A baby care tracking system built on Home Assistant, n8n, PostgreSQL, and ESP32. Born out of a contraction tracker built for labor, evolved into a full newborn care dashboard once my son arrived plus a ~$10 3D-printed physical remote for those 3am diaper-change logs.
Features
One-tap logging of feeds, diapers, sleep, baths, medicine, tummy time, weight, pumping, and notes. 17 event types across 8 categories
Multi-channel fan-out on every press: PostgreSQL, both phones, Echo Show, and Discord via a single n8n webhook
Live HA dashboard with daily stats (feeds/diapers today, sleep total, last feed/diaper) polled every 30s
3D-printed physical remote ESP32-C3 + a 15-button 4x4 matrix + WS2812 feedback LED, MQTT over WiFi
Reproducible PCB fully-routed 2-layer KiCad board and a 3D-printed copper-tape groove board, both generated from script
2-hour pump reminders with independent per-side timers
Retired contraction tracker the labor-day origin story, Ring panic button + on-demand Ollama labor-stage AI assessment
The Story
When my wife went into labor, we needed a way to log contractions without fumbling with phone apps. We paired a Ring Alarm Panic Button (Z-Wave) to our home automation stack where one press logged the contraction, timestamped it in PostgreSQL, notified both phones, posted to Discord, and announced it on the Echo Show. It worked beautifully for 700+ contractions over two weeks.
When we got to the hospital, the Ring button was back home. So we added intensity-coded buttons (Mild/Moderate/Strong/Intense) to the HA dashboard with color coding, stats (average gap, frequency), and an on-demand AI assessment powered by Ollama that would estimate the labor stage.
My son was born the next day. The contraction tracker was retired the same day and replaced with a baby tracker covering feeds, diapers, sleep, baths, medicine, tummy time, weight, pumping, and notes.
Keeping the same low-friction (high-WAF) style, we then built a 3D-printed physical remote with labeled buttons so nobody has to unlock a phone to log a diaper change at 3am.
Architecture
Physical Button / HA App / Siri Shortcut
|
v
n8n Webhook (POST /webhook/baby-event)
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+----+----+----+----+
| | | | |
v v v v v
DB Phone Phone Echo Discord
PG you ptnr Show
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v
n8n Log API (GET /webhook/baby-log)
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v
HA REST Sensor (polls every 30s)
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v
HA Dashboard (stats + journal + buttons)
Components
Contraction Tracker (retired)
The original. Ring Panic Button press -> Z-Wave JS UI -> Python bridge -> MQTT + n8n webhook -> full pipeline.
File
Description
contraction-tracker/zwave_panic_mqtt.py
Python bridge: Z-Wave WebSocket -> MQTT + webhook
contraction-tracker/n8n/contraction_tracker.json
Main workflow: webhook -> Discord, DB, notifications
Stats tracked: last feed time/type, last diaper time/type, feeds today, diapers today, sleep total today, baths/medicines/tummy times/pumps today.
Baby Tracker App — Home Assistant add-on (separate repo)
A single-container Home Assistant app that bundles everything above with
no n8n and no external database: an Ingress web UI (the colorful button
dashboard), local SQLite storage, the same stats/journal, pump reminders, and
native HA entities via MQTT discovery — and it still listens to the ESP32
remote. It lives in its own installable repo:
➡️ hms-homelab/hms-baby-tracker
(FastAPI + SQLite; add the repo URL under Settings → Add-ons/Apps → Repositories).
The add-on's Ingress web UI (left) and its Home Assistant app page (right) — runs as a native HA add-on, no n8n or external DB.
The n8n + PostgreSQL path in this repo remains as the advanced/legacy backend;
the app is the portable, one-click way to run the whole thing.
Baby Remote (in progress)
3D-printed physical remote control with ESP32-C3, 15 tactile buttons, RGB LED feedback, and a 0.96" OLED status screen.
The remote with its 0.96" OLED — last feed, last pump and the next-pump reminder, pushed live over MQTT by n8n.
OpenSCAD snap-fit cap (walls + ledge + barrels + labels); board snaps in
baby-remote/scad/button_plunger.stl
Button plunger (print 15×)
baby-remote/scad/led_window.stl
LED window (print 1× in clear filament)
baby-remote/esphome/baby_remote.yaml
ESPHome firmware: matrix -> MQTT -> n8n / the app
See Hardware for the button layout, matrix wiring, PCB, and BOM.
Database
File
Description
db/schema.sql
PostgreSQL schema for both tables
Both tables live in the maestro_hub database on PostgreSQL 17 at homelab.local.
Hardware
The Baby Remote is a 3D-printed, battery-powered ESP32-C3 keypad. 15 tactile
switches on a diodeless 4x4 scan matrix (16th cell is the LED window), each
press published over MQTT to the same n8n webhook the app and Siri use.
Button layout (4x4 grid, last cell = RGB LED):
Breast | Bottle | Solid | Sleep
Pump L | Pump R | Bath | Meds
Pee | Poop | Both | Change
Tummy | Weight | Note | [LED]
PCB -- two interchangeable designs, both script-generated and reproducible:
KiCad (baby-remote/kicad/) fully-routed 2-layer board (rows on
F.Cu, columns on B.Cu), DRC clean (0 violations / 0 unconnected / 0 parity),
Freerouting-routed, JLCPCB-ready. Regenerate with gen_schematic.py ->
pcbgen.py; route via Specctra DSN/SES.
OpenSCAD groove board (baby-remote/scad/baby-remote-pcb.scad) 3D-printed
substrate with copper-tape/tinned-wire grooves; rows on the top face, columns
on the bottom, switch legs bridging faces (crossing-free).
BOM (~$10):
Part
Qty
ESP32-C3 SuperMini
1
TP4056 USB-C LiPo charger
1
3.7V LiPo 500mAh
1
6x6x5mm tactile switches
15
WS2812B RGB LED
1
Slide switch (power)
1
Infrastructure
Home Assistant: KVM/VM at homeassistant.local (dashboards, scripts, REST sensors)
n8n: Native at homelab.local:5678 (workflow automation, webhooks)
PostgreSQL 17: Native at homelab.local:5432 (data storage)
The fastest path — no n8n, no PostgreSQL, no manual scripts:
Settings → Add-ons → Add-on Store (shown as Apps on HA 2026.2+) →
⋮ → Repositories → add https://github.com/hms-homelab/hms-baby-tracker.
Install Baby Tracker, then Start it.
Open the Web UI (Ingress) — the button dashboard is right there.
(optional) In the app's Configuration tab set notify_targets
(e.g. mobile_app_your_phone) to get press + pump-reminder notifications,
and adjust timezone / pump_hours.
It auto-connects to the HA Mosquitto broker, so the ESP32 remote keeps
working (publishes to baby/remote/event) and native HA sensors/buttons
appear automatically via MQTT discovery. Data lives in the add-on's /data
(SQLite). Full reference:
hms-baby-tracker DOCS.
Quick Start (advanced / legacy n8n backend)
1. Database
psql -d maestro_hub -f db/schema.sql
2. n8n + Home Assistant
# Import the n8n workflows (n8n UI or API)
# baby-tracker/n8n/*.json
# Add the HA snippets to configuration.yaml
# baby-tracker/ha/configuration_snippets.yaml
# Import the dashboard into HA storage (.storage/lovelace.<name>)
# baby-tracker/ha/dashboard.json
# Create the HA scripts referenced by the dashboard (rest_command + input_text,
# see baby-tracker/ha/configuration_snippets.yaml)
3. Flash the remote
esphome run baby-remote/esphome/baby_remote.yaml
4. Build the remote
Print the case parts (baby-remote/scad/*.stl), fabricate the PCB
(KiCad Gerbers or the OpenSCAD groove board), and assemble.
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