More apps and products we like!

A fortunate side effect of moving internationally is starting over with a fresh new cell phone. I somehow justified to myself that after using free flip phones and candy bar phones for the last 10 years, and Kevin’s reluctance to use his work phone for anything other than work (meaning no quick internet searches for Keri!), that I was finally worthy of an iPhone.

Baby Connect was nice enough to let me test out their iPhone app ($4.99). I’ve been using the iPad version since November 2012 (review here), but dragging the iPad around town to track sleep, or attempting to remember sleep timings while away from the iPad was incredibly cumbersome. The Baby Connect iPhone app has been extraordinarily useful in this regard. Just like the iPad app, I can track anything I choose, like nursing, diapers, etc. As Adam is a bit older and now sleep trained, we are primarily using the app to watch sleep habits and record milestones. The graphs and charts are identical from iPhone to iPad, but the iPad’s size allows you to see more of the graph at once. Kevin and I also use the sync feature quite a bit. He’ll start Adam’s sleep timer on the iPad and I can move to a different room or leave the house and watch the timer on my iPhone.

 

 

The only hiccup I’ve really found is when using the Pause feature on the sleep timer. If Adam wakes up 30 min. into a 1 hr. nap, I’ll hit Pause in hopes that he goes back to sleep, but this only takes effect on the device that I’ve paused the timer on. If I’ve paused at 30 min. and let Adam stay in his crib another 12 min. a secondary timer lets me know how long the sleep has been paused for (helpful when going back to do “checks”). If I had paused on the iPhone the sleep timer would indicate 30 min. of sleep and 12 min. of pause whereas the iPad would indicate 42 min. of sleep. Hopefully this is just a glitch they can work out. I’ve also found the milestones feature helpful to have, such as when Adam rolled over for the first time. My iPhone is always closer to me than the iPad and I was quickly able to note when this big occasion occurred! I also find the Summary extremely helpful. I can see what Adam’s total sleep for the day thus far is, how it compares to yesterday and what his seven day average. This feature is easy to find on iPhone but I didn’t realize it existed in the iPad version (it does!).

Another thing to buy when you move from one country to another… a new baby monitor. We purchased the Infant Optics DXR-5 2.4 GHz Digital Video Baby Monitor with Night Vision and so far have been pretty pleased! Sure, we can’t pan or zoom, but we can easily see if kiddo is asleep or awake, or just confirm how extra adorable his is while sleeping or stirring. There is a muting feature under a certain decibel level and you can also set it to power off when there has been no sound for 3 min. Due to the darkness of the room we mainly use the monitor in night vision, but occasionally we’ll see the screen in color (the monitor regulates this). Doesn’t really affect how easy or clear it is to see the baby. It also has pretty good reach into our backyard. My only complaint is that I will generally power it off when I am in the room so that the monitor doesn’t stay on, but then powering it back on I usually have to reset the VOX feature (the power off without sound feature). Volume setting 1 (the lowest) is also a bit louder than what I’d prefer as the softest volume, but I can live with it! At $100, it’s a great buy.