Congratulations! You’ve just been through hours of labor, you’re exhausted, you’re hungry and here’s your beautiful, screaming bundle of joy. One of the first things the nurses tell you to do once you have delivered your baby is to keep track of every time they poop and pee and eat. At my hospital, they gave me a little notepad inside the hospital handout to track it on. Now, initially it’s annoying but when they come around and ask when the last time was the baby pooped, that written log is awful helpful.
If you are a type A personality, like me, the record keeping and data collection doesn’t stop there. Handwriting everything is not so efficient these days and fortunately there is a glut of apps on the market to help tired moms everywhere. I personally have found utilizing an app helps me keep track of how much my baby is eating and when – which, as a side benefit, helps me remember the last side she nursed on and how much I have pumped. It’s also very helpful for identifying trends. When my newest addition would get grumpy and not sleep well for seemingly no reason every three days or so, I checked my app and realized I have a “once every three day” pooper. By the third day, she was so uncomfortable it affected everything. With my older child, I found that when he was little and would get sick, the doctor would ask me all sorts of questions my tired brain couldn’t assimilate. But with an app, I could quickly tell them how many wet diapers he had in the past 24 hours and how much he drank. Now with two, I enjoy looking back at their height and weight stats and comparing how they are growing.
However, apps aren’t just for tracking baby’s development. Some apps connect you to other moms and some will help you understand why your baby’s behavior is suddenly significantly different. Here are a few of the top apps out there for parents.
Baby Connect – This app has it all. Track feedings, diapers, pumping, sleep, medicine, height and weight, mood, and milestones plus so much more. There are graphs for the data nerds and easy to read tools for tired moms. You can add as many kids as you need and store growth data for older ones. It syncs wirelessly so you can give access to caregivers and spouses so everyone is on the same page.
A. For the super techie – try Hatch Baby. You can connect the app to a changing pad that is also a scale… it’s a type A techie’s dream!
Wonder Weeks – Your angel suddenly becomes a raging, party all night, never put me down tyrant? There’s a 99% chance that they are leaping. We aren’t talking growth spurt here, we are talking brain spurt. Their mental development is trackable and follows a pattern. Wonder Weeks is based on 40 years of research and is shockingly accurate.
Tiny Beans – You know the moms… you may have even had a mom who loved to scrapbook and made you a gorgeous baby book. Yeah. It would be awesome to pull that off but the reality is we’re busy. Tiny Beans enables you to save all of those digital moments AND share them in a digitally safe way with certain family and friends. It will let you print a book later if you want but your digital memories are safe!
Peanut – Still looking for your mom tribe? Critics are calling Peanut “tinder for moms.” Create and join chat groups or set up in person meet ups with moms like you.
Little Nugget – Want to create cute monthly pictures or mementos for your family? Check out this app. It has all the bells and whistles to edit pictures without opening up Photoshop. You can add writing or icons, sprucing up any image.
Fertility Friend – Ok so not directly kid related but as we all know, pregnancy/mom brain is a real phenomenon and the things you used to be able to remember aren’t so easily recalled. Enter Fertility Friend. Whether you are trying to conceive or just keep track of what your body is doing, this app is priceless. Track as much or as little of your cycle as you want.
But I would be remiss if I didn’t add one final note – use all the apps you want, take as many pictures of your kiddos as you can but don’t forget to be in the moment with them sometimes. With my first child, I felt a crippling need to track it all. As I relaxed into motherhood, I realized that data is good but snuggles are better.