# How to use baybay

> How to use baybay: logging a feed, sharing with a partner, getting back in, and getting your data out. Short pages, because you are busy.

## Getting started

- [Your first day](https://baybay.baby/docs/first-day.md): The app is open and it is empty. Here is the whole of what to do on day one, which is less than you think.
- [Your address](https://baybay.baby/docs/your-address.md): Your household has its own web address. Saving it is the one thing worth doing before anything else.
- [Put it on your home screen](https://baybay.baby/docs/home-screen.md): baybay opens full screen, with no browser in the way, once you add it to your home screen. It takes about fifteen seconds.
- [Logging a feed](https://baybay.baby/docs/logging-a-feed.md): Bottle or breast, an amount if you are counting, and the time already filled in. Two taps for most feeds.
- [Naps and nights](https://baybay.baby/docs/naps-and-nights.md): One tap starts a sleep, one tap ends it, and baybay works out how long it ran so you never type a duration.
- [When the charts fill in](https://baybay.baby/docs/when-the-charts-fill-in.md): Your dashboard is nearly empty on day one, and that is expected. Here is what fills it and roughly when.

## The daily rhythm

- [The daily rhythm](https://baybay.baby/docs/the-daily-rhythm.md): An optional plan for the day. Set one and the log screen shows what is coming next and ticks things off as you log them.
- [Why something did not tick off](https://baybay.baby/docs/why-something-did-not-tick-off.md): baybay matches what you log against the plan by time, and is deliberately generous about it. Here is the rule.

## Fixing things

- [I forgot to log it](https://baybay.baby/docs/i-forgot-to-log-it.md): Nothing has to be entered the moment it happens. Any feed or sleep can be put in afterwards with the right time on it.
- [I forgot to end a nap](https://baybay.baby/docs/i-forgot-to-end-a-nap.md): The timer has been running since this morning. Ending it at the time they actually woke takes one tap and one correction.

## Sharing

- [Adding your partner](https://baybay.baby/docs/adding-your-partner.md): Share one short code and they can log feeds and sleeps too. No account to create, no invitation email to chase.
- [What the code lets someone do](https://baybay.baby/docs/what-the-code-lets-someone-do.md): Somebody who joins with your household code can log, and cannot change your settings, your children or your code.

## Getting back in

- [I lost the link](https://baybay.baby/docs/i-lost-the-link.md): If you set the household up, your email address gets it back. If you joined with a code, ask the person who did.
- [My sign-in link did not work](https://baybay.baby/docs/my-sign-in-link-did-not-work.md): Sign-in links work once and expire quickly. Almost every failure is one of those two, and both are easy to fix.

## Your data

- [Getting your data out](https://baybay.baby/docs/getting-your-data-out.md): Everything your household has logged is a single file, and you can download the whole of it whenever you like.

## Before you pay

- [What the demo is](https://baybay.baby/docs/what-the-demo-is.md): The real application on a week of sample data, for a couple of days. One thing about it surprises people, so it is first.
- [Is baybay right for us?](https://baybay.baby/docs/is-baybay-right-for-us.md): What it tracks, what it deliberately does not, and who would be happier with something else.

## Why it works this way

- [Why only feeds and sleep](https://baybay.baby/docs/why-only-feeds-and-sleep.md): Every other tracker records more than baybay does. Here is the argument for recording less, and what it costs you.
- [Why there is no Docker image](https://baybay.baby/docs/why-there-is-no-docker.md): baybay installs by copying files onto ordinary PHP hosting. What that costs, what it buys, and why it will still install in five years.
- [One file for your family](https://baybay.baby/docs/one-file-per-family.md): Your household is its own database file, not rows in a shared table. That is a privacy decision before it is a technical one.

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baybay — Feed and sleep tracking for the first year, logged in two taps. Hosted for $7 a month, or self-hosted free on PHP and SQLite with no Docker and no build step. Everything one family logs lives in a single SQLite file they can export or delete.

Canonical: https://baybay.baby/docs