A baby tracker for shift-work parents, and the handover between them
One of you does the nights, the other does the early mornings, and the handover happens while one of you is asleep.
How do shift-work parents hand over a baby without waking each other?
By keeping one log that both of you write to from your own phones, which is Premium live sharing in BubSync. The parent on nights logs each feed and waking as it happens, the parent taking the morning reads the timeline instead of asking, and each entry shows it reached the other phone, so nobody double-checks at 5 am.
The night shift logs in the dark
Night mode records a waking in one tap on a near-black screen, with no flash and no sound.
The morning shift reads, not asks
The baby card shows the last feed, sleep and nappy; the timeline shows the night. Nobody gets woken for it.
Away for days
On Premium, a parent on a roster sees the day live, sees that their partner saw what they logged, and gets the photos as they are taken.
What is the gap in the middle of a split night?
BubSync exists because of it. When our youngest daughter was born, Sarah took the late nights and Ashley took the early mornings so she could get unbroken sleep. At 3 am the parent getting up did not know when the baby was last fed, when the nappy was last changed or how long she had been asleep, and the one person who knew was the one person not to wake. That gap is the whole job of a shared log: the information has to be where the awake parent is, without the asleep parent being part of the transfer.
What does the night parent log, and how, in the dark?
Not much, and nothing that involves a bright screen. Between 7 pm and 7 am the waking-capture screen goes near-black with a warm dim foreground, no white flash and no sound, whatever theme you use. A waking is one tap. It is recorded as an event inside the night rather than the end of a sleep, so three wakings leave one sleep record with three wakings on it instead of four broken sleeps. Marking back-to-sleep is optional, and so is noting how the baby was settled.
Feeds and nappies are Quick Log entries: a breastfeed on either side with the timer already running, a bottle at one of your usual sizes, a wet or dirty nappy. Everything saves on the phone first, so the bedroom with no signal is not a problem, and on Premium it syncs when it can.
What does the morning parent read?
The baby card first: the last feed, the last sleep and the last nappy change, with how long ago each was. Then the timeline, which shows the night as it happened, including who logged what, because on Premium each of you logs from your own account. If a waking happened and nobody logged it, the morning prompt lets the night parent add it afterwards rather than losing it, once they are up.
On Premium, the AI hub builds a day schedule from the sleep already logged, one timed list for the day ahead, and says plainly when there is not enough logged yet rather than inventing a pattern. The free "Try next" nudge on the baby card is computed on the phone from the log and published age guidance, with no AI.
What about the parent on a roster, away for days at a time?
On Premium they see the same day, live. Every entry the parent at home logs arrives on the roster parent’s phone as it happens, and each record shows whether it was sent, delivered and seen, the way a messaging app does, so the parent at home knows the 3 am feed reached the other phone before going back to sleep. Photos added to a memory reach them the moment they are taken. The weekly picture of feeds and sleep in Insights is the same on both phones, so the conversation on the drive home is about what changed, not what happened.
Does it work on a night with no reception?
Yes. An entry exists on the phone the moment you tap, on every plan. With Premium cloud sync it is sent later in the order it was logged, so a night of queued feeds lands on the other phone at the times they happened. A ward, a basement flat, or a house at the edge of coverage does not change what gets recorded, only when the other person sees it.
Why does one log beat a text thread?
Because the text thread is an archive nobody can read at 5 am. "Fed at 2" scrolls away under the next message, nobody texts the wake time, and the gap between feeds, the number that actually decides what to do next, is never written down at all. A log holds the time of every entry, derives the gap, and shows the shape of the night as a timeline rather than a conversation. It also removes the last reason to wake someone: to ask whether they saw the message.
Set it up
In order, with the plan each step sits on. Everything marked Free stays free.
Both parents install BubSync on their own phones
FreeAndroid from Google Play, iPhone through the TestFlight beta, or the web app. Free.
One family, both of you as parents
PremiumInvite your partner into the family so you each log from your own account into the same timeline.
The night parent uses night mode and Quick Log
FreeOne tap for a waking on a near-black screen; one tap for a feed or a nappy. Everything saves offline.
The morning parent reads the card and the timeline on their own phone
PremiumLast feed, last sleep, last nappy, and the night as it happened, with who logged what. Reading it from a second phone is live sharing; on one phone passed between you it is free, but then one of you is carrying the phone.
Check it arrived, without asking
PremiumSent, delivered and seen on every entry, per device.
Frequently asked questions
- Can both parents log from their own phones?
- Yes, with live family sharing, which is a Premium feature. Each parent signs in as themselves, so the timeline shows who logged what. The free plan is one device, plus a 24-hour handover link you can send anyone.
- Does logging at night wake the baby?
- Night mode is built not to. Between 7 pm and 7 am the waking-capture screen goes near-black with a warm dim foreground, no white flash and no sound, and a waking is recorded in one tap.
- Can the parent who is away for the week see the day?
- Yes. With live sharing, which is Premium, every entry arrives on their phone as it is logged, each record shows sent, delivered and seen, and photos added to a memory reach them the moment they are taken.
- Does it work on a night with no reception?
- Yes. Entries save on the phone first on every plan. On Premium they sync when a connection returns, arriving on the other phone at the times they were logged; the second phone is what Premium adds.
- Can we see who did which night feed?
- Yes. Each parent logs from their own account, so every entry carries the account that made it. Insights on Premium show the weekly pattern across both of you.
Keep reading
Written by the BubSync editorial team, who built the product this page describes. Not yet reviewed by an independent clinician. The editorial policy says who writes these pages and how their figures are sourced. Read how we write and check these pages.
General information only, not medical advice. If night waking, feeding or breathing during sleep worries you, speak to your GP, midwife or child health nurse. For safe-sleep guidance in Australia, see Red Nose.
