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Comment by oogali | Hacker News Reader

Initially, my wife and I just used it for weather, music, and to occasionally order an Uber.

But we just had a newborn, so I built a custom skill for us to serve as log of our son's activities. So our primary use is now that.

Demo:

- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7CqBmjxOFCQ

- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UHaTUm9sQpM

The first custom skill I wrote that calls out to an API to do CNAM (caller ID) lookups. So when I get calls from a weird number, I can quickly get the corresponding name (if there is one). This was mainly an exercise to see how Alexa/Echo would pronounce various names and abbreviations.

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That is a great idea. I remember going through a handful of apps trying to find one with an interface that agreed with both my wife and I but never found one we liked that synced.

The hands free of the echo is especially useful for that. Good hacking, and congrats on being clearheaded enough with a newborn to build it, I don't think I felt like I came up for air until the 9 month mark and the "high level" part of my brain didn't feel like it kicked in again until after mines first birthday.

Out of curiosity, is logging newborn activities a common thing? Do most parents do this? What is the value in knowing the counts and times of your newborn's routine? Is there a good use case for historical data or trends?

Yes, the EPS log (eat, poop, sleep). The first thing a Dr. will ask you if your baby is not feeling well is are there any changes in any of these.

It's to look for changes in the routines. If your baby hasn't pooped recently, or if their eating habits change, you can see it happening, rather than trying to rely on memory which is fried at that point.

And honestly, it's also to give parents a small measure of control over what's going on. When you're a new parent, it's a confusing and difficult time, and so recording what happens lets you feel in some way like you've got a handle on things. You may be exhausted and confused, but as you write your numbers down in a little book, life goes on. It's reassuring.

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