baby journal

By Contributor Jen Shragge

I am a second child. My brother and I are a mere 16 months apart and I still don’t know how my mom did it. I remember as a child looking through my brother’s baby book that was filled with photos and information on his first words, steps and smiles. My baby book however was empty. It has just my name in it. Seriously. Now that I am a mom, I can totally understand why my poor mother simply didn’t have the time to fill in my book since her days were filled with two babies in diapers and then making sure my brother didn’t kill me.

When my own son was born I bought him lovely baby book that chronicles birth to school age. I try to update it a few times a year and I am happy to say I have done a decent job over the past five years doing so. I swore up and down that if I ever had another child I would do the exact same for them so that they didn’t feel like I did as a child, wondering why my book wasn’t as important as my brother’s.

bump to birthday

The Bump to Birthday, Pregnancy and First Year Journal is a newer type of book that allows mum (or dad) to detail each week of pregnancy up to the end of baby’s first year. The book won the Loved by Parents Gold Award for Best Gift for new mums and dads as well as Best Gift in the 2014 Independent Book Publisher Awards.

The format is very easy to use and there is a lot of space to fill in details such as how mum was feeling, what she was doing and anything special happening along the way. There are adorable themed pages for major holidays as well as milestone pages to keep track of baby’s major events.

bump

I found it a little bit odd that there are areas for multiple photos for each week, as it would be unlikely to have photos of the baby other than the couple of ultrasounds that occur over the nine months. Perhaps some moms add photos of themselves at each week.  I do think it is a cute area to draw little pictures and I have been asking my son to draw things for his sister in the book. I also like that the book is a combination of baby book and journal since, most baby books simply record photos and milestones and it is nice for a child to look back and find out more about what was going on in the parents and family’s life before their arrival.

Do you still have your baby book? Have you tried to keep up with your own child’s book?

The book retails for approximately $29.95 USD and is available at many major retailers, including online. If you are trying, expecting or know somebody who is and want a different sort of gift I highly recommend this book.

Disclosure: I received a sample of a product to facilitate my review. No other compensation was provided and all views and opinions stated on this post are 100% my own.

Jen Shragge is a newly minted yoga instructor and all around eco-diva. She now lives back in her hometown of Toronto after ten years in the Vancouver area. Jen’s days are filled by her son and husband and a new baby girl expected at the end of 2014. Trying to live a vegan lifestyle has been a unique challenge for Jen and trying to cook for her family, including her meatatarian hubby and typically picky son has been nothing short of mind boggling. She muses about her cooking adventures at cookingforthecarnivore