NuuNest app (guest review)

“Saskmom” is a mother of two from, you guessed it, Saskatchewan.  When she wrote this review, her oldest child was 28 months and her youngest was just five weeks old.  She is on maternity leave and quickly learning what life with two kids is like.  This lucky lady has a helpful husband at home and a newborn who sleeps well (nice).

Saskmom was provided with the NuuNest app for free in exchange for her honest review.

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Everything was new with my first child.  I found the first few weeks with a newborn really tiring and a huge adjustment. I am an A-type personality, so was diligent the first couple of weeks tracking each feeding and diaper change on the sheet with which the hospital sent me home.

However, life got busy and soon I forget to track it or didn’t have the paper handy. I found myself forgetting half the time when I last breastfed and what side I ended on, especially for the night feedings when I was half asleep and I would just typically look at which boob was larger and decide it must be the one!

When I heard about the NuuNest app, I was excited to try it; I always had my iPhone with me which I knew would make tracking a breeze. With a toddler in addition to a newborn, I needed to be even more organized this time and I was hoping this app was the solution for that.

I also discovered that the app was created by two nurses from Saskatchewan which made it appeal to me even more.

Since I started using NuuNest, I have noticed it advertised at my doctor’s office and the hospital. I should warn you that I am not an app savvy mom, and therefore don’t have a lot to compare it to. I use my phone for basic needs (email, phone, calendar, Facebook);  I don’t have any music on it nor do I use many apps so keep that in mind as you read on.

THE GOOD

NuuNest is very user-friendly. It was quick and easy to set up an account; all you need is an email and password.

The app is thorough and divided into the following helpful sections: feeding (breastfeeding and/or bottle-feeding), diaper changes, tracking the baby’s weight, expressing milk, daily vitamin D intake tracking and reference materials.

Image belongs to www.collegemobile.com.

The breastfeeding section allows you to track the start time and the side that you ended on and also allows you to add comments with each feeding. I really appreciate being able to track the feedings and have become very dependent on it.  I feel lost when I don’t have my phone handy to recall which side I last fed on and when it was!  I didn’t discover the comment section until a week into my review period (it was actually going to be one of my gaffes until I found it!).   The comment section could be useful to add notes in such as “fed on both sides,” or “didn’t drink much at this feeding.”  The bottle-feeding section allows you to identify whether it was breastmilk or formula and how many ounces were consumed.

NuuNest’s diaper change sections tracks both wet and dirty diapers and the time you changed the diaper. It also has a section that explains, with pictures, what to expect to see in diaper changes in the early days and the number of wet and dirty diapers you should have. I faithfully tracked the diaper changes for the first week or so until my newborn was regularly peeing and pooping.

There is an endless supply of information for mom on post-natal health and recovery including such things as emotions, nutrition, exercise, C-section recovery and so on.  Since this is my second child, none of the information was new to me; but, if you are a first time mom I think the information would be useful to review and refer back to.

I really like the summary section. It lists the number of feedings, diaper changes and milk expressions in the last 24 hours, and the time of those feedings, and also charts every feed on a bar graph so you can see trends from day-to-day and week-to-week.  The NuuNest app allows you to export the data to excel as well if you wish to analyze it further or save it.

The support provided by the developers is exceptional!  About three weeks in, all of my data seemed to disappear. I panicked because I was about to feed and couldn’t recall the side on which side I last fed.  More important, I was a bit sad that I had lost all of the data I had tracked — especially the feeding trends. I noticed that the developers tweeted so I sent a tweet to them letting them know I was having issues. Honestly, when I sent the tweet I didn’t really expect to hear back from them. Was I wrong! I heard back from them within minutes and had an email exchange going on shortly thereafter.  They resolved my issue very quickly and my data was back.  They also advised me that all of the data is stored on their network so if something was to happen they could easily retrieve and restore any historical data.  The personal touch made me an even more loyal fan of this product.  Since I don’t have much experience with other apps, I don’t know if this is above and beyond customer service… but I feel it is.

THE GAFFE

I have really had to scratch my head to come up with something negative about the product. I tried to start using it before my baby was born (so I could become familiar with it and hit the ground running), but unless you have the details (e.g. name, birth date, etc.), NuuNest doesn’t seem to let you past the first screen.  However, they did have tutorials that you could view without officially signing in.

There have been a few times when I go into the breastfeeding section to log my feed and it appears my data has been wiped. When this has happens, I usually exit out of the app, give it a couple of minutes, go back in and the data is there.  I am not sure why this occurs; it has been pretty random.

THE GEARS

4.5/5