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.
This timer system is beyond helpful it becomes your BRAIN when you have a newborn, as the hours, feedings and diaper changes become a total blur during this amazing yet totally sleep deprived time of your life. While it would be nice to have a few more features like total ounces drank, whether the diaper was a wet one or a doodie, and tracking of daily totals for everything that'd be more of a infantcare PDA, and is a bit beyond the scope of this little device. All it aims to be is a timer that will keep track of the key stats in your baby's life, consequently making your life way easier. I wake up in middle of the night and the baby is grunting, for example. I click the backlight button and see that in fact the baby has only been asleep for an hour, and had a diaper and bottle right before that. Then I just go back to sleep. On the other hand, he beguns grunting and making noises and I see the Itzbeen says it's been 2 hours 30 minutes since his last bottle or diaper, and I know it's time to get up and feed him.
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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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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What I like least about the device is that it only knows when something happened the LAST time. It does not help you answer the pediatrician questions how often the diapers are full, or how often baby eats, or how long baby sleeps in total. If you have an iphone or ipod touch, buy the applet sleepyhead from tv-apathy. It tracks everything, is easy to use, gives nice overviews, provides useful history, and is not another piece of techtoy that will only be useful for a short time ...
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I would recommend trying a different product instead. My 9-month-old daughter has 7 teeth and is a strong biter/chewer. We both thought this banana was the cutest toothbrush ever. We "brushed" with it for 2 days and I let her play with and chew it for a bit after each brush, supervised. On day 3 I washed the toothbrush and noticed that about 5 of the rubber bristles were partially or fully chewed off and missing. Sure enough, the bristles have since turned up in her diaper. Althought I considered sending the item back for refund, we will keep it for teeth brushing only. She is no longer allowed to use it as a teether, even with me watching since I didn't notice the bristles breaking off before. Please beware of this before deciding to purchase...I would not have bought it had I known.
