A pregnancy journal is a unique way to chronicle your baby's development and your own growth as you await their arrival. Why not use that story to kick off your baby book? Baby Notebook's Baby Book includes a 12-page pregnancy chapter. Your baby's story begins with you, after all. The pregnancy chapter includes milestones you'd find in most pregnancy journals, such as the first heartbeat, flutter, hiccups, and kick felt by your partner. The capability to upload photos makes it even more dynamic than a traditional journal. Here are some tips for using the Baby Notebook app to preserve highlights from your pregnancy as the opening chapter of your baby book.
Photos to Include
When you use Baby Notebook as your pregnancy journal, the app acts as a virtual assistant. You can set up custom notifications to remind you when to add photos and text to your book. Baby Notebook co-founder Davia based this idea on her first pregnancy (pre-Baby Notebook). She set a reminder on her phone to take a bump pic every week. She'd stand in the same spot and had her husband take a photo. Now Baby Notebook has that capability built in. It will remind you to snap that bump pic and upload it to the pregnancy timeline.
The pregnancy notifications work brilliantly if you start from the beginning. But we know some people download the app after the birth of their little ones, and they didn't have the Baby Notebook app notifications to remind them to take that bump photo. If that's the case for you, just edit the timeline titles.
Here are a few other ideas for photos for your pregnancy journal. Baby Notebook subscribers can easily edit sections of the Pregnancy chapter to substitute these for others.
- Include a “before there was you” section. Add photos that create a timeline for you and your partner ending with pregnancy.
- Snap photos of your ultrasounds to upload to each spot on the timeline. Watch this reel for some tips on taking good photos of your ultrasounds.
Want some tips on taking photos for your pregnancy journal? Check out this blog post for 6 tips to DIY your pregnancy photos!
Fun and Meaningful Writing Prompts
Just like a conventional pregnancy journal, Baby Notebook includes writing prompts. They include:
- The Day We Found Out
- How We Felt
- Sharing the News
- Pregnancy Cravings
- Pregnancy Announcement
- Gender Reveal
- Baby Shower
- A Letter to You
The letter to your child is especially poignant. Imagine if your parent had written a letter to you while pregnant with you. Wouldn't that be so special to read now?
Looking at a blank page can be a little intimidating, though. You might find yourself staring at a screen, unsure of what to write. Here are some prompts to inspire that letter to your little one:
- How are you preparing for your little one's arrival? Ex: nursery decor, birth class, books
- How has pregnancy changed you? Ex: Everything became centered around you. When my birthday came around, I didn't want anything for myself. I wanted everything for you.
- What are you looking forward to once baby arrives? Ex: Seeing who you look like and your little personality develop.
- Are you nervous about anything? Ex: Changing diapers
Any or all of these details will bring your child so much joy to read someday. You might be surprised just how young they are when they start to soak up every detail of the pregnancy chapter. It shows them they were loved from the very beginning. In fact, our co-founder, Davia, read her 4-year-old the letter she wrote her daughter during pregnancy, and her daughter's response was, “Thank you, Mom!”
Customization for Your Pregnancy Journal
A pregnancy journal can be such a valuable tool for preserving a fleeting time. (Yes, fleeting. Even if it feels like you've been pregnant forever, one day you'll look back and wonder where the time went.) Every journey is different, though. That's why we designed Baby Notebook to be so customizable. If a prompt or heading doesn't fit, you can change it. Subscribers can even swap layouts and add pages.
This level of flexibility makes your Baby Notebook baby book something your family will treasure. It's truly an heirloom that's worth a few minutes a week to create. Just wait until you see your child's little hands turning the pages in wonder. You'll be grateful you completed your pregnancy journal in our baby book.
You get full access to the pregnancy chapter in the free version of the app. So be sure to download the Baby Notebook app today and check it out!
*Thank you Sara Welch Photography for these beautiful photos.