除了幫你生孩子 懷孕應用什麼都能幹
Three months ago, my wife, Chrysta, and I were driving along Melrose Avenue in Los Angeles when she let out a harrowing cry.
三個月前，我和妻子克里斯塔(Chrysta)開車在洛杉磯梅爾羅斯大道(Melrose Avenue)上行駛時，她突然開始痛苦地哭叫。
I knew exactly what to do: I reached for my iPhone and pressed the bright green “Start” button on the screen and continued to drive as I waited for her to stop wailing.
我清楚地知道自己該怎麼做：拿起iPhone，按下屏幕上鮮綠色的“開始”鍵，繼續開車，直到在她停止哭號時按下“結束”鍵。
The app I was using is called Full Term, which kept track of the length and intervals of her contractions. The app was, as my wife and I learned while rushing to the hospital for the birth of our first child, more useful than we could have ever imagined.
當時我用的應用程序是Full Term，用來記錄宮縮的持續時間和間隔時間。它比我們想像的有用得多。我們是在趕去醫院生第一個孩子時得知這個應用程序的。
I should preface this by saying that before we downloaded the app (a last-minute recommendation from a friend when I texted: “OMG! We’re in labor!”), I had scoffed at all these baby and pregnancy tools. After all, people have been having babies without apps since the dawn of humanity. Why do we need them now?
我必須先說明一下，在下載這個應用程序（在我給一位朋友發短信說：“天哪！孩子快要生了！”之後，這位朋友在最後關頭給我們推薦了這個應用程序）之前，我經常嘲笑這些嬰兒和懷孕工具。畢竟，從人類出現起，沒有應用程序人們不照樣一直在生孩子嗎？爲什麼現在就需要了呢？
Turns out, I was wrong.
結果證明，我之前的想法是錯的。
When my wife went into labor, for example, we could have tracked it the old-fashioned way: get a stopwatch, a pen and piece of paper, then jot down the duration of each contraction, and the time in between, and then somehow convey that information to our doctor while my wife endures the most intense pain of her life.
比如，妻子快要分娩時，我們本可以用傳統方式進行記錄：拿一個秒錶、一支筆和一張紙，記下每次宮縮的持續時間和間隔時間，然後在我妻子忍受着生命中最劇烈的疼痛之時，把這些信息以某種方式發給醫生。
Or, we could open Full Term (a free app, though $1 donations are welcome) and press a green button to start, and a red one to stop. It gives you a detailed graph of the overall length and how far apart the labor pains are, which I could then text to our doctor. (We later discovered that we showed up at the hospital a tad early, by about 10 hours.)
或者，我們可以打開Full Term（免費的，不過歡迎你捐贈一美元），按綠色按鈕開始，按紅色按鈕停止。它能生成一個詳細的圖表，展示總時長和產前陣痛的間隔，我可以用短信把它發給醫生（後來我們發現自己稍微提前一點到了醫院，提前了大約十個小時）。
In addition to the “go bag” that you pack for the hospital, you need a “go folder” of smartphone apps.
除了準備帶去醫院的“待產包”，你還需要爲智能手機上的應用程序建一個“待產文件夾”。
Pregnancy-related apps are not a niche category. According to a 2013 report by Citrix, a software company that tracks app usage, pregnancy-related apps were more popular than fitness apps. And at the Apple iTunes store, four of the top 10 paid medical apps are currently baby-related, including My Baby’s Beat, Baby Connect and Baby Heartbeats.
與懷孕相關的應用程序不再是一個小門類。Citrix是一個追蹤應用程序使用情況的軟件公司。根據它2013年的一份報告，與懷孕相關的應用比健身應用更受歡迎。在蘋果的iTunes商店裏，目前排名前十的付費醫療應用程序中有四個與嬰兒相關，包括My Baby’s Beat、Baby Connect和Baby Heartbeats。
What do all these apps do? There are apps to help you get pregnant such as My Days and Glow, which help women track their ovulation and fertility. Others track the baby during pregnancy, including BabyBump and Baby Tracker. Still others track the birthing process, including My Birth Plan and Birthing Method. (There’s one for dads called the Guys Guide to the Delivery Room.)
這些應用程序是做什麼用的？有幫助你懷孕的，比如My Days和Glow，它們幫助女性記錄排卵和受孕。還有記錄懷孕期間嬰兒狀況的，包括BabyBump和Baby Tracker。還有記錄分娩過程的，包括My Birth Plan和Birthing Method（還有一款給準爸爸的，叫Guys Guide to the Delivery Room）。
And there are hundreds to help parents after the baby is born.
還有幾百個應用程序是幫助父母照顧孩子的。
Before I discovered Full Term, Chrysta downloaded My Pregnancy Today, which shows expectant mothers what’s happening in the womb week by week. (At 12 weeks, the app said, our baby was the size of a lime.)
在我發現Full Term之前，克里斯塔下載了My Pregnancy Today，它能告訴充滿期待的準媽媽子宮裏每週發生的情況（12周的時候，那個應用程序說，我們孩子的大小跟一顆酸橙差不多）。
During labor, I found that the most useful app was WhatsApp, the messaging platform owned by Facebook. I added friends and family to a group thread, where I shared real-time updates, including audio of the baby’s heartbeat and photos of my wife looking as if she wanted to punch me in the face.
分娩期間，我發現最有用的應用程序是WhatsApp，它是Facebook的一個消息平臺。我把朋友和家人加到一個羣裏，我在那裏實時分享最新情況，包括胎兒的心跳音頻和妻子的照片——她看起來像是想朝我臉上打一拳。
When our son was finally born, weighing a whopping 8 pounds 5 ounces, we quickly realized we had no idea what we were doing. This is where the app Baby Tracker, $5, came in. You can use it to track how often your baby poops, how much the baby sleeps and, if you’re breast-feeding, how long you feed for. It can also keep track of which breast the baby last fed on, though my wife found it easier to put a rubber band on her wrist.
孩子總算出生了，是個8磅5盎司（約合7.5斤）的大胖兒子。不過，我們很快發現，自己完全不知所措。這時五美元的付費應用程序Baby Tracker登場了。你可以用它來記錄你的寶寶多久大便一次，睡了多長時間，如果是母乳餵養的話，餵了多長時間。它還能記錄上次吃的是哪一邊的乳房，雖然我妻子覺得往餵過奶的那側手腕上套個橡皮筋更方便。
While your baby’s bowel movements may not seem fascinating at first, you will have riveting conversations about it with your pediatrician. And when you consider that diapers are changed 10 to 12 times a day, that’s the contents of more than 80 diapers a week to keep track of — and to discuss.
雖然剛開始寶寶的排便情況似乎沒什麼意思，但是你將與兒科醫生對它進行多次饒有興趣的談話。還有，你想想，紙尿褲一天要換10至12次，那一週就要記80多次，那也是需要討論的內容。
Now that our son is 3 months old, the app we rely on most is Sound Sleeper, $4 (with a limited free version), which emulates a variety of white noises. Our baby likes to fall asleep to ocean waves, but when he has a meltdown, the only thing that seems to soothe him is the sound of a vacuum cleaner.
現在，兒子三個月大了，我們最依賴的應用程序是四美元（有一個功能有限的免費版）的Sound Sleeper，它能模仿各種白噪音。我們的寶寶喜歡聽着大海的波浪聲入睡，但是當他情緒失控時，唯一能撫慰他的似乎是吸塵器的聲音。
Last week, we discovered a new app called the Wonder Weeks, based on the best-selling book by Frans X. Plooij and Hetty van de Rijt, that details the rapid changes taking place these first weeks of life, and why babies go through “fussy phases.”
上週，我們發現一個新應用，名叫the Wonder Weeks，它以弗蘭斯·X·普魯吉(Frans X. Plooij)和赫蒂·範·德·裏特(Hetty van de Rijt)寫的暢銷書爲基礎，詳細介紹生命前幾周裏嬰兒的快速變化，以及爲什麼嬰兒會經歷“煩躁的階段”。
But there’s one thing I want to make clear. By no means am I suggesting that we give babies iPhones. Many pediatricians, including mine, strongly advise against exposing newborns to the glowing screens of smartphones and tablets. I could not agree more.
但是有一點我得說清楚。我絕不是建議讓嬰兒看手機。很多兒科醫生，包括我的兒科醫生，強烈建議不要讓新生兒看刺眼的手機和平板電腦屏幕。這一點我非常贊同。
Babies are soaking up the world around them, and their little neurons and synapses are being formed each day. Simple shadows and colors can be overwhelming for some babies. The last thing we want to expose them to are super-bright screens with fast-moving graphics, Additionally, doctors warn that the blue light from screens can reduce melatonin levels, which affects sleep.
嬰兒在感受周圍的世界，他們小小的神經細胞和突觸每天都在形成。簡單的陰影和色彩都可能讓有些嬰兒難以承受。我們最不想讓嬰兒看到的就是有快速移動圖像的超亮屏幕。另外，醫生警告說，屏幕的藍光會降低褪黑素水平，影響睡眠。
Speaking of sleep, I haven’t been able to find an app that helps with sleep deprivation. I’m pretty sure there’s a market for that app, especially among new parents.
提到睡眠，我沒找到一款幫助解決父母睡眠不足問題的應用。我確信，那種應用肯定有市場，尤其在新生兒父母中。
