Ask any new parent about their baby’s early achievements and they’ll likely confirm the cliché: “They grow up so fast.” And because moms and dads can’t turn back the clock, documenting those first few months in “real time” can be critical to creating a detailed lifetime of memories.

When did they first sit up unsupported? What was their first word? When did they start crawling? What was their first solid food?

Despite parents’ best intentions, remembering and recording those momentous events can prove to be challenging in today’s fast-paced world.

So many milestones … so little time.

Thankfully, help has arrived for parents who are devoted to creating the picture-perfect baby book but face so many of life’s daily distractions.

Tyler and Tracey Fouché of Coeur d’Alene recently launched The Short Years Baby Book and app to allow busy parents to create a baby book, from their phone, in just five minutes per week.

The concept is simple. Users download a free app from the App Store and technology takes over. About once a week, users receive notifications asking them age-relevant questions about their baby. They can respond on their iPhone or Android and include pictures.

Using information provided by the parents, the app creates custom baby book pages. “Parents don’t have to think about the layout or design of the pages. The app arranges their answers and photos in a clean, modern design,” Tracey says.

Tracey says the couple developed the app after struggling to create baby books the old-fashioned way with their first two children.

“I found the whole process to be stressful, time-consuming, and a source of major mom-guilt,” Tracey says. “Pulling out the book, the pen, the photo adhesives, getting photos printed, and just remembering to update the book in general is really daunting when you have a baby to take care of.”

So, the couple decided to create a baby book that basically makes itself.

The Short Years Baby Book is bound with three rings, allowing parents to easily add pages to it. Pages are shipped to the parent as they complete them using the app. This allows parents to watch their baby book come together throughout the year, rather than having to wait until the whole book is completed to hold it in their hands, Tracey explains.

When complete, The Short Years Baby Book includes 19 customized chapters:

- Waiting for you (pregnancy details)

- Family memories

- Hello world (the birth)

- Home sweet home (nursery details)

- Newborn milestones

- Significant events for months one through 12

- Memorable milestones

- First birthday

Tracey says The Short Years Baby Book takes the stress out of creating a baby book because parents don’t have to create the content and design themselves.

“You don’t have to worry about, ‘what should I say or how will it look,’” she says. “This app really holds your hand through the whole process so you never forget to write down what’s important in your baby’s life.”

The app arranges parents’ responses and basically, the pronouns change and ink color changes depending on whether you have a boy or a girl. If parents don’t select the baby’s gender, then it will use the pronoun of “baby” instead of boy or girl.

The customized app also works for adopted babies with slight variations on the questions and format, Tracey says.

The Short Years Baby Book was launched in mid-July and the couple says word of mouth and social media exposure has already attracted a strong response, with nearly 300 users downloading the app in the first two weeks.

“I’ve had a ton of moms saying, ‘yes, this is exactly what I’m looking for,’” Tracey says, “which just confirms that we’re really onto something.”

The Fouchés, who both grew up in Post Falls, have been married for eight years and have three children. Tyler is the Chief Technical Officer at Crowd Hub, a software company he co-founded. Tracey is a full-time mom and has been working as a local adoption attorney for the past five years.

“We’ve had so much fun working on this project together,” says Tyler, who developed the app. “Our hope is to relieve the stress parents feel about creating a baby book, so that they can enjoy that first year with their baby, rather than worrying about how they’re going to document it.”

After downloading The Short Years Baby Book free app and inputting data, the book can be purchased for $119, which includes the book, printing and shipment of all the pages throughout the year. For more information and to purchase the book, visit theshortyearsbooks.com.