It’s one of the most exciting times of your life. A new baby has blessed your world. You set out to write down every memory, from prenatal medical appointments to baby’s very first words. You snap pictures for each of these milestones — hoping somehow, some way they’ll find their way into that adorable baby book you got at your shower.
And then life happens.
We all want to document and record our pregnancy, child’s life and other special family events, but while there never seems to be a shortage of pictures stored on your phone, getting them printed and placed in a baby book is one of the last things on a parent’s to-do list.
Never fear! There are countless apps here to help. (Are you surprised?) Each gives you an easy way to record all of your child’s too-cute-to-miss moments; we’ve hand-picked a few high-tech options. Read on for modern ways to count down to childbirth, create a baby e-book, and share the love with family and friends.
BabyBump
The BabyBump app is a pregnancy tracker and social health network designed for parents; it’s got a community of more than 15 million moms and moms-to-be. You can even ask questions of the editors and other moms. Parents can document their pregnancy experience with the weekly photo album, but one of the app’s more popular features is the Baby Kick counter, by which you track how often and for how long your baby kicks each day.
Free; available for iOS, Android and Google Play
Sprout Pregnancy
The ability to capture belly photos and pair them with your ultrasounds to create custom printable pictures should make any busy mom-to-be happy. The Sprout Pregnancy app is a must for busy moms who may be dealing with some serious pregnancy brain and need help staying organized. You can use Sprout Pregnancy to log appointment reminders, questions for your doctor and major pregnancy events.
Free; available for iOS, Android and Google Play
Moment Garden
Moment Garden is a simple-to-use baby journal that allows you to save and organize photos and videos right after you capture them (you know, instead of endlessly scrolling through your photo album). You can also privately share your photos, videos and captions with your family and friends.
One of the app’s more popular features is an online platform that puts all of your moments into a timeline, by which you can easily see how much your little one has grown. For those who want something more tangible, your Moment Garden can be easily transformed into a Moment Book — that baby book you’ll never have time to finish on your own.
Free; available for iOS, Androids, tablets or any computer
Tinybeans
It’s no secret that parents love to share photos of their kids doing cute and crazy things, but what about security? Tinybeans offers a “members only” social media site that allows parents to share pictures of their children with a group of people they select (and to which they grant specific levels of access). Members can send messages and leave comments much like on other social sites but with that additional layer of privacy.
Free; available for iOS, Android and Google Play
ArtKive
ArtKive lets you take pictures of your child’s artwork, then label it by the child’s name, grade and date before storing it digitally. Hello, more fridge space!
A bonus: You can take those digital versions of your child’s masterpieces and order a hardcover photo album or print the images on phone cases, blankets and the like.
There’s also ArtKive Concierge, by which, for a fee, you ship your artwork to ArtKive and its staff professionally photographs it, digitizes the pictures and creates a book just for you.
Basic version is available for iPhone/iPad, Google Play and some Android 4.0 (and later) devices
Family Photo Vault with Prime Photos
And then there’s Amazon Prime Photos, which is available at no additional charge for Amazon Prime members. It gives users unlimited photo storage and the ability to organize and search for specific photos by searching for objects, people or places in an image.
This program also allows users to keep the family’s photos together. Prime members can share their free photo storage with as many as five people, even if they’re not existing Prime members. View and collect everyone’s photos together in the Family Vault, and your photos stay private until you choose to share them.
The best part for those of us who are extremely forgetful and disorganized: You can order photos, personalized photo books, calendars and cards right from your Prime Photos account.
Users can upload photos either on the web, through Amazon’s Prime Photos page or via the Prime Photos app on iOS, Android or Google Play.
