So much of our scrapbooking and memory keeping comes after the baby is born. But, have you ever given thought to keeping a journal while you’re pregnant? This can be especially helpful with your first pregnancy. I am pregnant with my third, and half way through my pregnancy. However, this time around I haven’t been the greatest at keeping a pregnancy journal. Part of that is due to being really sick in the beginning, and part of that is due to just wanting to survive each pregnant day with two kids to take care of!
Whatever your situation, a pregnancy journal can have some benefits. It can help to ease your worry and anxiety about impending motherhood and organize your thoughts a little better. A journal will help you remember what pregnancy is like for you when considering having more kids in the future. It is definitely a part of your family’s history. Keeping a journal will help you later when you scrapbook pictures of yourself pregnant. You can copy excerpts of your journal on to your scrapbook pages and give a more personal touch to what you were like as a pregnant Mom.
But, what should you write about in your journal? Well, just about anything! There is no right or wrong, but here are a few ideas to get your started.
Write down why you decided to have a child in the first place
Write down your feelings about becoming a mother
Write about your experience when you found out your were pregnant
Who did you tell first, how long did you wait to tell people?
Your desires for a girl or a boy
What your first ultrasound was like
Baby names that you love and hate
When did you first feel the baby move? When did your partner?
Write about your baby shower
Try letting your partner make a few entries about his feelings on fatherhood
Write down your birth story as soon as you can. You might even want to take your journal to the hospital with you! You will have more free time there than when you get home.
To make your pregnancy journal even more special, turn it into a scrapbook and write on every other page, so that you can use the opposite page for photographs of you as a pregnant mom, ultrasound photos, or for saving cards from people when they give you gifts.
Pregnancy is a precious time in any woman’s life. Take the time to enjoy it, and make sure you document it so that generations to come will enjoy it for a long time!
Meredith Ethington is the author of this blog. To learn more about Meredith, and her history with Scrapbooking and Genealogy, go here. < Return To Scrapbooking