Baby Baking is a weekly pregnancy series written almost entirely by our pregnant writer, Vanessa. Note, official DudeMom is not, now or ever, expecting a baby.
I was a horrible pregnancy historian.
Few photos. No journal. Basically nothing to look back on but a few miserable photos, a book of ultrasound snaps and the thick middle I’ve never been able to truly shake.
I’m encouraging BFF to do better. To chronicle, through the haze of barfing and exhaustion, so one day she will have more than a few really sad photographs to look back on.
I’ve decided to make these photos for her every month…
And here are some other things she’s working on.
4 Easy, Fun, and Creative Ways to Chronicle your Pregnancy
1. Timed Photos. We are doing monthly but other people do them weekly. To make them significant, wear the same top or hold the same stuffed animal each time to help give perspective of how much you’ve changed. You can also subscribe to one of those pregnancy calendars that tells you how big your baby is (you know, the “your baby is the size of a naval orange” thingy) and pose with the comparison object. Avocados are small…
2. Keep a pregnancy journal. Of course you can just write down your thoughts and how you’re feeling each day, but snore on that. Think outside the box for a more engaging read when you look back. Write letters to your baby, get your spouse to contribute a few entries, or go digital with it and do a daily video diary. You can add your weekly photos when it’s all said and done and have yourself quite the scrapbook.
3. Write a blog. Of course the bloggers would recommend you start blogging! But not the for-the-world-to-Google sort like you see here. You want something more personal and intimate where you can share your inner feelings with your soon-to-be-here mini human. The benefit is that you won’t have to get writer’s cramp using a regular pencil, you can use all of the cool apps to jazz up your posts (like instantly adding photos and such), and when all is said and done, you can easily make your blog into a book that you can have bound for baby to crack open one day (Blog2Print is an easy to use, affordable resource for this).
4. Have a pro take your pic. Maternity photos are a great way to document your bump and share a few moments of couple-hood with your spouse. I advise expecting mamas to book their maternity shoots between 30 and 32 weeks so that they are showing nicely, but still feeling agile and adorable enough for a photoshoot. If you’ve hit week 40 before you probably know that moving fast (or at all) and putting on makeup may not be on your agenda of things to do without wanting to punch yourself in the eye.