“Enjoy the moment while waiting.”
― Lailah Gifty Akita
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If you’re new to my blog, welcome. And if not, then welcome back!
How are you? How’s life treating you?
Me, I’m doing good. I’ve been spending the last few weeks planning out my blog posts and so far so good. Hopefully this will mean I’ll be able to stick to my new posting schedule of 2 post per week. Wish me luck!
Okay, on to today’s post! It’s another pregnancy post but hopefully one that will make your life easier like it did mine.
Finding out I was pregnant was a very nerve racking experience which I rambled about here. It wasn’t planned and I certainly never imagined it happening the way that it did. But it did and after the initial shock of it all I was ready to continue on the journey into motherhood. However, as a first-time mum I knew I would need a little lot of help. Lucky for me I had an amazing support system around me but the App store played a significant role too.
Being a new mum means exactly that, new. Everything is new. You have no idea what to expect and the amount of information you receive during your antenatal appointments, plus the floods of advice you get from everyone and their auntie can be overwhelming. However when the information is presented in chunks that you can refer to at any time, things don’t seem so scary. Plus your pregnancy brain can process them better. Don’t you think? At leats that’s how it was for me.
That’s why I’m so happy that there’s an app for everything these days and pregnancy is no exception. However, finding the right pregnancy app was trickier than I thought it would be. There are tones and tones of pregnancy related apps out there that do pretty much the same thing but in different ways. I spent the first 3 months of my pregnancy trying out different apps for different things until I found the apps that worked best for me and as usual here on lydiaonlife.com I wanted to share my findings in hopes of narrowing down your search when that time comes. I don’t make any promises though.
Without further ado, here are the 5 most useful apps to have during your pregnancy – in my opinion.
SPROUT
Sprout has got to be my most used app during my pregnancy. I heard about this app from Nikki Perkins on YouTube before I found out I was expecting so I knew I had to try it. What got me interested in Sprout was the 3D image of the fetus as it grew week by week. Once I downloaded and started playing around with it I fell in love. From the daily and weekly information about your pregnancy, to checklists, journal features and tracking tools that help you through your pregnancy and delivery. This app had everything I needed from a pregnancy tracking app and I used it all the way up until I brought my son Matthew home.
It did take a little while to get use to it and know where everything is but once I did, it became the first thing I’d look at in the morning. The only negative thing I found was that I had to upgrade after a while to keep using it which I wasn’t aware of when I initially downloaded it but I was so used to it, I was willing to pay for the upgrade.
BOUNTY
I’m not sure how I found out about the Bounty app. It was probably from downloading so many apps. Either way I’m glad I did because it was such great help to me. Bounty is an award-winning, pregnancy and parenting app that lets you find out what to expect as a new mum. From day-by-day baby development information direct from local hospitals and health providers to a baby foot size tracker and a handy sleep tracker to give you peace of mind once your baby arrives. As amazing as these features are, the main reason I kept using the Bounty app was to claim the FREE Bounty sample packs and discount vouchers that were available via the app. Every little helps when you’re expecting and boy did this app help!
Being a first-time mum and someone who has never looked after a baby for longer than 20 minutes, I had no idea where to start when it came to baby products and brands. Thank to this app I was able to stock up on Matthews nursery whilst providing me with the opportunity to test products out before I commit to buying the full sizes. I collected the gift packs from my local Tesco and Boots just by showing them the voucher on the app which was simple enough. I also received a pack at the hospital when I delivered Matthew and will be getting another pack when Matthew is 4 months old. Not sure what will be in it though.
EMMA’S DIARY
I found out about Emma’s Diary app from my midwife. During one of my antenatal appointments she handed me an Emma’s Diary magazine which had a form to register to become a member. As an Emma’s Diary member you are entitled to receive 3 free gift packs containing samples for you and your baby.
I got my first gift packs from Argos which contained baby fabric softener, washing powder and other baby products samples. I then found out they had an app so I downloaded it, logged on and saw that I could access the vouchers for the other packs via the app. The rest is history. I was able to redeem the other packs at my local Boots which was fantastic. I did however have to go there a few times as they seemed to be out of stock but it was definitely worth it.
MOTHERCARE
The Mothercare app was my go to for all the baby clothes, gadgets and essentials. I didn’t know where else to start. Mothercare has always been around when I was growing up so to find out the stores were closing down just when I needed it most was really sad. Only for a moment thought because the closing down of some of their stores meant there were sales going on left, right and centre so I downloaded the app and started making my wish list.
Most of the things I bought were online and the delivery was prompt so I had no complaints however, the quality of their clothes wasn’t always great. But this isn’t a review on baby clothes so we’ll leave that for another post. Aside from allowing you to stock up on mother and baby products, the Mothercare app also has other cool features like baby songs, baby names, essentials checklist and a bunch of other things to help you along your pregnancy and beyond.
KEGEL TRAINER
During my first antenatal appointment, my midwife told me about the importance of pelvic floor exercise and recommended the NHS app Squeezy to help remind me to do them. I personally wasn’t prepared to pay the £2.99 for it when I knew I could find a free one that did the same thing and so I did. I searched the app store and found Kegel Trainer PFM Exercise. This app has 10 different sessions to work through to help you strength your pelvic floor muscles.
The sessions last between 30 seconds to 3 minutes and has a handy reminder to ensure you never forget. The best part about this app is that there are visual, audio or vibration cues to make the exercise as discreet as possible. All for free! I’m sure there is a justified reason for the NHS app costing £2.99 but that price was not for me.
YOUTUBE
And last but certainly not least we have YouTube. Good old YouTube. Okay, this isn’t a pregnancy app per se but c’mon it’s YouTube. You can find videos on literally anything you want. I don’t have to tell you that unless you’ve been living under a rock (which I’m sure would have been shared on YouTube by someone). Next to the Sprout app, YouTube was probably the second most used app on my phone during my pregnancy. Whenever I needed to decide on what gadget to buy or how to decorate the nursing I turned to YouTube.
From tutorials and reviews to hauls and baby updates, a day never went buy that I wasn’t on YouTube. It helped me not only prepare physically for the baby i.e. what to buy and how to look after him, it also introduced me to other first-time mums and how they coped with it. Especially single mums. I knew my experience may not be the same but enabled me to connect with people I could related to and hear their stories.
Here are some of the channels I found helpful:
https://www.youtube.com/user/emilynorrisloves
https://www.youtube.com/user/MissCharlotteTaylor
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCxdOM3aOTvrY3BRmEMTTAdg
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCmkhKJThgvDeS3jKdiRkWww
And that’s it!
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In the age we live in, having these tools at your fingertips makes the task of preparing to be a parent that bit easier. Especially if you are doing it alone. God bless the creators and developers of these apps. Hopefully one day someone will be saying that about an app I’ve created. Until then I hope these apps will be as useful to you as they were to me. They may not all work for you but at least you have somewhere to start.
What apps did you find most useful during your pregnancy? Please share below and say why you liked them.
Till next time.
Love always,
Lydia x
LYDIA ON LIFE 