The iPhone Mom

After you’ve used Contraction Master and you’ve had your baby you might find yourself in need of Nursing Master to help you manage the feedings that will soon become a blur. Sleep deprivation is not to be messed with. The app lets you track when you start nursing your baby and the length of the feeding. You can also record which side you left off on. (Sorry menfolk readers for the inevitable TMI.) I like the fact that this app lets you record information for more than one baby. I know that if I had twins I’d seriously need help keeping track of who I fed when and what and how and maybe even why.

You’ll have the option of adding in your baby’s photo, name and gender. I was pleased to see that Nursing Master also lets you keep track of bottle feedings. You’ll be able to record what’s in the bottle (breast milk, formula, even soy formula, etc.) and how large the bottle is.  My baby was put on elemental formula when she was around two months old. For awhile I had no idea if I was feeding her too much or not often enough. Keeping track of those details probably would have saved me some trial and error. I’m not a statistics person but if you’re interested in looking at the overall feeding statistics you can do that too. You can even compare two babies. I almost forgot, you can also manually enter in feedings that you didn’t time with the app.

Nursing Master was just updated yesterday and not allows you to continue timing a feeding after you shut down the app. I think this is a great addition. There are times when I’m feeding my daughter with the bottle in one hand and my phone in the other checking email. So being able to continue to use the app while I’m doing other things is important to me. The other new addition is a number badge for the app’s home screen icon. The number shows how many babies have a feeding timer running.

I’m all for anything that makes managing newborn details easier. I haven’t tested it for weeks on end but Nursing Master seems easy to use and it kept track of all the details that I’d personally be interested in. I don’t need a ton of fluff. Just a record of how we’re all doing and whether my baby’s on track to becoming a nice, healthy chunk.

Price when Reviewed: $1.99

Seller: Bill Snebold Design

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

Contraction Master is for expectant mothers out there who are preparing for the big Due Date. This app can help you time your contractions and figure out when it’s time to head for the hospital. Literally, all you need to do is tap a button. When you feel a contraction beginning you tap the start button and when it stops you tap the button again. The app tracks the start and end time of your contraction and tells you how long it lasted. When you have another one you tap the button again. Now the app will tell you how frequently your contractions are coming. The history section of Contraction Master will lay out all the information for the contractions that you’ve recorded. This way you can see if they are coming closer together, or (let’s hope not) farther apart.

Contraction Master was very easy to use which is key in an app that you’re expected to use when you’re having contractions. Who wants to try and figure out a complicated system when they’re in labor? Unless it’s some new fangled distraction technique aimed to help you forget you are in labor but I highly doubt there’s an app that can make you forget that. Personally, I think Contraction Master beats having to watch the clock and record times on paper. I also liked the fact that all the information is on your phone, a phone which will probably come with you to the hospital. So when you get there and your contractions magically stop the minute they hook you up to the monitors you’ve got proof for the nurses that it wasn’t just gas.

Price when Reviewed: $.99

Seller: Bill Snebold Design

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

When I say that this app is the iPhone version of a safety pin on a nursing mother’s bra all of you out there who’ve nursed a child will have a pretty good idea of what I’m talking about. I’ve probably just thoroughly confused any male readers out there so go ahead and move along. These aren’t the droids you’re looking for. Ok, my husband would really love that line but he probably saw the post’s title and skedaddled. Hopefully someone else out there appreciated my attempt at Star Wars humor.

The app named Breastfeeding tracks which side you last nursed your baby on. Back in the day I was once told to put a safety pin on my bra marking this very same thing. I can’t remember if I ever did it or not. Breastfeeding lets you mark your spot, so to speak, with the tap of a button. The app displays a bra on the screen. Tap the “i” button and you can add in your baby’s name (or babies, the app can handle more than one). When you’re done the name will show up on a tag that hangs off the bra. If you’re feeding multiple babies they’ll each have their own bra and you can switch between them by swiping across the screen. To track which side you’ve nursed on you’ll tap on the bow that’s on either the left or right side of the bra. When you’ve done this the bow gets bigger and shows either an “L” or “R”. The next time you open up the app you can see where you left off and off you go!

Currently Breastfeeding features a brown color scheme. It’d be nice to see a little more color, maybe being able to choose between blue or pink bras or backgrounds. I think the bows could also stand out a little more. Perhaps they could be the part of the app that’s done in color so they pop off the screen. All in all Breastfeeding is a very simple app and it tracks what it’s supposed to track. Plus I must say the idea of using an app instead of a safety pin appeals to me.

Price when Reviewed: $.99

Seller: Lars Bergelt

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

Lutin is intended for all the expecting parents out there who are trying to come up with THE perfect name for their baby. It’s an agonizing decision and I think it gets worse the more children you have. At least it did for me. At the time of my review Lutin contained 12,663 different first names. Surely there must be some inspiration in there somewhere!

An ABC button pulls up an alphabetical list of every name in the app. Luckily you don’t have to scroll through the entire list all at once, you can tap on a specific letter and then view the names that begin with it. The names will have the female or male sign next to them. Isn’t there a name for those signs? It seems like there is but that’s a bit of knowledge I’ve lost somewhere along the way. I’m not going to Google it either, that search just cries out “trouble!” The point is you can quickly glance at the list and see if a name is intended for a girl or boy or both. (At the top of the screen is a button that will let you sort out the names by gender if you like.) When you come upon an interesting name you can tap it to see it’s origin and the languages it’s found in. Some names will also have their phonetic spelling.  If you like the name then tap on the star button and add it to a favorites list. Lutin also allows you to search the app by using a search bar feature.

I do have a couple of issues with Lutin. The first is that it’s missing the meanings of the names. I know this would probably be a ton of work to put together for over 12,000 names but it seems like a key feature in an app that’s called a name dictionary.  Next, if you visit the information screen for Lutin it explains the origin of the app’s name and also has an audio recording of how the name is pronounced. There were many names in this app that I’d never heard about. I think it would be a nice feature if some of the more uncommon names featured an audio recording too. Finally, the app’s price seems very high at $5.99. Again, I know the app contains an incredible number of names  but (and I hate saying this) I don’t think I’d buy it at that price without the name definitions.   That being said I was impressed by the sheer volume of names that are available in this app. Also, it was easy to navigate whether I used the alphabetized list or the search feature.

Price when Reviewed: $5.99

Seller: Lars Begelt

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

Pregnancy App wants to help you track the development of your baby throughout your pregnancy. Begin by entering in the first day of your last period and your normal menstrual cycle length. This will allow the app to calculate your due date. Now the app will display your due date, your progress (how many weeks along you are), the week of pregnancy that you’re in, the number of days until your due date and some basic information about your developing baby. If you tap on your due date you’ll also see two additional dates. These are the dates two weeks before and two weeks after your due date when your baby could be born. Probably not a good idea to focus on the thought of two weeks after. If you turn your iPhone on it’s side, into landscape mode, additional information is displayed and you’ll be able to read more details about what’s going on with your baby. While your phone is on it’s side you can tap on the picture of the fetus and add in a picture of your own. You can also enter in your own notes about your pregnancy. Whether you are in regular or landscape mode you can move forward in the weeks so you can read ahead if you like.

The Pregnancy App is cleanly designed and full of good, basic information. I did sometimes have trouble getting it to switch into landscape mode but this could be my phone’s fault. (It’s been dropped a few times.) My only issue with the app is that the price seems a bit high.

Price when Reviewed: $4.99

Seller: Lars Bergelt

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

Build a Brag Book Story is an interesting app. It takes a photo of your baby and their personal details and puts them into a story. You start by adding in your child’s photo (take a picture or use one from camera roll/library). Then you’ll go through a series of questions ranging from your child’s name, to the time of their birth to the names of their grandparents. Sometimes you will see an empty picture frame on the screen. Tap on the plus sign to add a photo to the frame. You can add more than one photo for each frame.  When you’ve entered in all the information your story is ready. It’s a general story about a brand new baby coming home to meet the family, but it’s personalized with your child’s information and the pictures you added. There are three basic story templates to choose from but if you don’t see what you’d like you can email your text to the developers. The text has to work with the illustrations they’ve provided but they will create a new story template that will be available in their next update. Now that is customization. You can change the size of text, auto turn of the pages and how the pages look then when they turn (curl, fade, slide, etc.). I really like the idea of this app and I’m very glad you can add in personal photos. The illustrations that go along with the brag book are cute but my kids are always excited when they see a photo of themselves on my phone.

Price when Reviewed: Free

Seller: Scott Singer

Here is a pregnancy countdown app that is jam packed with different tools. Here’s a brief rundown of the key features.

Dashboard – This gives you a general view of your baby’s gestational progress. It shows your due date, the number of weeks along you are and the time you have left. The baby’s status (weight, length and heart rate) are also displayed. If you’ve picked baby names your list shows up here as well. There’s also a brief summary of what’s going on developmentally.

Name Picker – This is a list of the most popular boy and girl names. You can sort them by their popularity or alphabetically. The font on this list is tiny and you’ll need to use your finger to scroll down to see more than four names at a time. It’d be nice if it was a smidge bigger. If you see a name that you like then tap the plus sign next to it and it’s added to your list.

Social Updates – Update your friends and family via Twitter or Facebook. You can choose from several templates and then update the information that you want to send out.

Diaper Calculator – This tool has you entering the number of babies you’re dealing with, the number of diapers you change per day, cost per diaper and minutes per diaper change. It will then calculate the number of diapers you’ll go through in a year, the total number of minutes and hours you’ll spend on diaper changing over the year and (ick!) what it’s all going to cost you. This one is a frightening tool but a realistic look at what your pocketbook is going to face. For those who are first time parents, overestimate how many diapers you plan on changing. It’s amazing how many diapers you change in those first few months. Amazing may be the wrong word choice…frightening is probably more realistic.

Baby Alert – Send a post to Twitter, post on your Facebook wall or send out an email when you’ve had your baby. You can preselect your contacts and then it’s just a matter of a few taps to get the message out.

Contact Numbers – Add contacts into the app and categorize them. From then on you’ll be able to use one tap dialing from within the app, for these contacts. It’d be nice to be able to import these from the iPhone’s contacts.

Weekly Update & Weekly Baby Images – The update tells you what your baby is doing this week. The images show you what your baby looks like. You can see the image in 2D or 3D. 3D will take you to an external website.

Journal – Here you can keep track of your thoughts and the events in your pregnancy. You can also email out your entries.

Free Samples – The app has joined with www.BabytoBee.com which  connects you to free baby samples, etc. I didn’t explore the website too much. You’ll need to provide your email address to access the free stuff but there appears to also be much more to the website than just that.

Settings – Here you can enter the sex of your baby, select a custom background for the app and enter in your due date. This is also where you can enter in your Twitter and Facebook settings.

The cost of Pregnancy Countdown with Social Integration is reasonable ($1.99) and there’s quite a bit contained within the app. The actual pregnancy information appears to be fairly basic but there is a big focus on the social integration aspect.

The developers behind this app are a husband and wife team who have, get ready, triplets. As a mother of four (children, not triplets) I’d like to give them a big round of applause for going for it and creating the app! They’ve given me five free app promo codes to give away. First five readers to comment will get an email from me later with the code.

Price when Reviewed: $1.99    FREE

Seller: Total ECommerce LLC

Towards the end of last summer I reviewed Occupy Baby but they’ve recently come out with an update and added a few features so it’s time to revisit the app.

The original farm game is the same but with a few improvements to the audio and images. Use your finger to swipe through the farm scene, tapping on the animals to make things happen on the screen. Now you can also tap on the sun and see the farm in the nighttime.

A brand new activity has been added to the app, flashcards. Right now it’s a series of black on white shapes but it appears there will ne new sets of flashcards available in the future. You can swipe your finger to switch between shapes. Tap on a shape, hear it’s name and see it  change from black to white. You can also change the audio in the options and hear the names of the shapes in Spanish or French.

The only issue that I had with the app was that it seemed a bit finicky when switching from the farm to the shape activity on the main screen. Sometimes I was able to swipe easily between the two. Other times I just couldn’t get it to work, only to have it suddenly be fine. Is it a bug or a dirty screen on my iPhone? Don’t know.  My baby is now old enough to help me test out Occupy Baby so I put her to work. She seemed to enjoy the farm scene but the flashcards really held her attention. Hooray for contrasts!

**Update (1/27/10) – The developer of Occupy Baby has told me that he’s investigated the “sticky screen” issue I was experiencing on the home screen but can’t find any bugs. He tested it out on several devices too. Which leads me to conclude that I most likely need to get out the cleaner and go to town on my iPhone’s screen. Blaming this one on the five year olds sticky f ingers!

Price when Reviewed: $.99

Seller: Milobox, LLC.

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

The Infant Arcade apps are a series of apps that have been developed for babies 6 months and older. I tried out three of them.

Peek-a-Boo: This is a simple app where a character on the screen hides behind one of five objects. For example, a jellyfish will be hiding behind one of five clamshells. The idea is to have your baby touch the object in front of the character. If they get it right it will appear and then hide again. After a few times the scene will switch to a new character and new objects. Since this app was designed for infants the characters aren’t completely hidden. Enough of them will be visible that we older folks can easily tell where they are. There’s a nice musical soundtrack that plays and when you touch the screen there are funny noises and sound effects. My one suggestion for the app is to have the character say “Peek-a-Boo” when you find it.

Numbers: The Numbers app asks your child to catch things as they bounce around the screen. For example it might tell you to “Catch the lions”. Your child would then need to tap on all the lions until they were lined up at the bottom of the screen. Each time they tap on one the app counts a number out loud. When everything has been counted they’ll hear “You did it!” and then something new to catch will appear. There is also another game mixed in with this one. This game displays objects on the screen and asks your child to tap on the number that applies. So they would see three monkeys and then have to choose whether to tap on a 5, 3 or 1. I don’t know if I’m explaining that very well. It’s one of those things that’s easy to grasp when you look at it but hard to put into written words. Numbers also features a pleasant soundtrack.

Alphabet Creatures: There are a few different activities within the Alphabet Creatures app.  One will show you a screen with several letter blocks bouncing around. Here you’ll tap all the blocks and hear the names of the letters. Another screen shows you one letter. When you tap on that you’ll hear it’s name, what it “says” and you’ll see a picture of something that starts see with this letter.  Other screens show you letter blocks and when you tap on them you’ll hear and see the name of something that starts with them. Yet another screen has animals on it. Choose an animal to tap then see and hear it’s name and watch it bounce off the screen. The other part of this app is the “ABC Song”. When you play this you’ll hear the alphabet song and letter blocks will appear on the screen in time with the music. You can tap these blocks as they appear or at any other time during the song. When you do this the app says the name of the letter, while the song still plays. Here there are also animals that bounce along the bottom of the screen during the song. Tap on them and they will spin and say their name. So by tapping on the letters and animals you can add some spice to the ABC song.

Out of the three apps that I tried I think that Peek-a-Boo is the one most suited to the 6 month age range, although you’re probably going to want to play with your baby instead of handing over your iPhone. I know that I’d be the one doing the tapping too because my daughter is a drooling, sticky mess and her fingers are never dry. The Numbers and Alphabet Creatures apps are more suited to older “babies”, I’d say around 12-18 months.

Infant Arcade: Peek-a-Boo

Price when Reviewed: $.99 (Free version also available)

Infant Arcade: Numbers

Price when Reviewed: $.99 (Free version also available)

Infant Arcade: Alphabet Creatures

Price when Reviewed: $1.99 (Free version also available)

Seller: Iskandar, Inc.

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

Are you looking for a noisy app to keep your toddler entertained? Look no further, Baby Drums is here! This app fills your iPhone screen with pictures of drums, cymbals, maracas, pots and more. Pretty much anything that a toddler would love to bang on is here in this app. All they have to do is tap on the picture to hear that banging, clanging and ringing. To see more instruments swipe your finger from left to right (or right to left) and they will scroll across the screen. There are plenty of things that make noise in Baby Drums! and it is perfect toddler entertainment, if your ears can handle it.

Price when Reviewed: $.99

Seller: SMHK Funlab