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Modern Day Help for New Moms
Sudden success and almost-celebrity status have caught Kim Appelt like a deer frozen in the headlights. The Kelowna mom of 18-month-old Aspen, has been interviewed on TV, cornered by reporters, featured on the cover of Canadian Family and is getting bombarded by e-mails from strangers thanking her and asking for more mommy advice. “It’s like I’m some baby expert—which I’m not!” Applet said, “But like all moms, we share our ideas, and I help when I can.” “It’s been overwhelming in a very short space of time,” admits Applet, who created the Baby Nanny, a software program to track your newborn’s habits. The idea evolved of necessity, since daughter Aspen, at 34 weeks, was a ‘preemie’ and Appelt found that keeping track of eating, sleeping, medications, fussing and diaper changes was frustrating. Not to mention trying to squeeze in some parental sleep and keep up with the usual housework. “We had little bits and pieces of paper all over the house,” Applet explained. “One piece had how many cc’s she’d had at one feeding, but the next feeding information wasn’t there, it was on another piece of paper. “It was impossible to see any pattern or set up a schedule that would meet her needs.” Computer comfortable and particularly adapt at spreadsheet applications, Appelt transferred her skills in that area, to creating a baby-tracking spreadsheet. Then she used it to collect and calm her own baby and household, with a schedule tailored to their specific needs. She used it diligently for herself and husband Greg, tracking little Aspen’s development and to just generally assist in getting comfortable and in touch with her needs and patterns, and how to schedule “life” around it all. Then she posted it on the web to help other new moms get
a grip on the situation. “It increases your feeling of success as a parent because you can track your baby’s reactions, needs and personality. “Knowing that she gets fussy at certain times of the day, you can get in there, give some cuddles, some milk, and stop the fussing before it starts,” she said. “What babies want is a predictable routine. If parents don’t know their baby’s routine, the baby’s individual personality, they don’t know what their baby wants and the baby just cries.” The Baby Nanny is very adaptable, and accepts input specific and unique to each child and family. There are spots to enter baby’s picture, track weight, height, feedings, how much was given, dirty diapers (actually very important with preemies) fussing, awake time, total sleep hours, everything tied to baby’s life. Appelt used it as a ‘babysitters guide’ to visually show what was going on with little Aspen without the need for extended explanations, and also used it to give husband Greg an instant update when they were “rotating shifts.” Since the program is intended to be personal, adding additional kids is a breeze, making the Baby Nanny a permanent record-holder and comparison tool to track each child’s development. There goes the height-marking chart notched onto the kitchen wall. After posting her “little idea” on line, everything snowballed. Without any advertising, moms wanted to know where they could purchase the program to give as gifts; word-of-mouth and e-mails got the ball going faster, and last October Appelt designed a cover and burned a CD, found a distributor (Grow Group, specializing in the hottest baby products), took the CD to a January tradeshow and is now getting worldwide attention. Baby Nanny is currently carried by ‘hot’ baby stores in Los Angeles, Honolulu, Calgary, Vancouver, Toronto, London and New York; nannies in the UK are ‘blogging’ about it, and day care centres are enquiring. “It’s just taken off,” Appelt added. “I don’t know where it’s going. I’m just flattered, overwhelmed and pleased that moms are using it and liking it.” Baby Nanny can be downloaded for a free trial period at www.thebabynanny.com eVent Life is a Horizon Operations Ltd. website www.eventpub.com |
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