Best Free Apps for Moms

I write a lot of lists on essentials for babies, but honestly there's only one item I can't go 20 minutes without and that's my phone. And it's not because I'm playing Candy Crush or posting pictures on Facebook. It's because of the collection of free apps I've gathered that tell me what to do, when to do it, and how to do it. Ones that calm my baby, put him to sleep, then calm me. And ones that tell me what's going on outside the world of baby. And for those moments when I do have time to post on Facebook, it makes the process possible (and fun).

This is my list of the best free apps out there for moms. Save yourself the time of research and just get downloading!

If you've got a young baby, then you need to download this app ASAP. If nothing else, start utilizing your phone's stopwatch. Writing down your baby's schedule on paper is all fine and good, but it starts to get unreliable and doesn't provide nearly the insight that an app will.

Eat Sleep will help you track your baby's sleep, feeding, and bathroom breaks throughout the entire day. It gives you the option of reviewing what's already happened and makes it much easier to track multiple things at once.

Ever found yourself visiting family and friends, out in public, or otherwise away from your baby's nursery trying your best to get them to sleep without the comfort of their beloved sleep machine? If you're like me, you have. And if you had the willpower not to fill your baby registry with all of the "must-have" gadgets of the year, you may not even have a sleep machine.

Either way, download Sleep Pillow and wait to be amazed as your baby falls asleep to sounds of nature. Unlike most sleep machines, your phone can get pretty loud and Sleep Pillow has some noises that are more intense than most machines...which it seems most babies love.

My baby liked me to turn up the storm noises so he could sleep in what sounded like a hurricane....but hey, it worked!

Everyone will tell you to try to find time for yourself. Your life doesn't need to only be about your kids. What a joke! Sure, every now and then you can sneak away for a pedicure or maybe if you're lucky go to the bathroom alone, but the reality is that your life does become your kids.

If you are like me, every night when you plug in your phone, it will say something along the lines of "can not save. out of space"....i.e. you have too many pictures on your phone. And rightfully so - it takes 100 snaps to catch the right moment. And even then, I am not done...I need Whitagram.

Whitagram is (in my opinion) the best free photo editing tool you can get for your phone. And when you're snapping shots of your kids, this can really come in handy. It can brighten the perfect shot that you missed because the sun was behind them, it can cover the scratch across the face that they have because you forgot to clip their nails, and most importantly, it can help hide the mess behind them because you didn't know they'd wait to sit in front of the laundry before showing you their first baby teeth. In reality, it's got all of the editing tools you'd expect and then a few extra fun ones.

Now that you're a pro at editing photos, you're going to be left with far too many than are socially acceptable to post on Facebook. Don't fear - there's an app for that. Pic Stitch.

Pic Stitch will let you create collages out of all of your photos. It is super easy to use and best of all, free.

My favorite part of Pic Stitch is that it gives you a ton of options depending on how many pictures you want to fit into your collage.

Many your baby screams in the car like mine. Maybe yours hates grocery shopping. Maybe you're just too tired to get up in the morning and need 5 more minutes. Or maybe you're somewhere out in public and just need to stop the screams.

PBS KIDS is awesome. It plays short segments of all of their classic shows like Arthur, Curious George, and Dinosaur Train right there on your phone. It has saved me so many times when I couldn't get my baby to stop fussing at the most inconvenient time. The added bonus is that they get to use your phone, which somehow is a novelty on it's own.

There's also a Kindle version which is a great option for long car rides or vacations without TV.

I love, love, love Songza. I need to recharge my phone at least twice a day because I am constantly playing music from this app.

Similar to Pandora, Songza plays music for you according to your specific tastes. What is especially nice is that it gives you options of playlists according to your mood or what you're doing (be sure to try out the playlist Classic Rock Songs for Moms).

As a mom, Songza is also great because it offers a few playlists for kids and babies. The lullaby one is really nice and gives you a break from cartoon songs.

Odds are that you already have a Pinterest account and the app. But just in case you don't, I'm including it in my list because it is truly essential. And you don't have to be actively involved to take advantage of what it has to offer.

Anytime you need to figure out what to make for dinner, just search on Pinterest. Find something you like? Pin it. Need to figure out what to do to entertain your 3 year old? Quick search...and you can pin it for later. The things you find on Pinterest are light years better than what Google will give you. Ideas for cooking, cleaning, entertaining, working out, and traveling.

There's plenty more, so give it a try. If you're down and out, give the humor section a go.