Must have apps for Mums

Organisation is key when you’re a Mum. Looking after young children while also trying to deal with everything else that life throws at you can become a bit of a balancing act and leave you feeling just a little bit overwhelmed. You need to able to juggle housework, cooking, appointments, and tantrums, while at the same time trying to maintain an air of ‘I know what I’m doing‘. If you step off the merry-go-round of parenting for even a second you can find yourself curled up in the corner wondering how on earth you’re going to get through the day.

Luckily, there are a mountain of smartphone apps that can help you out and put some organisation back into your life. I rely on apps a lot to help me out during the day and I honestly don’t know how Mums in the pre smartphone world coped without them!! With so many apps to choose from, and the internet to alleviate our worries we really are spoilt for choice. When I was pregnant, I filled my phone up with apps to help me, and I’ve since settled on a few that have been invaluable to me.

Baby

In the early days with a newborn, I discovered that it was really helpful to track things like sleep, feeding and nappy changes. A tracker app is great for seeing patterns emerging, especially with sleep and nap times. The two I used the most often are:

Baby tracker by Amila – With this app, you can track things like sleep, nappy changes, feeding, and bathtime. Simple and easy to use, and even shows you everything in a graph format.

Huckleberry by Huckleberry labs – An easy to use app that is primarily for tracking sleep. It has a great feature that predicts the best time to put your baby down for a nap based on sleep patterns.

Development

Developmental apps can be really helpful for reading about baby development, and seeing what to expect as your baby gets older. A couple of good ones that I use myself are:

Bounty by Bounty – Lots of articles, coupons and free stuff available. It also has a sleep tracker built in. This app is also a good one to use during pregnancy. I used it throughout mine and it showed me what was happening at every stage.

Playfully by Playfully – Lots of age appropriate activities, developmental information, and a diary to record milestones. Please note you have to pay to access the activities (7 day free trial and then £4.89 a month after that)

Games

Baby games are something that I have a lot of on my phone. They can be a lot of fun to play together, and they’re also good for a quick distraction during a nappy change or in the car! We love:

My Very Hungry Caterpillar by StoryToys – Beautiful game that you can play alongside the book. You can open up more of the app by paying £3.99, which is well worth it.

Babygames by RV AppStudios – This is a fun little app that has six built in games. They include a music room, balloon popping, and a baby phone

Kids Balloon Pop by App Family Kids – This is one of Cupar’s favourite games. You pop the balloons to learn about colours, numbers and letters. Simple but fun.

Productivity

Apps that help to organise your life are essential when you’re a busy Mum. Im always setting reminders and making notes on my phone during the day so that I don’t end up forgetting anything important.

Here are some of my favourite productivity and organisation apps:

Reminder by App Driver – There are a whole host of reminder apps to choose from, but this is the one that I settled on. It’s so easy to use and does everything I need it to.

Evernote by Evernote – This is a really great notebook style app that you can use for writing things down when you need to remember something. I use it to draft my blog posts when I’m out and about and I don’t have a chance to get to the laptop.

Our Groceries Shopping List by HeadCode – A lovely app that lets you write a shopping list, add recipes and even share your list with other family members.

Libby by OverDrive – A library app that lets you add your local library, add library cards, see what you have on loan, and even borrow and listen to audiobooks.

Everything else

Mush by Mush – This is a social app that lets you find and message other Mums in your area. I used this a lot when Cupar was little, and it was nice to be able to talk to other people with children the same age as me. The home page is laid out in a message board type format, so you can join in conversations or start your own with other Mums all over the country.

Glow by Glow Inc – I’ve been using Glow for years. It’s primarily a period tracking app, but it also tracks ovulation, different symptoms during the month and lets you know the optimal times to try for a baby! There is also a message board if you want to get social with other Mums/Mums to be.

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