Baby Activity Logger

I had my first child almost ten years ago. When she was born I did my best to keep track of how often she was eating and messing diapers all while trying to track her sleep and get her on a schedule. With my next two I don’t remember keeping track much at all. I remember doing my best to survive. In about two months baby number four is due to arrive at our house. I’d be lying if I didn’t admit that I was more than a bit nervous about caring for a newborn while sleep deprived and caring for three other kiddos. I’m wondering how I’m going to keep track of when I feed the baby if I’m doing it in between dance classes and soccer practice and PTO responsibilities. Lucky for me (and other mom’s in my boat) there’s an app that can easily track everything – Baby Activity Logger.

Baby Activity Logger is simple to use, a must when you’re dealing with moms who are sleep deprived. There’s no typing to be done. Wonderful! Information is tracked and recorded using simple buttons. The main log screen shows you four buttons – a bottle, diaper, baby face and moon. Tap the bottle and a question pops up – “Has your baby started eating?”. Underneath that are some choices – right breast, left breast (for nursing mothers) or bottle. Tap the one that fits. Now you go back to the main screen and you’ll see that a timer has begun (underneath the large buttons). This timer counts how long it’s been since your baby started eating. It will continue to count even if you exit the Baby Activity Log app. When your baby is done eating you just tap the bottle again and answer, yes your baby has finished eating.  The timer stops and now starts tracking how long it’s been since the baby finished eating.

The diaper button takes you to a question asking if you baby has pooped, peed or done both. Tap the appropriate answer and you’ll see a timer (again, underneath the large buttons) telling you how long it’s been since you changed the baby’s diaper. The baby face button is for entering information about burping and spitting up. The moon one is for the baby’s sleep cycle. Tap it and tell the app if your baby has fallen asleep or woken up. You’ll see another timer counting how long your baby has been asleep. The timers all run consecutively, each keeping track of their separate activity.

At the very bottom of the screen you’ll see three buttons. “Log” takes you to this main screen with the large buttons, the spot where you log the baby’s activity. The “Today” button gives you a summary of everything your baby has done so far. From here you can also scroll forward and backward through dates.  You can filter the summary to see all the activity or only certain things. The “Total” button takes you to a page with the statistics for the baby’s activity.

A couple other notes. On the “Log” screen, tap menu and you can enter a manual entry and switch to a 24 hour clock. I prefer this clock to the military time, less work for my tired brain. Also at the top is a button that says “Baby 1”. Tap this and you can choose which baby becomes your default for logging activities. You can also “manage babies” and enter in their names. The app lets you track three babies.

This app is so much better than the pen and paper method I used with my first child. I love the simplicity behind it and how you enter in information simply by tapping buttons. Baby Activity Logger is a great app for new moms – whether it’s your first child or your tenth.

Price when Reviewed: $2.99

Available at iTunes

Seller: Mark Bonassera/Nerdtown