I’ve been taking a break from sewing projects to begin Penny’s baby book. For each of my kids, I have used a scrapbook and made my own pages because I don’t care for the fill in the blank sort of baby books. I start with information about my pregnancy and a picture of me with a 40 week baby belly. Then I have the story of the labor and delivery as recalled by Daddy because I seem to blank on this! (I wonder why?) I have a page that I update with height and weight and head circumference from each doctor’s visit. There is another page with a drawing of all the teeth and I label each one as they come in. A picture of the first bath will have its own page, as will the first haircut, etc. I save a copy of the birth announcement and Baptismal invitation. I want to complete the book up to the Baptism page before the Baptism next weekend. Then I should be able to keep up more easily. From that point on, I make one page for each month until the baby is two. These pages have milestones like sitting up, sleeping through the night, crawling and first steps but also what size clothes they are wearing and what their personality is like.
Once the kids hit two, they get their “big kid books” that I update a lot less frequently. I still make birthday pages, include records from their physicals, toilet training success, etc.
I have been told numerous times through smirks and laughter that I would never continue this after the birth of my second child. That was all the incentive this crazy person needed to make sure that didn’t happen! Each kid will have a baby book…and big kid book. They love looking through them and so do I.