The iPhone Mom

Even though my baby is quickly approaching her first birthday (only about 6 more weeks, let the crying begin!) I can still appreciate a good pregnancy tracking app. Sprout is a great pregnancy tracking app with everything you could want. Here’s a rundown of it’s features:

My Baby – These screens show you what your baby looks like week by week. The images are amazing and authentic. They’re big and bright to show you exactly what’s going on. The images have dots that you can tap on to reveal information about your baby’s current development. Some of the images even come in 3D and will rotate on your screen.

Doctor Says –This is where you’ll find medical information and advice. Throughout this section you’ll notice “To Dos” and when you tap on them they’re copied on to the app’s organizer. The “To Dos” correspond with the weekly information. For example on Week 9 you’ve got “Stock up on healthy snacks” and “Purchase pregnancy bras”. You’ll also find notes that say “M.D. Visit Planner”. These are things you might want to talk to your doctor about. When you tap on those things they’re added to another list in the app. I love the way the medical information is integrated with practical things that a pregnant woman would really need and use.

Organizer – The Organizer has several parts. First, there is a M.D. Visit Planner. This will list the “visit” items that you tapped in the Doctor Says section. You can also type in your own question or go through a list of questions that are sorted by trimester. There is also a list of symptoms which is fantastic too. All you have to do is tap on the question or symptom and it’s automatically added to your visit list. When you’re at your doctor’s appointment you can open up the list and everything is right there. I think this is a great feature and I would have used it all the time. I have horrible pregnancy brain which affects my short term memory and unfortunately never really goes away once the pregnancy is over. The Organizer also has a To Do List which shows your pregnancy  tasks. If you selected to dos from the Doctor Says section they’ll appear here. You can also type in your own to dos.

Newborn Essentials is a list of items you’ll need when that sweet baby comes home from the hospital. It’s a very thorough list but if there’s something else you’d like to add you can easily do it.  You can check things off the list as you gather your supplies. Hospital Bag is a list of things you might need when you go to the hospital to have your baby. Again, it’s a wonderful thorough list that you can also add to and check off as you pack.

Tools – In the Tools section you’ll find a Weight Tracker, Kick Counter and Contraction Timer. Each tool is very easy to use and I would have used them all except the weight tracker. I prefer to ignore that pregnancy issue.

All in all Sprout is a terrific, well thought out and well developed app. You can tell that pregnant women had a hand in it’s development. It is a pricey app (9.99) but if you want all of your lists, reminders and tools in one easy to use app then I think it’s worth it.

Price when Reviewed: $9.99

Seller: MedArt Studios

Disclosure: I received a free copy of this app for review purposes.

Share My Pregnancy is a free app that will help keep you informed about what’s going on throughout your pregnancy. Here’s the rundown on the key screens and features:

Countdown – On this screen you enter in your due date and the app will calculate the number of weeks pregnant you are and the number of days you have left. This information will change as your pregnancy progresses. There is also a quote of the day that shows up here.

Baby & You – This screen is divided into two parts, Baby Growth and Maternal Changes. Baby growth gives you information about what’s going on with your baby during that week of development. I liked that it also features information on multiples and some “Good to Know” tips. The Maternal Changes has information about what mom might be experiencing that week. I thought it was nice to see that there’s also information especially for Dad too.

Share – From here you can send emails and photos directly to friends and family.

Labor – On this screen you can send two types of messages. You can send out a message to your friends and family letting them know you’ve gone into labor. The app comes with a preset message but you can also customize your own. You can add a photo too if you’d like folks to see what you look like while you’re laboring.  That would never fly here. The next type of message that you can send is a birth announcement. There is a template where you can fill in baby’s name, gender, height weight and time of birth.

I thought that Share My Pregnancy was a fairly thorough free pregnancy app. I didn’t see any images in the app so you’ll miss that if you want to visualize what your baby looks like during your pregnancy. There are ads that show up on the bottom of the screen but I didn’t find them too distracting or annoying.

*Update 5/31/10 -I missed the fetal images. They appear on the Baby and You screen under Baby Growth. The images will start at week four and then you’ll see them every two weeks in this section. I must have tried out the weeks that didn’t have the images, my apologies for missing them!

Price when Reviewed: FREE

Seller: GetBabyWise

I never tried baby massage on my babies. I know people who swear by it but I never felt comfortable enough to try it myself. This app, Aimee’s Babies Baby Massage, is for people like me who need some instruction before they attempt to massage their baby. The app has some good basic information about when you should (and when you should not) use massage. It also provides bullet points on the benefits of massage but the meat of the app comes in the information about the different massage strokes. The app provides a written walkthrough and a short video demonstration of seven different massage strokes that can be used on babies. By reading the instructions and paying attention to the videos you should be able to successfully perform them on your baby.

Price when Reviewed: $4.99

Seller: Aimee Ketchum

Disclosure: I received a free copy of this app for review purposes.

Absorb Water is designed to help you track your daily water intake. The app lets you track the glasses of water you drink as well as the water you take in when you eat certain foods. You’re allowed to choose from twelve different water sources – drinks and foods. Entering in the water is as simple as tapping a few buttons. Let’s say you had a glass of skim milk. You would tap on the picture that shows the size of drink you had then tap on the plus sign to add that water amount to your total. Absorb Water wants you to have a total of twelve glasses of water a day and it tracks your progress with a bar on the main screen.

The app also features something called a “Mellow Yellow” chart. This is where you enter in the color of your urine. Yep, you read that right. The idea is to track your output, so to speak, and use that as a guide to make sure you’re getting the right amount of water for your body. There are twenty different shades of yellow to choose from. Tap the one that’s your best match and then store it in the personal data section. This lets you keep track of how things are changing, hopefully for the better!

Absorb Water is easy to use and I like how it allows for the water found in food. I know it’s important to drink water but sometimes the idea of 8-12 glasses a day is daunting, so every little bit helps.  The app is very visual and relies on pictures with a minimal amount of text. Personally I’d like to see just a little more text for clarity sake. For example, I’d like to see the quantity amounts of the food and drinks shown on the buttons. As it is now, you tap on the button and the amount pops up. I’d prefer to have the number right up front so I didn’t have to guess at what I was tapping, but that’s just me.

If you’re concerned about getting enough hydration and you don’t want to limit yourself to tracking glasses of water Absorb Water can keep you on target.

Price when Reviewed: $1.99

Seller: Syndicated Puzzles

Disclosure: I received a free copy of this app for review purposes.

Piece of Cake is an app that focuses on providing you with the inspiration and motivation you might be looking for in order to lose weight. The app is divided up into three sections – Attitude, Health Tips and Quotes. Attitude has different sayings about keeping a positive outlook while on your weight loss journey. Health Tips provides tips for staying healthy and Quotes has words from others about staying positive and moving forward.

My only suggestion for Piece of Cake is to add in the ability to swipe from screen to screen. Right now you navigate using arrows at the bottom of the screen and I kept instinctively trying to swipe across the screen. This app was developed by someone with personal experience losing weight and she’s compiled a nice selection of inspirational words. Piece of Cake was a nice feel good reading experience.

Price when Reviewed: $.99

Seller: Dmitri Iarandine

Disclosure: I received a free copy of this app for review purposes.

I reviewed the baby Calm app awhile back and they’ve recently released a new version so it’s time for an update. See my original review here.

The new version has added four new sounds – faucet, mixer, hair dryer and ambient music. There is also a virtual rattle, shake your iPhone and you’ll hear a rattle noise. My nine month old wasn’t too interested in those features but she really liked “The Closer”. This addition is a black screen with four circles on it. The circles are red, yellow, green and blue and they turn colors one at a time while music plays. I’m not sure if it was the music, the colors or the combination of both but she really wanted to get her hands on my phone once I turned it on.

Price when Reviewed: $1.99

Seller: Synthetic Bits

FoodEssentials Scanner version 2.0 has been released. There’s a smorgasbord of new features in this new update, all improving an already great app. I didn’t think I could do the update justice so I’m sending you to the FoodEssentials blog to read all the details.

FoodEssentials has also been generous enough to give me five promo codes to give away. I’d love hear from readers who could use some extra help checking food ingredients because of allergy issues. Read my original app review to see if FoodEssentials can help you out. If you think it will then please leave me a comment. The first five comments will receive a code. Thanks FoodEssentials!

Price when Reviewed: $4.99

Seller: FoodEssentials

50,000 Baby Names is a free baby naming app. You can browse through their list of names or search for a specific one. When you’re looking at names you can filter them by gender and sort by alphabetical order or popularity. Tap a name to read about it’s meaning. Here you’ll also be given a list of similar names.  The app uses something called “Sound Print technology” to create the list of names that sound like the one you’re viewing. I thought this was a great feature. You can also view “obscure” baby names and these can be sorted by their ethnic origin. Names that you like and want to remember can be easily placed on a favorites list . I was impressed with the amount of content in this free app and especially with the lists of similar names. If you’re hunting for THE perfect baby name try this one out, you can’t beat the price.

Price when Reviewed: FREE

Seller: Total Ecommerce LLC

Get Running (Couch to 5K) is a training app that will take you from walking off your couch to being able to run for 30 minutes without stopping. The program covers nine weeks of workouts with a run three times a week. The runs increase over time so you won’t be biting off more than  you can chew.  When you do a run the app will literally talk you through the workout. It gives you audio cues of when to warm up, when to walk and when to run. The screen shows a clock that counts down the amount of time you have left in each segment. You can listen to your iPod music while you use the app but you have to start the music before you open the app. Your music will play and then fade in and out before and after the app’s audio cues. Having the music is a key feature for me. I can’t run without my tunes.

I already run on a regular basis so I’m not the best user to put this app through the full nine week test.  I tried a run last night and thought the app was easy to use and because I run with my iPhone on my arm (and can’t see the screen) I appreciated the audio cues. My husband has recently started to run a little bit each night on the treadmill and when I mentioned Get Running to him and he was excited to try it out. I’ll let you know how he does. Here’s hoping we can do a 5K together in a few months.

Price when Reviewed: $1.99

Seller: Splendid Things

Disclosure: I received a free copy of this app for review purposes.

FoodEssentials Scanner is the best app that I’ve seen for those suffering from food allergies and intolerances. It allows you to scan the barcode of a food product and it will then display all sorts of information about the food. You get your nutrient information (calories, fats, sodium, etc.) but you also get information about allergens and additives. The app will pull up the possible allergens and flag them as not listed, possible and listed. You can tap on the allergen and find out exactly what ingredient is the culprit. The same is true for the additive list. There’s no need to scan the label on your food and then search for the five syllable ingredient or additive on your own. The app does it for you. If you’d rather not use the barcode you can also search by product name. The same label information will be displayed.

When FoodEssentials finds your food it also pulls up products in the same category. I asked the developer how they choose these products and as of right now they’re pulled up in no particular order. They’re working on enabling sorting of these screens so you can see the most popular products first. That will be a nice improvement. You can flick between these screens to compare what’s in each one and this will be very useful when you can narrow the screens down to foods that are really similar. You can also scan in similar products and then shake your phone. Now all the similar products that you’ve scanned will show up on screens that you can access with that sideways swipe. This is a great way to compare what’s in different breads, cereals, ice creams, you get the idea. The app also saves everything you’ve scanned or searched for in a list.

Now here’s the part that I thought was pretty darn fantastic about this app. You have the ability to customize what you see on the labels it pulls up. You can go through each section – nutrients, allergens, additives – and turn on/off what you’d like to see. For example in my house we’ve got some dairy issues and I’d absolutely make sure that was turned on to show up. But we never eat fish and I don’t need to see that allergy so I turned it off. I think it’s terrific that you can expand (or condense) the list of what you see.

According to the FoodEssentials website a big update is coming around March 29th. They’ll be doubling the list of products and will soon be adding additional allergies.  The update should also give you the ability to select an ingredient (from more than 30,000) and make it a custom ingredient that will show up on your labels. I’ve been told that the success rate (accuracy) of the scanning is going to jump with the next update which will be fantastic.

I have a few reasons that this app is going to be a big help for me. First for my baby. I’ve mentioned before that we’ve been dealing with acid reflux and food intolerances pretty much since the day she was born. We’ve got the acid issues handled but the reflux is still out of control some days.  We’ve begun venturing into the world of baby foods but it’s slow going and we’re still on elemental formula and cereal plus a limited number of other foods. We try a new food and then cross our fingers that it’s not going to end up on the intolerant list. She usually lets us know it’s a no go when she has a big reflux flair up the next day. I’m hoping (really hoping!) that the day is coming where we can begin to try regular baby cereal and some other things. But realistically I know we’ll be dealing with her food issues for some time to come. FoodEssentials is going to be a huge help when I get the G.I’s green light to start introducing “normal” food. Especially when the new allergies and ingredients are added to the app. I’ll be able to find out (while I’m in the store) if something is safe for her or not. My second reason is personal. I’m one of those lucky (oh so lucky!) people who get migraines. It seems like I’m constantly learning about my triggers but I know with certainty that several additives/ingredients are guaranteed to make my head explode. I would love to see some sort of migraine trigger list incorporated into the app. At the very least I am hoping that MSG and aspartame make the 30,000+ ingredient list.

Sorry for the lengthy diatribe, I probably just shared much more than you’d want to know about my family’s issues. Especially all that talk about baby spit up. Right now FoodEssentials costs $4.99 and that covers a one year subscription to the app. Personally, I think the ease of use and the straightforward way the information is presented would make the price worth it for me. The updates that I’m hearing about are really going to set this app apart and I’m excited to see where it goes next.

*I really only touched on the allergy prevention potential of the app. If you’re concerned about cholesterol, saturated fat, etc. then there’s plenty of information here for you too.

*Another note – I’ve received word that the developers monitor the searches that return no results and then work on including those foods. For me those empty searches were for some store brand products. It’s good to know that these empty searches are monitored.

Price when Reviewed: $4.99

Seller: Food Essentials

Disclosure: I received a free copy of this app for review purposes.