There's an App for that

I have a smart phone, who doesn't now a days, well my mother doesn't but that is a whole other battle that you don't want to be at their house for.  It is probably the one thing that I have with me all the time.  So what better way to keep track of your pregnancy then with your phone.  Of course, I love the traditional books and calendars to write in.  If you are looking for those, check out the ones that I used here and here.

I started using pregnancy applications to first find out when I could get pregnant.  The first one I downloaded was the free version of My Days.  I love this app and have it on my phone and my tablet.

My Days gives your the ability to track your periods over time to come up with the most likely time for you to conceive.  I started using this well before we were TTC and I give it the credit for us getting pregnant so fast.  Along with your periods, you can also track when you had sex, if you took your birth control pill, your weight, basal body temperature, blood flow, cervical mucus and mood.  Over time it will produce charts for you on your menstrual cycles and ovulation dates.

You can see in this picture what the calendar looks like.  A long press on any day will give you the option to add in the information.  The dark red at the beginning of the month is when you start your period.  This application will predict when your period will end based on past periods, too.  The faint yellow squares are when you are most fertile and the darker yellow square is when you ovulate.  These are populated based on when you start your period.  The hearts are when you have sex and finally the baby shows when your pregnancy started.

This screen helped me out when I went to my first prenatal appointment.  These are all time periods that you will need to answer on your first questionnaire.  I was simply able to pull this up and have the information for over a year at my fingertips.

Now that you know how to use an application to help you get pregnant, the following applications are ones that I use now that I am pregnant.

I will start with my least favorite of them all.  Pregnancy Buzz is The Bump's smart phone application.  This is not linked to The Bump which I think it the worse part of the app.  Since it is not linked, you will not be able to see any tickers, which makes it hard to follow.   I usually use this if I am really bored and have nothing else to look at. 

There is a 411 section to this app that is similar to the community tab on the actual Bump.  The downfall here is that there are no categories.  You will have people TTC mixed in with people in their 3rd trimester who have had enough of reading about "My boobs hurt, do you think I am pregnant?".  Seems pretty minor to most, but when you follow these boards, the same questions come through time and time again.

The next two are my favorite.  They are used for actual tracking of your pregnancy.  I have two for no specific reason, but I like the second one better than the first.

Everyone who is alive has heard of What to Expect When You're Expecting.  Well they took that big encyclopedia of a book and turned it into a pretty good phone application.  When you download this, you enter your estimated due date and you are good to go.

This will keep track of how far along you are, what trimester you are in and how big the baby is.  I get particularly excited to see the next week's fruit/veggie  You can also see, at the bottom of this screen shot, that you have a button for the week, the day, photos and forums.  I will show you a couple of these buttons.

Everyday you will learn a new tidbit about your baby and body.  They have daddy tips as well.  These can be anything from what you should be eating, to the day baby first formed fingerprints to where to find the best maternity bathing suit.  There are some repeats but for the most part it is good information.

Each week you will get an in depth look at the current milestones and what to expect in the coming weeks.  There is a body and baby section that are both very informative.

This next application is my favorite.  I did pay for the upgraded version so all features may not be available if you get the free version.

This is the Baby Bump application.  It is very similar to the previous one, but has a nicer interface and couple more features.  The home screen will give you an overview of your pregnancy and contains the menu.

It has the same system for giving you information as What to Expect, but the information is usually different, that is why I have both.  As with the other, there is a day and week info button.  This application shows you what the baby looks like as well as it's most likely placement in your tummy.

This screen shot is for adding notes about the day, that will in turn create a journal for you.  You also have a kick counter, contraction counter, baby names dictionary, and birth button.  I have used the baby names the most so far.  Their lists are separated by different origins, sex and whatever other filter you would like to add.

Hope you enjoyed the breakdowns of the apps that I am using.  I really think they make pregnancy fun for you and your partner.  I always snap screen shots of the info I want Dufda to read and send it over.  I tried to get him Baby Bump for his phone but he said he was embarrassed to have such a girly app on his home screen, Really?! who would even see that!

What TTC/pregnancy apps are your favorite?