One Less Thing to Remember

 This post was created in partnership with BlueSmart mia

I like to think of myself as a fairly low-key, low-stress parent.

When Ella was born, I felt like I pretty quickly got a handle on caring for a baby and becoming a mom didn’t really rock my world.

Of course, I also had no other children, no job, a small apartment, and basically no responsibilities aside from keeping her alive and doing some laundry.

With each additional child, I’ve gained a whole new appreciation for the concept of “mom brain.”

There’s just so much to keep track of!

I’ve always felt like someone who was really good with details, so it was really disorienting, especially after Star’s birth, to start forgetting things or struggling to keep track of all the different things I have going on.

I look back on that first year or two with Ella, and my life was just SO different than it is now.

With this new baby, I won’t have all day, every day to focus on her like I did with Ella.

Now, instead of long leisurely days at home, I’m juggling three other children, homeschooling, my blog and associated responsibilities, running the children’s organization at church, keeping up with the house responsibilities, and hopefully occasionally doing some things for me, like exercising and reading.

At this stage in my life, I’m definitely looking for tools that make my life easier and reduce the mental energy I have to expend remembering all the things I have going on.

When Star was born, I remember telling Bart, “I have no idea if she’s getting enough to eat!” This may or may not have been right after the home-visit nurse came over and asked all sorts of questions about how often she ate and how much she was eating and how I was tracking her weight gain. All of which were questions I lacked the brain cells to answer at all coherently.

So I love the BlueSmart mia, which is a new high-tech system that tracks and analyzes your baby’s eating (I mentioned it to one of my blogging friends at Alt Summit last week, and she was like “I would have KILLED for one of those with my last two babies!”)

The BlueSmart mia is a Wi-Fi enabled sleeve that slips over the base of most bottles (which I love, because I currently own about 15 bottles, and I’m not anxious to buy MORE) and precisely measures how much milk your baby has drunk and how long it took them to eat it, plus it has a sensor to make sure the bottle is being held at the right angle.

It also has an alert that lets you know when the milk should be discarded (which means Bart will no longer have to ask about every bottle, “HOW long did you leave this out?” or “How old, exactly, is this milk?”).

Since it connects to Wi-Fi, it automatically syncs to the app on your smartphone and lets parents and caregivers track feedings on a daily and long-term basis. And it includes a digital journal so you can mark down other milestones all in one place.

It’s perfect if you’re worried about your baby’s eating patterns, going back to work after your baby is born, or leaving your baby with a caretaker on a regular basis.

You can see it in action in this video (which, warning, will probably make you super baby-hungry. It’s a good thing I’m already 39 weeks pregnant).

The BlueSmart mia is available at BlueSmart mia.com or on Amazon. You can use the code NEWMIA30 at checkout to get $30 off throughout the month of February.

I have no idea if our current insurance or hospital provides a home nurse visit after this baby is born, but if they DO, I’m prepared to wow the socks off that nurse when she asks about this baby’s eating habits.