Interview Carly Glendinning

Tell us about The Night Feed app. How does it work?

The Night Feed is a new app for mums who are up feeding through the night. It’s a place to go where everyone is in the same boat, which is brilliant when you’re feeling lonely in the night and it seems as though the rest of the world is blissfully asleep! Once you’ve downloaded it that’s it: you’re in and you can visit whenever you want, to quietly read articles and diary entries, or join in with chats or ask others for advice. While you’re doing all of this, the app records your baby’s feed – whether bottle or breast – and stores the info so that you can see at a glance how often your baby has fed, how long they fed for and which boob they last fed from!

How did your own motherhood journey play in the decision to launch it?

When I was night feeding with my second baby, I was just desperate for something to keep me entertained through the night. Something with a touch of humour, helpful articles that spoke to me… I got really sick of aimlessly scrolling through the Internet and wanted somewhere I’d look forward to visiting!

What were the biggest challenges you faced setting it up?

The tech side presented the biggest challenges to me, as that’s really not my forté – at least with apps. I’m a dab hand at websites now but app development was a different ballgame! I worked really closely with the developers and it was a massive learning curve, making decisions and trying to envisage the end product.

What has the reaction been like so far?

Amazing! I’ve felt quite overwhelmed with happiness actually, because people are using The Night Feed exactly as I hoped they would. Users come back multiple times a night and check daily for new content, which is quite a big thing for such a new app. I couldn’t be more pleased.

Do you have any funny stories from your own experience of night feeding?

Oh, how low do you want me to go?! There are plenty of body malfunctions I could horrify you with, but I think one of the funniest times (looking back, it was terrible at the time) was when a nappy had been put on inside out and we couldn’t work out why poo and wee was just going everywhere. It was absolute carnage. Never put a nappy on in the dark…

And finally, how do you juggle motherhood/a busy work schedule?

I’d love to say that I’m really organised, etc etc, but I’m quite a chaotic person. So I’ve had to learn to be more ordered. I have a nanny for two days a week (for the past three years) and so I try to get the bulk of my work done then but if I’m honest I work most nights and just shoe horn the work in whenever I can! Luckily I love what I do and I’m always writing notes on random pieces of paper, so I don’t think I ever truly turn my work brain off…