I’ve journaled almost my entire life, so documenting my pregnancy was no exception. I’d started a private blog when we started our TTC journey, so I continued to make weekly updates about my pregnancy. I recorded things like how I was feeling, how much weight I’d gained, what my cravings were and how big the baby was. It was frustrating for me, though, because I felt like I wasn’t really documenting what I wanted to document throughout my pregnancy. At the same time, I wasn’t exactly sure what I’d want to remember about the pregnancy, and I was worried that I wouldn’t think to record key milestones, like feeling the first kick or hiccup. I also had a stack of ultrasound videos and images that I didn’t know what to do with, so I started keeping everything in a box.

Around my tenth week of pregnancy, I ordered a book on Amazon called The Belly Book.


ADVERTISEMENT

I honestly don’t even remember how I stumbled across this book, but I’m so glad I did.  It’s a sort of baby book to be:  part journal, part photo album, part keepsake.  There are places to document your cravings, gut feelings and instincts, and milestones like the baby’s first kick!  There are tons of pages for preserving ultrasound photos, and journal about your pre-natal visits.  I didn’t take weekly pictures of myself, but there’s even 40 weeks’ worth of weekly updates, complete with space for bump pictures!

The Belly Book is divided into four sections:  The first trimester, the second trimester, the third trimester and the birth.  Each section has space for weekly bump-dates, cravings, feelings, thoughts and prompts like feeling the first movement, first hiccup, ultrasound updates and thoughts on that trimester.  The Birth section is much smaller compared to the trimester sections, but there is plenty of space to write your birth experience and jot down who your doctor was, who came to visit you in the hospital, and of course plenty of space for photos and attaching keepsakes like hospital bracelets.

Here are a few more excerpts from my book:



Did you journal or blog about your pregnancy?  Did you have a Belly Book?