Guides
From feeding tracking to breastfeeding support, these apps are here to make your life easier.
New to parenting? These recommended apps are meant to help make parenthood feel a little easier. / Photo by Oscar Wong, courtesy of Getty Images
“I’m New To This” is Be Well Philly’s bi-weekly series for new and expecting parents. This educational resource covers the ins and outs of preparing for and caring for your little one, and yourself, with information and advice from local experts. The tips presented in “I’m New To This” are recommendations, and we believe in finding methods and approaches that work best for your unique family. Have a question you’d like to see answered? Email Be Well editor Laura Brzyski at [email protected]
When I got home from Penn Hospital after 34 hours of labor and an unplanned C-section last March, I needed a vacation (and probably a lot of therapy). Instead, it was time to get to work taking care of my beloved 10 lb., 7 oz. newborn. Fortunately, the answer to my sanity was right at my fingertips: in the App Store.
I asked other local parents for their favorite apps for new parents, because sharing is caring (and saves lives!). Read on for 10 recommendations from Philadelphia moms and dads.
To prepare before the baby arrives
Franchesca Isaac, owner of Alma Acupuncture in Fishtown and mother of a six-year-old and a one-month-old, says what to expect was her favorite app during her recent pregnancy. “I loved keeping up with each week of pregnancy and joined my pregnancy month forum for the virtual community,” she says. What to Expect also features an ovulation calculator, a developmental tracker (so she can see what fruit her baby’s size should look like), insights into her body changes, and a due date countdown.
For local fashion and lifestyle influencer Davida Janae (@vidafashionista), wow pregnancy it was especially helpful these past 38 weeks. (She’s expecting her second child any minute now!) “Along with the app that gives you details about your growing body and baby, you can track a lot of things like your mood, symptoms, and blood pressure. , write notes to yourself or the baby, add medical appointments, set reminders, and more,” she says.
To track everything after the baby arrives
Feeding, diaper changes, sleep—there’s a lot to keep track of, which can be particularly challenging in those overwhelming first few days.
“My husband and I realized we could use follow-up while at the doctor’s office when we had completely different answers to the question, ‘How many wet diapers did you have a day?’” says Point Breeze resident and mother of a 21 month old. old Marie DiFeliciantonio, who recommends Blueberry. “We couldn’t remember anything. Later, she became useful when she trains herself to sleep. We found that our son napped 3-4 hours after waking up in the morning, so we could mark the time and set alarms if we wanted. Also, we could give the login to anyone who helped care for our son for any length of time, so we would know how his day went and still be able to get him to bed according to his ‘waking window’ ”.
Casey Watson, who lives in East Passyunk and is a new father to an eight-month-old baby, is a supporter of baby tracker. “For me, the hardest thing to find was an app that would track things like sleep, eating, pumping, etc., but not try to get you to read a million advice articles. There are a lot of good resources out there for content like that, but it seems like most ‘baby tracker’ apps are actually there for you to read the content first and the tracking is just added,” she says. “I finally found one that had a good tracking feature and didn’t try to promote other newsletters or blogs. In terms of design, Baby Tracker is way behind the others, but the functionality is really good.”
Personally (although I admit that I did not experiment with any other) I have loved Nara baby tracker to record feedings and diaper changes. My husband and I can log in from our phones, log every feeding and diaper change, and view our baby’s history and activity trends to see if anything abnormal is happening. Our extremely knowledgeable postpartum doula had recommended it as a surefire tool for new parents, and she was right!
to help sleep
the Hatch The brand of smart sleep devices comes with an app that lets you change the sounds and lights on your phone. “It helps us differentiate the reasons why we are in nursery and helps the baby make those connections to the sounds/colors,” says Jordan Price, a Fishtown resident, mother of a three-month-old and food and fitness influencer. (@foodsweatnbeers) . “A green light plus birds means it’s time to wake up. The red light plus the noises of the television indicate that it is time to sleep. Dim orange/yellow and a lullaby means after bath, feed and book at bedtime.”
I’m also a fan of the Hatch “Rest” device and I think it’s part of the reason (apart from good luck) my baby sleeps through the night.
For questions about milestones
Every time our baby has been unexpectedly fussy in the last few months, my husband BJ reminds me that he’s on a “leap,” a term we learned from the app. the wonderful weeks. Just enter your child’s birthday and it will tell you what to expect from her behavior for the week. It certainly relieved a lot of anxiety and increased our confidence as new parents without a frame of reference. BJ connects the app to her phone’s calendar and receives alerts when our daughter enters a new stage of development.
DiFeliciantonio agrees, saying the app “gave us some reassurance that our son was making progress and that there wasn’t another problem bubbling under the surface that he couldn’t tell us about. He also explained each leap in terms of brain development and the skills that he was acquiring. No kid follows the rules, but it was nice to get a general idea of what was going on with him.”
For breastfeeding support
Price recommends the Pacify app, considering it’s free through town. “When I had a bad case of mastitis, it was great to have an on-demand resource with tips for reducing pain and engorgement. [and] ideas on how to reduce it in the future,” he says. The app connects new parents to a network of registered nurses, doulas, and lactation consultants to provide virtual support.
Mari Silber, owner of Queen Village-based Pilates and TRX studio The Balance Room and mother of a four-month-old, wears the elvie wireless pump. The accompanying app, she says, “is very useful for keeping track of how much I’m pumping and saves all my metrics in case I want to track my milk supply progression.”
to find community
When I’m on Facebook these days, it’s usually to check out the city and neighborhood-specific groups that have been surprisingly helpful when it comes to parenting in Philly. Support for the groups “Babysitters Club of Philadelphia” and “South Silly Parents” in Facebook for helping me find the perfect babysitter at a critical time and providing honest reviews of local daycare centers. And when the height of the formula shortage was happening, parents in the “Philadelphia Find and Exchange Formulas” group helped each other by posting where they were finding formula and offering to pick up specific brands that other parents might need.
