Those crying sessions are often caused by hunger, and many new parents wonder at midnight while dozing off in sleep, “When did I last feed the baby?”

Nafis Hasrat Arnob, a Senior Software Engineer at ACI Limited, saw his wife struggling to keep track of feeding times, especially at midnight, and this simple observation pushed him to build an app to track his daughter’s feeding times.

He calls it “Tummy Timer”.

The start

Arnob calls Afsara, his daughter, the inspiration behind this app.

When Afsara was born, he and his wife stepped into parenthood exactly the way most new parents do, being totally unprepared for how relentless the first six months would be.

Like most new parents, their sleep also took a leave from their lives. In the little sleep they were able to get, something as basic as tracking feeding times interrupted that sleep.

“Sleepless nights and my wife’s recovery from a C-section made it difficult to manage everything, including keeping track of our daughter’s feeding times.”

His wife Tonni was using Google Keep to keep track of the feeding times. But Google Keep was not designed for this. “She still had to open the app, find the note, and manually update the time every time. I wanted something much simpler.”

It is a small detail, easy to overlook, but that was the moment the idea for Tummy Timer was born.

The first user experience

Before Tummy Timer reached a single stranger, it had already passed its most important test. Arnob’s wife was its first user, and her reaction is the one he still holds onto. She liked that she no longer had to type anything into Google Keep, just open the app, tap once, done.

Watching her use it in the middle of the night, often one-handed, gave him a quiet kind of confirmation. “Okay,” he remembers thinking, “this is actually making things easier.”

In fact, initially the app was made for his wife only, but when he got to know that his fellow friends and new parents were also going through similar situations, this was the time he decided to put this app on the Play Store.

App design and privacy

Arnob tried to keep the design especially convenient for night time.

His main purpose was, “Can a sleep-deprived mother use this one-handed, in the dark?”

The same question guided his entire design for Tummy Timer.

One tap logs a feeding instantly. The home-screen widgets allow parents to glance at their phone to instantly see how long it’s been since the last feed, without even opening the app.

“This makes the app quick and convenient,” Arnob explains, “especially during late-night feeds when they are tired.”

“My priority was to keep the app simple and easy to use.”

In an era when most apps ask for an email address before they ask what you need, Tummy Timer asks for nothing. No account. No internet connection required. No advertisements.

Arnob defends the choice of “No Advertisement” with a scenario that needs no elaboration for any new parent. “Imagine waking up at 3:00 AM, trying to check when you last fed your baby, and being forced to watch an ad first,” he says. “I felt that would only add unnecessary frustration.”

“I wanted the experience to be as simple as: install the app and start using it. There is no sign-up because I don’t collect or send the baby’s feeding data anywhere; it stays on the mother’s phone.”

What Comes Next

Tummy Timer is currently available only on Android, though Arnob hopes, “In Shaa Allah,” he says, to eventually bring it to iOS. For now, his attention stays on making the app better.

The app has only been live for a few days, so feedback is still trickling in, mostly from colleagues who’ve responded warmly to its simplicity. Arnob expects, and welcomes, more input as more parents discover it.

In the end, behind Tummy Timer was a new father and understanding husband.

“Becoming a father taught me how important it is to be there for your wife, especially during those first few months. You may not always understand what she is feeling or why she is reacting a certain way. You don’t always have to understand—you just have to stay by her side. Listen to her, help her, and support her in every way you can.

And I would tell every father to cherish the time they have with their children. Kids grow up incredibly fast. Having a daughter has been one of the greatest blessings of my life. My daughter is almost four now, and whenever I come home and knock on the door, she immediately knows it’s her father and starts shouting, “Daddy is back!” She has the biggest smile when she sees me, and she is always inventing new games for us to play.

I know this won’t last forever.”

Lastly, Arnob concludes with one simple thing, “If Tummy Timer can make even one parent’s day a little easier, then I’ll feel that building it was worth it.”