My 4 Favorite Pregnancy Apps
About this time last year, I downloaded a billion zillion killion tillion apps on my iPhone about pregnancy. And then I secretly hid them in a folder called Health. Pretty sneaky, huh? ;) I want to share with you my four favorites: two that I used a lot before we got pregnant and two that are really helpful now that we've conceived. All are free!
1. Period Tracker Lite
After I stopped taking the pill, I started keeping track of my cycle, how I felt and when we were intimate. If you tell the app when your cycle starts, it will begin predicting when you will be ovulating (by putting a flower icon on the calendar) and marking the days on which you should be intimate if you hope to conceive. Each month, as you enter more information, the app learns more about your average cycle length (I believe the past three months are taken into consideration) and recalculates your fertile times based on that. I learned that you must take this all with a grain of salt, especially if you're like me and don't have a regular cycle, but I really appreciated having this information tracked, and when I found out I was pregnant I could immediately look back at when my cycle started (to calculate the due date) and when we may have possibly conceived.
2. Hypermunes Pregnancy Wheel
It was probably unhealthy for me to use this app so much before we got pregnant, but once we got a positive test it worked like a charm in giving us our due date instantly. It is interactive and functions much like the paper wheels that the doctors use. Before we got pregnant, I mainly used this out of curiosity to see what our due date would be if we got pregnant that month. I should also note that our due date from our midwife is three days after what this app told me it would be (no big deal).
3. BabyCenter My Pregnancy Today
There are many apps that will tell you what's going on in your pregnancy from day to day and week to week, but this is the best one I've used for usability and design. I pull it up every morning and read the tip of the day, what's going on with my body, what's going on with the baby, etc. There are even occasional videos and interactive diagrams. I think my favorite part is the pregnancy checklist that reminds you to take your prenatal vitamin, drink water, exercise, start stocking your pantry with certain snacks, and go to bed early. There is a lot to think about when you are growing a baby, and this app keeps me on track.
4. Pregnancy Buzz by The Bump
This app functions like a Q&A or 411 for pregnancy. There are sections on getting pregnant, pregnancy symptoms, tests and checkups, eating and exercise, baby names, labor and delivery, and more. And you can submit your own questions if it's not already on there.
>> I also have an app called Baby Brain that I am excited to try once baby gets here. Rather than having a notebook or clipboard to track when the baby last ate, napped or had its diaper changed, you track it all on the app. Cool, huh?
What apps am I missing out on?