Between Contractions

A calm timer for a moment that already asks enough

I built Between Contractions while Alejandra and I were waiting for our son, Aarón. The product begins with one deliberately simple action: tap when a contraction starts and tap again when it ends.

From there, it calculates duration, start-to-start frequency, and recent patterns without turning labor into a dashboard. The browser timer is available now; the native iOS and Android releases are prepared while their store reviews follow their own timelines.

Goals

• Reduce cognitive load with one large, obvious timing action and clear recent history.
• Keep the core private with local-first storage, no ads, no analytics SDK, and no required account.
• Support real households with English and Spanish, light and dark themes, accessibility, widgets, and watch companions.
• Treat timing as guidance by presenting the 5-1-1 pattern as a prompt to follow a care plan, never as a diagnosis.

What I built

• A bilingual Astro website and browser timer that works without installation and keeps its history on the current device.
• Native Apple experiences for iPhone and iPad, with SwiftUI, SwiftData, widgets, Live Activities, Apple Watch support, and a companion macOS surface.
• Native Android experiences with Kotlin, Jetpack Compose, Room, Glance widgets, and Wear OS support.
• Optional Partner Sync for households that choose to coordinate a live timer across devices and platforms.
• A small Hono and Cloudflare backend for the explicit shared features, separated from the local-first core timer.

Technical highlights

• Web: Astro 6, TypeScript, Lumen UI, browser storage, bilingual content, and static delivery.
• Apple: Swift, SwiftUI, SwiftData, WidgetKit, WatchConnectivity, and native system integrations.
• Android: Kotlin, Jetpack Compose, Room, Glance, and Wear OS.
• Shared delivery: Turborepo, pnpm, automated checks, release preflights, accessibility coverage, and platform-specific test suites.

Privacy is an architecture decision

The timer does not need a backend to perform its main job. Personal history stays local by default, and optional platform backup uses the operating system’s own mechanisms. Data crosses devices only when someone deliberately enables a feature that requires it.

That separation kept the product promise legible: the free timer is useful on its own, while Partner Sync remains an explicit choice rather than hidden infrastructure.

One family story, two products

Aaronmgz is the warm public space I built while our family waits for Aarón. Between Contractions came from the practical side of the same chapter: preparing for labor and protecting attention when the moment arrives.

The two projects now point to each other because neither story is complete in isolation.

Try the browser timer or read why I built Between Contractions.