A mom named Jennifer sat in my office at 9 PM. Not a scheduled appointment — she had just shown up, crying, holding a 3-day-old baby and a can of formula she didn't know how to mix.
Her milk hadn't come in. The lactation consultant had gone home. The internet said fifteen different things. She had been awake for 48 hours. The baby was hungry. She felt like she had already failed.
I mixed the bottle for her. Showed her the ratio. Wrote down the daily amount on a post-it note. She took a photo of it with her phone. That post-it became the most-shared photo in her mom group.
That was 2019. I have had hundreds of Jennifers since then. Moms who need the math at 2 AM. Dads who are alone with the baby for the first time. Grandparents who forgot how much newborns eat. Preemie parents who need different calculations entirely.
I built the first calculator in my kitchen after my own twins came home from the NICU. Emma and Jack. They are 18 months now. I breastfed for three months, then combo fed, then formula only. I have been every kind of feeding parent. I do not judge any of them.
This site is what I wish existed when I was a new mom. Simple tools. No judgment. No accounts. No data collection. Just the math and the tracking, in your browser, available at 2 AM when you need it.
I am Sarah Mitchell, RD, CSP. I have worked in NICU and outpatient pediatric nutrition for 12 years. I have held crying moms. I have been a crying mom. This is my attempt to make 2 AM a little less scary.