HEE HEE HO.

Prepping for labor is such a FUN THING. It’s one of those things that you really think you know when it will happen, but unless you induce or are a c-sectioner – it’s all up to the MAN UPSTAIRS.

Seeing that the last kid I had (who in his defense WAS A WEEK LATE) – only had a 3 hour labor (yes, hate me – but I LOVE that kid) – watching my contractions and any sign of labor has become a new hobby. As soon as I started having braxton hicks on a "more than I feel comfortable with basis", I turned to my handy dandy app store to see what was on the market for paranoid pregnant women like myself.

I ended up downloading Labor Mate. For 99 cents I have this nifty app that times and logs my contractions, gives me a countdown until my due date, displays the average duration and frequency of my contractions and gives me the piece of mind that I need to know that I’m a worry wart and that these are just evil Braxton Hicks.

If you’re in your 3rd trimester and share the same fear of delivering your baby in a car like myself – I highly recommend the Labor Mate app.

From the Labor Mate web site:

Timing labor contractions has never been so easy. With Labor Mate, timing each contraction is as simple as touching a button. Tap the stopwatch button once to start the contraction timer and tab it again to stop the timer. As the contractions become longer and more frequent Labor Mate records the information for you and reports it back in an easy-to-read format so you can decide when it is time to call the doctor or head off to the hospital for delivery. Labor Mate provides two screens for monitoring the contractions, a detail screen and an summary screen. The detail screen shows the duration of each contraction and the time between contractions. The summary screen shows the average duration of the contractions based on the last 3 contractions and the average time between contractions based on the last 6 contractions. This information helps you decide when it is time to call the doctor or head off to the hospital for delivery. So what fun is buying an application when you can’t take advantage of it right away? After all you are not going to buy Labor Mate the moment the contractions start. This is why Labor Mate includes a Due Date Countdown screen. Enter the expected due date and Labor Mate will show you how many weeks and days have passed as well as how much time remains.

Here’s a run down of this apps features:

• Tap the timer anywhere to start and stop the contraction timer.
• Contraction timer continues to run even if you switch applications or make/receive a phone call.
• Track the duration of each contraction.
• Track the time between contractions.
• Displays date and time of the contraction.
• Add notes to individually recorded contractions.
• Delete unwanted recorded contractions without needing to start over.
• Email the contraction log to family, friends, and healthcare providers.
• Displays the average duration and frequency.
• Shows how much time remains until the big day.