Parenthood … aided constantly by smartphone
ZZZZZZ … that’s how I’m feeling two weeks into being a dad … cue knowing smiles from thousands of readers.
Happily, my little boy arrived safely, but several days overdue and after what can only be described as a marathon effort on the part of my fantastic wife. We’ve recovered enough that I can start leaving the house on little errands, and we’re finally getting our three meals a day… while the little guy demands eight.
With just two weeks of paternity leave, I’ve had to get a few things in order before heading back to the office. Babies generate a huge amount of paperwork and lots of important appointments. From birth certificates to midwife visits, I’m finding out first-hand that parenting is a full-time job, with little tolerance for mistakes or forgetfulness, no matter how many night feeds I’ve had to sit through.
Thankfully, my smartphone is my constant companion: at my bedside to wake me up before the little guy screams down the house for dinner number three, and in my pocket all day beeping, buzzing and vibrating to ensure that as a family we’re getting where we need to be on time, feeding the little one on time, and finally – this one is absolutely vital – not running out of nappies. Here are two clever apps that have made my first days of being a dad just that little bit easier.
Connect
From feeding intervals to nappy changes (not to mention keeping a record of what’s in them), there’s one app that does it all. Baby Connect from www.baby-connect.com is a one-stop-shop to record and monitor your little bundle’s every move (and its every “movement”). When you’re away, securely add access for your trusted carers and sitters, with whom you can exchange messages and notes as you follow the little one’s progress.
Any parent knows that keeping a record of every feed time is important, as is recording the quantity of milk or formula consumed and the time taken.
Baby Connect makes this sort of logging relatively painless, which it needs to be in the middle of the night. You can also keep track of all your baby’s vitals over time including its height, weight, head size, temperature and any vaccinations or medicines it might need. All of this data can be presented in simple charts and graphs.
The Baby Connect apps are available for Apple iPhone and iPad as well as Android and Windows Phone devices, so most current smartphones should work fine. Start at the website to view a demo or find links to the various apps from your device’s app store.
Baby Connect has several commercial versions, and some specialist features require a monthly subscription, such as features best suited to day-care facilities, etc but the features I’ve described are available with the standard version which costs £2.99 (around R62) for the app, with no ongoing subscription costs.
Sleep sounds
Once we had our little boy home, having tried every trick and tip we’ve been told from hundreds of well-wishers, and read just as many Google searches for better ways to swaddle or how to extract that evasive burp within an hour, we still occasionally found ourselves with an inconsolable baby.
And then the penny dropped: he’s happier when there’s noise about. Which there isn’t much of at three in the morning. And the solution? White noise.
You can Google the precise definition of white noise, but suffice to say it’s a constant background hum, similar to what you hear when your TV’s not tuned properly.
White noise supposedly works well on infants because it mimics the sound of being in the womb, while also masking the frequencies of any other surrounding noises.
In addition to “real” white noise, the free White Noise Free Sleep Sounds app (available for Apple and Android devices) offers lots of different looped sounds that range from tumble driers to grandfather clocks. I choose from any of the repetitive rhythms and leave it on to gently lull my little one off to sleep – the “Train Ride” is a wonder.
For more information on this app, see the maker’s website at www.tmsoft.com/white-noise.
See you next week for more.