Living in 2019 is great when it comes to apps — need food delivered? There’s an app for that! Want to know the weather, or a word definition, or what restaurant is best in your area? So many apps for that! Need advice, to watch a video, to read an article, or to learn something? App. App. App. Sometimes it feels like anything you could imagine has been app-itized (ha) and that’s for sure the case when it comes to getting pregnant, being pregnant, and having a baby! We both loved apps for tracking our pregnancy and receiving real-time updates on how our babies were developing throughout those 9 months. Then, once our little ones arrived (Ernie! Colby!), we used a whole new set of apps for new kinds of things we never could have imagined a baby could need! Technology, while sometimes an admitted dirge on humanity, has truly stepped in as a silver lining for some of the things we needed most over the last year.
While Pregnant…
What to Expect — We loved this app most for the community it comes with. Sometimes it can be a bit overwhelming with all of those voices weighing in on how/when/where/why to do a particular thing while pregnant or with your newborn, but often it settled our minds to hear we weren’t the only ones with these questions and concerns. The groups focused on different baby topics (breastfeeding, babywearing, teething, etc.) certainly helped answer a lot, and the geo-located group was fun to chime in on for Los Angeles-related subject matter. We also loved the weekly updates during pregnancy of what was happening in the development of our babies, as well as the monthly updates/baby guides as they’ve been growing!
The Bump (iOS and Android) — Far and away the prettiest pregnancy tracking app, the week-by-week development updates from this app were also some of the most detailed and knowledgeable that we found. We love The Bump’s feature that allows you to look up and browse through foods that are recommended as well as those to avoid — it was a great easy-to-use, on-the-go reference!
* Honorable mention to Pregnancy + because we liked that you could toggle to see the size of your baby compared to a fruit, animal, or candy/bakery item!
Once the Baby Arrives…
Feed Baby (iOS and Android) — The early weeks of a baby’s life are all about data tracking when it comes to milk amounts eaten, diapers wet and soiled, and the amount of sleep they’re getting. Laura found this app very useful for tracking all of that (And more! It also has a handy pumping tracker.) to be able to bring with them to the pediatrician and refer to when the inevitable sleep deprivation didn’t allow those answers to actually stick in her brain. This app worked really well for her and her husband (an Android user) because it allowed both of them to input data and then sync the app across users and platforms so they were both seeing the same things. (FYI this feature is available as an in-app purchase for $5.99, money well spent in her book!) As a caveat, Stella and her husband did all of this tracking on a legal pad with a pen, another option of valiant effort.
Google Photos — We both have family on the east coast, and while living on the west coast has never posed that many issues (flying! travel! fun!), when we both had our first babies this year, it was a stark reminder that it is much harder for those family members to see our new additions that often. Enter Google Photos and shared albums! This app makes it so easy to upload photos and videos of our babies and share with grandparents, siblings, and many (many!) other family members who are keen to see the minutiae of daily life with a newborn.
Amazon — Prime has truly been a godsend this year. We’ve both had moments of “how on earth did our parents do this without the ease and efficiency of the internet?!” and no app quite exemplifies this like Amazon. Whether it’s diapers or sleep sacks, any time we realized we were running low or in desperate need of pretty much anything it was just a few taps and swipes away.
Has anyone else used a pregnancy tracking app? How about an app postpartum for you or for baby?? Let us know in the comments!
P.S – This post is part of our ‘30 Blog Posts We Want to Write in 2019‘ list. Be sure to check out the post for the rest!