As the baby of my family my mother never put any effort into making a baby book for me. I’m the youngest of three, born to a then career oriented woman when she was nearly 40 years old. As you can imagine, I was a big surprise. So, unlike my brother and sister I had no cute little scrapbook to commemorate my first step, first word, first hair cut or anything else one might see fit to add to a book of baby memories.
During my pregnancy with my daughter I realized that I wasn’t the type to keep up with a baby book either. I love being a mother, but I’m just a bit too disheveled most of the time to create a lovely scrapbook for my girl. Those ready made baby books, where you fill in dates, times, weights and whatever else just weren’t for me.
I decided to keep a pregnancy and baby journal instead. I love to write and I thought a diary of my thoughts would be more meaningful to her later in life rather than a cut and copy bound scrapbook with a picture of pink booties on the cover. I want my daughter to get a glimpse into the person that I was when I had her. I’ll of changed a lot by the time she’s grown up.
She’ll be able to read about how happy I was to see her kick in my belly for the first time. What it was like when I went into labor. The things she did when she was first born, like her “Miss Magoo” face. When my girl was about 2 months old she used to yawn so big, she looked just like Mr. Magoo, it was the cutest thing.
When she was still sleeping in the room with us, her father and I; I would sometimes start an entry by telling her what was going on. I’d say, “it’s 10 pm and I finally got you to go to sleep, your father is snoring next to me, I’m shocked you’re able to sleep through it!” I think; when she’s older and reads those paragraphs it will make her feel special. She’ll know how much I loved her.
Today many mothers are not just mothers. It often takes two incomes just to get by in the world, especially when you have children. We don’t all have the time, patience or ability to fill out baby books or cut and paste pictures. I think every mother can give her child something special and it doesn’t have to be filling in the blanks of weight:, length:, ect. That’s almost like filling out a survey! I kept a baby journal, because that was right for me, but you could start a video log, picture collage, even audio recordings of the time when your baby was still a baby. I’ll only leave you with one warning, don’t rely on your memory to hold on the everything for your little one, the mind really is the first thing to go.
