Helpful Apps

Mattel · January 2018

I felt like it would be helpful to have a place to recommend and review apps that are helpful at this stage in our pregnancies and also those that are good for when our LOs are here. I’m sure not everyone uses them all the time but there has to be other app junkies like me! I had a few go tos when I had DD but that was almost 6 years ago, so I’d love to hear what everyone else likes.

Mattel · January 2018

Right now I’m having to do two daily kick counts so I’m using Kick Count by BabyMed to record and track my sessions. I can show the trends and reports to my MFM at my appts and it’s very straight forward. No annoying ad pop ups

The one app I used a lot when DD was a newborn and asleep on my chest was Candy Crush.

Just something to pass the time when I didn’t want to disturb her!

kmalls · January 2018

Full Term is a GREAT app to time contractions. It saves your data and displays it in a number of formats so you can easily see if/when you're progressing, and it's super easy to use. Highly recommend!

frenchiekinplusone · January 2018

kmalls said:

Full Term is a GREAT app to time contractions. It saves your data and displays it in a number of formats so you can easily see if/when you're pressing, and it's super easy to use. Highly recommend!

I second Full Term! Obviously I haven’t been able to use it for contractions yet but it also has a kick counter feature which I’ve been using since I hit 30 weeks. It’s super simple to use, free (yay) and was recommended at our childbirth class by the instructor.

nessa1632 · January 2018

I was using Expectful for meditation. They have a lot of topics including pre and postnatal, spousal, etc; the guides are about 10 mins. The bedtime one is legit magic snooze medicine. It’s paid though

irenejean · January 2018

I liked to track DS' feedings and sleep when he was a newborn. The app I used is called Sprout Baby. I also track his height, weight, and head circumference. There are baby tracker apps that will track a lot more things, which I also tried, but I kept going back to Sprout baby. It was just easier for me to use and I love their charts.

thisgirlagain · January 2018

Insight Timer is free and has some great pregnancy meditations.

riversdoctor · January 2018

Man my favorite app is my patient portal through my doc! I honestly don’t know how I did it with dd before sites like this existed! I got my gtt results within an hour of the lab draw and can message my provider whenever I need to without leaving a message to get lost in translation between reception and nurses!

thisgirlagain · January 2018

Ignore this. It showed my comment didn't post earlier, but it did.

ngolimento · January 2018

An extremely good app for post-birth is Baby Connect. It lets you track feedings, diapers, milestones, medical records, and more. It also has the great feature of allowing you to let other caretakers to sync with your app, so everyone can add data. I feel like if my baby had feeding problems, this feature would be vital for my sanity.

I used it heavily in my DD1s first year to keep track of vaccinations, weight, height, and various milestones. Especially while she was in developmental therapy (nothing wrong with her, turned out she just extremely careful and takes her time with everything).

ekendall09 · January 2018

@kmalls I second full term!!! I went to download and realized it was the same one I used with DD. It was great and I felt like I was able to time going to the hospital because I could accurately go in and see how I was progressing with contraction frequency and length.

kmalls · January 2018

Yup, super helpful when going to the hospital! And it actually came in handy when the first nurse I saw tried to tell me I wasn’t in labor, just dehydrated

I was all UM NOPE and showed her the hours and hours I had been tracking my contractions as they got closer together.

petethecat · January 2018

Wonder Weeks!!! It's actually a book too, but the app sums up everything really nicely and concisely. You put in your due date and then the app will tell you when baby should hit major cognitive milestones called "leaps." It's helpful because these leaps are generally categorized by weird behavior such as increased fussiness, hunger, clinginess, etc, so it will explain, "Baby is going through this cognitive stuff right now and will soon be showing the ability to perform xyz skill. Signs of this cognitive leap include [insert weird baby behavior here]." I used it with DD, as did a lot of my BMB, and it's crazy how accurate it is, usually. I found it super helpful and interesting!

sjn00 · January 2018

@kbamomma33 I second The Wonder Weeks!! It helped me keep my sanity some with my first!! So helpful and informative!!

mountainsmama · January 2018

@kbamomma33 I was just going to post about wonder weeks! I never read the books but I loved the app. Pretty much every time I was like, hmm, what's up with DD lately, she's extra fussy/clingy etc., I'd check the app and she would be in a new leap! It was surprisingly accurate and helpful.

petethecat · January 2018

mountainsmama said:

@kbamomma33 I was just going to post about wonder weeks! I never read the books but I loved the app. Pretty much every time I was like, hmm, what's up with DD lately, she's extra fussy/clingy etc., I'd check the app and she would be in a new leap! It was surprisingly accurate and helpful.

Yes! Exactly this!

kmalls · January 2018

Lol soooo wonder weeks was a total fail for me. I didn’t use it for DS and I think it would have been great. He hit every sleep regression hard and exactly when they were forecasted, so I think the app would have done a lot to ease my frustration. I paid for the app with DD and it literally told me nothing. She cried for 3 months straight, then skipped every sleep milestone after that. It was interesting to read the information, it just didn’t apply to our situation very much. I’d still recommend it, just with the caution that it may not be as spectacular for you as it is for so many others!

angiek1 · January 2018

I am excited to try this Full Term app out! Thanks for the suggestions ladies

angiek1 · January 2018

Okay what about breast feeding app trackers?

mrs_massie · January 2018

I use Ovia Pregnancy app with my first son and now this one. I like it because of the daily blogs and the symptom check and medication safety lookup aspects. I also started using Pregnancy+ because they have great lifelike pictures and good blogs. However, this was a paid app somewhere around the $4 range.

With my son I used the Babysparks app for after he was born. It has daily activites for you and baby to participate in together to help development and bonding. There is a free version and an upgradeable version. I always used the free version and it worked great.

mrs_massie · January 2018

angiek1 said:

Okay what about breast feeding app trackers?

Have you heard of momsense? Its not just an app its an interactive breastfeeding meter.

https://mymomsense.com/

angiek1 · January 2018

@MrsMassimilla I haven’t - thanks for the tip, I will look into it

riversdoctor · January 2018

Best breastfeeding trackers I have found are 1: set out 6 diapers in the morning, and when they are gone you by the end of they day you know you are feeding often enough! As for tracking side in the early days I have been lucky enough to never need anything. I can always tell which side needs relief next! But a hair tie on your wrist to switch while baby is nursing to show you which side works great. My fear with apps is uneducated docs will often tell you baby is nursing too often or some bs like that. Im definitely a “watch the baby, not the clock” type of advocate on that front. (Babies can’t tell time lol) and I can see trying to track timing and feeds as causing anxiety in new moms of baby’s don’t fit a mold.

icalynn · January 2018

@riversdoctor That is some of the best and most logical advice I have ever heard in regards to breast feeding.

sjn00 · January 2018

@riversdoctor ooo i like the diaper idea! Im going to do that!

codingchildhood · January 2018

@riversdoctor I did the hair tie thing with my daughter. She nursed so often when she was a newborn, and I was so exhausted, there was no way I could keep track of which side she had nursed last.

I've been liking the ovia app for pregnancy, and I loved the wonder weeks app with my first. My partner and I use the Cozi app, and I have a feeling that's going to help us keep on top of everything when the baby is born. It has a shared calendar, sends everyone who's hooked up to it a daily agenda email, and you can create lists that sync to the app and allow everyone to add to. It's great for shopping lists! I just use the free version, and that's been sufficient for us.

tooraloorah · January 2018

We used Total Baby for DD1. It’s a paid app but can by synced with my husband for feedings and I tracked all my pumping/stats and emailed myself that information to keep track of my stash, etc.

LactMed is great if you plan to BF and are unsure if a medication will affect it.

rach-j · January 2018

Glad this thread was started! Im downloading the Full Term, Wonder weeks, and Sprout apps now!
@riversdoctor love the hair tie suggestion. I would never have thought of that but it sounds simple and easy and free

nessa1632 · January 2018

@codingchildhood the Cozi app sounds great!

Puddlewonderful · January 2018

Agree with @riversdoctor!

I did use a breastfeeding app (sorry, can’t for the life of me remember what it’s called and it’s long ago deleted) that helped in the very beginning when DS was struggling with weigh gain. He was constantly falling asleep while nursing so the app helped me get a sense of how long he was actually actively drinking and not just latched and snoozing. The lactation consultant at my pediatrician would always ask, so it helped my peace of mind to have it tracked and not ballpark. That said, by two weeks old we had things under control and I ditched the app.

julzy · January 2018

kbamomma33 said:

mountainsmama said:

@kbamomma33 I was just going to post about wonder weeks! I never read the books but I loved the app. Pretty much every time I was like, hmm, what's up with DD lately, she's extra fussy/clingy etc., I'd check the app and she would be in a new leap! It was surprisingly accurate and helpful.

Yes! Exactly this!

Also echoing that Wonder Weeks was totally worth the app purchase with DS. It was so accurate. It didn’t necessarily help with tips to deal with leaps but knowing it was a leap and normal was definitely reassuring.

mrs_massie · January 2018

@angiek1 Hey! Just came across this. It says its free and might be worth looking into

https://breastfeeding.teachable.com/p/ready-to-breastfeed/?affcode=59772_vtvaq3db

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