Itzbeen
One of the earliest additions to our baby shower wishlist was the Itzbeen. I don't exactly recall how we found out about it, but hubby and I were very excited about it. It's a little portable gadget that lets you punch buttons representing things you've done (changed a diaper, fed the baby), at which point it starts counting so later you can check how long itzbeen since you did that thing last. And since neither of us have iPhones, we thought this would do the trick for tracking things you need to track.
Then we read some books. After reading much of The Bible we started thinking the Itzbeen was not really what we were looking for. If we're not going to be trying to train our baby to eat at regular intervals, we figured we won't really need to know how long it's been since he last ate. So we took it off the wishlist.
Long story short, we ended up getting one anyway, and let me tell you--I AM BUYING THIS FOR EVERY NEW MOM I KNOW. I realized the brilliance of this gadget when the nurses starting asking me at the hospital when the baby had last fed. I would confidently say 1 o'clock. Then I'd look at the clock. It was 1:10. Okay....so...maybe not. When we got home, and didn't really need to time things, it was still part of the routine. It helps us, in our sleepless stupor, to know what he's being fussy about. It also just helps us be more aware of how he's feeding when anyone asks. We punch the bottle button at the beginning of feeding, then the sleep button at the end--now we know how long he fed, and how long between feedings (and incidentally, how long I've been sleeping). It also has a light and a backlight, so I can check on all these things when I'm half asleep in bed, and have a flashlight to check on him.
We've taken to punching the * wildcard whenever one of us says something stupid that only a sleep deprived person would.
Example:
On my way out the door, Hubby passes me the September metropass, and I take it and leave. A few steps down the street I remember it's October and have to turn back to get tokens.
Hubby: That counts as a * punch on the itzbeen, by the way.
Wifey: I just forgot it was September!
Hubby: You mean December.
Wifey: You mean October.
Hubby: Punch it.
