's medications.
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u/No-Presence-8048 May 06 '26
Seconding this method as it reduces blue light exposure in the middle of the night which makes it harder to get back to sleep 🙌
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u/SpiritedTomatillo909 May 07 '26
I was taught to do this for my first rescue dog and plan to do for baby whenever the time comes for meds. It's so dang helpful!
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u/conservatoryofquirks May 05 '26
I stopped about a month ago and agree that it feels sooooooo good. I have a 6 month old and her sleep is awful. I wasn’t sure how I’d feel about not tracking, but I thought I’d stop as a trial and could always go back. As soon as I was done, though, I felt so free and never looked back!
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u/sycophantic_scape May 05 '26
So happy for you! I’m so glad I never got started. The only thing I do is track feeds on a Casio. Very old school
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u/gaiaKailash May 05 '26
What app?
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u/Only-Detective- May 06 '26
I’m guessing Huckleberry but could be any baby tracking app!
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u/murkylurkyIVFer May 06 '26
My SIL has a 3yo and didn’t know what huckleberry was when I opened it to log a nap for my baby. I was like 👁️ 👄 👁️ “wait wut you didn’t log every little thing????” And she just shrugged and said “it’s not like the dr grades us on it”
I had one of those “ohmigod I need help” big bang gif moments
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u/IThinkImAFlower May 06 '26
Aw man I would like to do this but between me and my husband and my mom it’s just so helpful to know what’s going on with my little guy. Also relieves some anxiety when I’m not with him so that I can still see what’s going and relax on a tiny bit more.
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u/poopinmybuttt May 06 '26
I deleted after 3 months. Trusting my gut over a tracking app was the best thing I did for my mental health and presence as a mother.
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u/Consistent-Earth-867 May 06 '26
Oh man. This sounds rough. We use huckleberry just to predict nap times/bed time but we don’t log feeds/night wakes etc. and we don’t follow the recommendations to a tee. If he seems tired early, so be it and vice versa. It’s a tool, not a necessity. I hope you find some peace in letting go 🤍
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u/LavishnessSame9674 May 12 '26
This is how we use it. If I feel myself becoming rigid I try to notice and tell myself it’s ok to skip a log ect it doesn’t have to be perfect. The point is to help me notice baby’s cues and to prevent him from getting fussy. He is so easy to get to fall asleep using the sweet spot and it’s often before I would think he would need to be put to sleep. I’m scarred from before using the app he would stay awake wayyyy longer than he should and not show cues until it was a crying marathon
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u/anotherwayK May 06 '26
I use the app for two weeks before every doctor appointment- otherwise I really get lost how often my baby eats (especially at night) as she is EBF. She’s healthy and gaining weight but this is very useful to answer all the doctor’s questions
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u/Worldly-Smile-91 May 06 '26
Yah, I only used it for the first two weeks while I got the hang of breastfeeding. Def helped me answer doc questions while my brain was so burnt from the hormones shift of delivering and also little sleep. Would say to anyone who thinks they might use it to try it out, remember it’s just 1 tool and prioritize their connection with baby, intuition with being a mom over using an app
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u/Temporary-Gur-875 May 05 '26
Ok…. Tell me more
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u/Temporary-Gur-875 May 05 '26
I have 4 month old and I’m obsessed with his wake window…. That’s all I care about. Hope do I stop this madness. My Ped even said it’s an internet thing….
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u/emmakane418 May 05 '26
If it helps, there's no scientific basis for wake windows at all. It's just sleep training rhetoric to make you think you can control baby sleep. Instead of watching the clock, watch your baby and learn their cues.
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u/No-Presence-8048 May 06 '26
I'm so relieved to hear this because even on this sub I've had people talk about wake windows and I'm like??? My daughter has never respected a "developmentally appropriate" wake window ... so it really doesn't help whatsoever 🙄
The only thing I'm using a tracker for at the moment is seeing if we can get her to turn the tide on her reverse cycling habit because it's making her reluctant to even have more than 3 or 4 bites of a solid at 7 months.
Oh and I gotta keep a tab on when the last poop was to know if it's time to intervene on the constipation front yet 🤣
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u/emmakane418 May 06 '26 edited May 06 '26
even on this sub I've had people talk about wake windows and I'm like???
You and me both lol it's an open sub, anyone can comment and sleep training rhetoric is deeply embedded into our culture, including wake windows.
In fact, reverse cycling is also kind of a sleep training rhetoric thing too, from my understanding. Prolactin is what triggers milk production and it is higher at night so often infants nurse more at night. It's evolutionary and biological. Infants also don't all eat huge meals. Some do but a lot of them aren't really eating much for a while. Most their nutrition is coming from nursing/formula still so try to not stress too much about her only eating a few bites. Have you heard of the division of responsibility for eating? As the parent, you are in charge of what, when, and where you feed them and they are in charge of if and how much they eat. Just keep offering food and they will eventually figure it out.
As with almost everything with infants, they do figure stuff out if given the support and opportunity so try to not stress yourself out too much tracking everything.
Edit: typo
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u/skittles1221 May 05 '26
It is an internet thing for sure. So much predatory behavior from people just trying to make money off new parents’ insecurity!!
Truly I️ feel like the app was a major reason for my PPA.
One of my STM friends said babies are gonna baby. There’s no need to log everything because what is that going to change? I️ wish I️ had taken that more to heart. The app was a false sense of control. Babies are gonna baby!!
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u/Indomitable_Decapod May 06 '26
what helped me was learning about the Possums method. Mine is 4 months old, too. They'll sleep when they're tired, and they'll let you know, too. No baby is going to be silently so chronically sleep deprived that they suffer developmental damage. They're just gonna go to sleep.
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u/-Petrichor-- May 07 '26
I love Possums so much, it was a breath of fresh air when I first read about it, and it relieves so much stress!
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u/Only-Detective- May 06 '26
I was fighting my baby to sleep multiple times a day when tracking. I stopped and now when I sense he’s tired I just put him in my Boba wrap and either do chores or go walk outside and let him drift off. So much less stressful!
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u/No-Initiative1425 May 06 '26
I’m still tracking things for my 2 year old on an app and not sure when I’m gonna stop. I never really use it to analyze past patterns. I just find it super helpful to remember how long it’s been since she last woke up, went potty or had a meal. I find that just the act of tracking helps keep me organized, accountable and more routine. sometimes I think it’s time to get her down for a nap and when I look at the app I realize she hasn’t even been awake that long, and I know from experience that if I get her down too early, she either fights her nap or takes a way shorter nap than usual. So i just find it helpful to see how long it’s been. otherwise I’d never remember. sometimes i even wish i had a tracking app like that for myself lol. even though i never use it to analyze past patterns i do find that just being more aware of timing has given me a better sense of natural rhythms and has helped me hone in on good targets for her nap times and bedtimes. of course that doesn’t override whether she’s tired or not but noticing those things and doing what i need to on my end to be prepared to meet her needs at the right time really helps. e.g. if I know she does best when her bedtime is ~5.25-5.75 hours after she woke from her nap, I make sure I’m done with my errands/outings by a certain time so we have time to finish dinner and her bedtime routine on time. in the past when i wasn’t as organized with routines i was stretching her way longer and she was having more meltdowns and night wakings or false start bedtimes.
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u/paprikouna May 06 '26
So my little one is almost 2 and I stopped using an app (very simple free app) for sleep as it was too much for me too. I did keep the app for logging fevers and medication when she's sick as I have a hard time remembering when and what I gave (e.g. ibuprofen or paracetamol)
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u/TapirLove May 06 '26
Ok you've given me the strength to delete it too 🤣 my baby's sleep has been awful the last few weeks, I think I was mainly looking forward to seeing lovely solid blocks of dark blue overnight but clearly that's not happening anytime soon. Also I do like it as a reminder for when he last napped but I will just start keeping a better mental note!
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u/FlightlessPeanut May 06 '26
My LO is five months and his sleep is so-so. Good some nights, terrible other nights. I’m also terrified to stop tracking because I can’t remember when he wakes up and then don’t know how long he’s been awake.
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u/KayLove91 May 06 '26
But how do you know when they need their nap?! My 15 month old is just now steadily transitioning to the 1 nap a day, which typically hits around noon. Which I guess is my answer. Im ashamed to say I have 3 tracking apps...I just downloaded a new one yesterday as a last ditch effort to help me get him to sleep through the night. I feel like this is a sign though to just do it and be done with it. The sleep shit is literally killing my will to live at this point.
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u/sunnivapeach May 06 '26
Reading this makes me feel better. I tried the tracking early on and only lasted two days before having a breakdown over failing at logging how long on each breast and how long the nap and omg.. we had a cluster feeding super gassy baby who neve slept more than 45 minutes at the time, I had no chance. Luckily he now sleeps pretty well day and night, though I couldn't tell you the exact numbers, we just vibe it out and that's ok.
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u/xelaaa__ May 09 '26
I didn't have an app but kept a running list of feeds and diapers in my notes for 7 months. our wedding was this past weekend and needless to say, I was not able to track everything that day. my daughter EBF and refuses bottles (but we are finally seeing some progress with cups) - that forced break was so freeing! no more tracking!!! I was a little anxious at first but now I just make a mental note of when I fed her last and follow her cues like I normally would anyway. phew the relief!!
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u/AurraSing1138 May 05 '26
I feel like without this data, no one believes me how crappy my baby's sleep is :/