September 22, 2021
Apps for Pregnancy and Beyond!
Help a Mama Out | Part four
I loved having these apps right at my finger tips! I know there’s a whole lot of talk about how phones and technology are going to be the downfall of our society, blah blah blah, but my guess is that those people aren’t moms, haha, because having stuff like this on my phone is kind of the best thing ever! Here are links to a few that I particularly love!
1. Baby Center
There are a million and one pregnancy apps out there and this is the one I landed on. It gives you week by week updates about the size and developmental milestones of your baby (with fun size comparisons!) as well as articles and info to read about things pertaining to pregnancy, your changing body, and life with a baby.
One thing I really appreciated was their series of free birth class videos! They were super informative and broken down into bite sized segments. Truth be told, we felt like we were pretty well prepared after going through those so we opted to not do an in person birthing class. Everyone has to make that decision for themselves, but for us, the videos were sufficient and we ended up having a great birth experience even without a formal class.
2. Baby List
If you’re having a baby shower or want a registry for people to buy from, this is a MUST have! This made registering a Piece. Of. Cake! Unlike store specific registries, this gives you the ability to add items from ANY website! You can do this by installing their special browser button or you can add links manually. It was also extremely easy for friends and family to navigate!
It tracks purchases without you having to see who got you what (although you can if you want) and made it super nice to have everything in one spot as opposed to having three different registries from three different stores. And if you do choose to still create registries with other stores (if you want to take advantage of their completion discounts!), you can link them all to your BabyList! It’s a brilliant app!
3. Tone It Up!
This isn’t specifically a baby/motherhood app, but it’s what I’ve used for my work outs for YEARS and I love it! They have a prenatal and postpartum section in their workout programs and they’re awesome! It does require a subscription (very reasonable!) to gain access to those, but even without the subscription, you still get free daily workouts that you can easily modify to fit whatever season of pregnancy you are in. The daily workouts usually only take like 15 minutes, can be done in your living room, and leave you feeling great! I call that a Win Win Win!
4. The Wonder Weeks
This app tracks your baby’s brain development and lets you know when they will likely be going through developmental “leaps” which often lead to fussiness, sleep trouble, and other frustrating things. It is SO helpful to be able to assign a reason to behavior that would otherwise be unexplained. It even has a calendar where it predicts what weeks baby might be particularly fussy. And it’s SPOT on. I so appreciate being able to make sense of what is going on and it’s also amazing to learn just how much babies learn and grow over the first few years. It’s really astounding and it has helped me have more grace when I realized just how much their little brains are going through!
5. Taking Cara Babies Blog Shortcut
Ok, so this isn’t actually an app! (although I would LOVE to see them come out with one!) As you know, I am a HUUUGE fan of TCB for al things baby sleep and scheduling!! I recommend it to everyone and I personally reference it ALL the time to help me with my kiddos.
I recently discovered that you can actually bookmark a website right on the home screen of your phone! So in essence, it functions like an app that you tap and it takes you straight to a web page! I did that for the TCB Blog and it’s been awesome to have such quick and easy access to it whenever I have a question or want to brush up on a specific topic! If you have an android phone, check out THIS link to see how to add a home screen shortcut and then start with the link from Step 1 below!
For my fellow iPhone users, here’s a step-by-step for ya!
- Navigate to the Taking Cara Babies Blog page and tap the share button at the bottom of your screen
- Tap “Add to Home Screen.”
- Edit the title and tap “Add.”
- Voila! Move the app to a place that will be easy for you to access. If you’re anything like me, you’ll be using this one a lot!
Have fun with these! They have been super valuable tools for me and have definitely enhanced my journey as a mama! I hope they do the same for you!
If you missed them, be sure to check out the other posts in this series!