Tuesday, July 3, 2007

ABCs of XLS

As a follow up to XLS, My Baby Z, I thought I would post some of the spreadsheets I've created since starting on the Mommy adventure. You may refrain from comments about my geekiness-- I already know. :)

  • Pregnancy Diet - to help keep track of eating the right things while pregnant. I have to admit I created this in a fit of neuroticism--when I was overwhelmed by the thought that I was solely responsible for the well-being of this new little person. I actually didn't end of up using it, but it might be helpful to someone out there.
  • Feeding Chart-Newborn - I used this to keep track of the in's (breastfeeding) and out's (pees and poops) of Baby Z's early weeks. At a time when I literally couldn't remember what time it was for longer than 10 seconds, this was the only thing that kept me from going insane. It also helped me keep track of things like spit up and gas. A psychologist would just tell me it was about trying to control minutia because I had so lost control of everything else. Hey- whatever works! It did help the lactation consultant diagnose that I had over-productive let down (mostly in one breast). Note: the Left/Right column was for keeping track of which side I fed Baby Z on, because in the beginning I only fed him on one side per feeding.
  • Feeding Chart-After 8 weeks - Same as the Newborn feeding chart but condensed to fit more on one page with less room for things that aren't as important after a while.

I have a whole notebook of feeding charts for the first 3 months or so of Baby Z's life. Perhaps I should preserve them for an anthropologist one day who will write a thesis on the survival strategies of neurotic new mothers.

2 comments:

Michelle said...

I don't think you are that neurotic. My mom kept a lot of notes like that too. She didn't have spreadsheets back in those days, but she kept a journal of feedings, etc. She still has them, and it is fun to look at them as an adult.

How does that spreadsheet work for the pregnancy diet? I am supposed to mark that off for everyday?

Routine Mom said...

Might be something in our heritage. :)

About the Pregnancy Diet spreadsheet-- yes, I was going to put a hash mark in each square to see how many servings of each things I ate each day.