Whoa, Kate... did you write a book?

I mean, kinda. It's not as complex as Jane's book but I'm pretty proud of it! 

Introducing: "First Weeks: A Newborn Log and Postpartum Recovery Journal"

What was the drive behind this project?
I work with a LOT of postpartum families in Seattle and that usually means many parents who are engineers of some variety. Engineers like numbers and patterns and quantifying everything they see. Unfortunately, babies are not predictable and they invariably lack patterns. When parents try to quantify everything their baby does, tracking feeds and naps and wake windows in a fancy app that spits out averages and color-coded weekly breakdowns, the focus shifts to those apps and away from the baby. What is often believed to be a way to learn their baby is actually a separation from the parent learning their babies cues. Instead of learning what each cry means, they check the app to see if baby "should" be hungry or tired yet. This leads to frustrated parents, disgruntled babies and stress all over the place! De-programming parents from tracking every part of their baby's day is one of my biggest tasks when I work with a new family. 

So how does this tracker shift parents away from that pitfall?
This tracker is very info-heavy for the first 2 weeks. These are the weeks when we do like to track how often baby is eating and what their diaper count is. This is the time when pumping and supplementing are more frequently used and also need to be tracked. After week 2, this tracker shifts down to a minimized version for week 3 and shifts down again for weeks 4-7. After that, tracking is not usually necessary and parents will be able to trust that they know their babies cues and respond to them accordingly. 

This is a combo log and postpartum recovery journal... what does it track for the birthing parent?
As a postpartum doula, I frequently see new parents focus solely on the new baby and the needs of the birther can get left in the dust. This postpartum journal has multiple ways to check in on the birthing parent, helping support their full transition to parenthood. The first 3 weeks of journal pages include a medication tracker, pumping tracker, bleeding tracker and a self-care check box for the first 2 weeks. Interspersed through all of the weeks are copies of a the "Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale". This is a self-assessment tool recognized by perinatal health professionals all over the world. At the end of the book is a birth story guide, with prompts and space to write about your birth and reflect upon what happened. 

The beginning of the book is filled with 15 beautifully designed Quick-Reference handouts on everything from pumping to infant care to recovery. The best one (in my opinion) is the flowchart of newborn crying problem-solving, designed especially for those engineers that need to know what to do next when baby is crying. 

What else do we need to know?
This language in this book is gender-neutral, working for all birthing genders and it works well for both single parents by choice and partnered parents!

Where can I buy this??

Spiral-bound copy

Paperback Copy

Printable PDF

I'm a perinatal health professional, do you offer bulk discounts for people like me to buy?
Yep! Click this link to fill out the order form and I will ship them directly to you. $12/copy with a minimum of 5 copies ordered. Shipping is included! 

Can I see it before I buy it?
Sure! Here are some sample pages and the "how to" pages for the journalling part...