Did anyone else grow up going to scrapbooking parties and scrapbooking all weekend long with their Mama on the weekends?! I remember as a little girl sitting for hours on end at the kitchen table covered in photos and scrapbooking supplies. My Mama, sister, and I would go to scrapbooking parties and create photo books for pretty much everything. I ended up scrapbooking my own baby book and I still love it to this day. I was maybe ten or eleven when I made it, and it's so fun to go back and look at my baby pictures that were scrapbooked my tiny me. There's something special about it, too!
Not a lot of people print out their photos anymore, I know social media is huge for documenting things and printed photo books are popular, but for me, printing photos out and having them in a photo album or book just feels right. It also gives me an excuse to break out some of my old scrapbooking supplies and create a darling book that Bentley and our family can look back on throughout the years.
The baby book that I have for Bentley is so beautiful that it's on display on our shelves in the living room. It has prompts and pages for every milestone, pages for pregnancy, birth, each month of the first year, and pages for years 2-5. It's the perfect book for your little one right until they head off to school, and of course, there's a page for that, too!
This book gave me a place to document the little moments of Bentley's first year to save those memories. I love to read and look back through each month and see just how little my sweet boy was. I am slightly crazy about documenting some moments, so I added a few extra fold-out pages to certain sections, because I wanted to showcase extra photos. There are extra pages in the back, but I'm saving those pages for moments when he's a little older. There's also a pocket in the back. I put some of my ultrasound photos in there!
When I was on maternity leave, I loved putting this book together while Bentley was napping, and now, it's something I still do during naptime, but honestly, now that Bentley is a little older, he loves to see his tiny baby photos and I'll put it together with him! Special moments like that he won't remember, but I will, and I love knowing that.
A few suggestions for your baby book:
One // Have every guest at your child's first birthday party take a photo with them using a polaroid camera and put those photos in the baby book.
I love that we did this, and I wanted to share this idea with you! It was so special for everyone to take a photo with Bentley, and now we'll have those memories forever in his baby book.
Two // Have a note on your phone to quickly jot down memories and milestone dates so that you can reference them when you're filling out your book.
You'll be thankful you did this. I always thought that I was never going to forget anything because he's my sweet boy and I'll remember it all. Ha! Enter: Pregnancy Brain I legit can't remember anything anymore, so this note has been an actual memory saver. You can also have your partner added as a collaborator on the note so you can both jot down important memories and moments!
Three // Utilize acid-free markers/pens to write in the book and on the back of photos.
I wrote the date on every photo that is in his baby book and in his baby album. Dates aren't printed on photos like they were, so I took the time to write it on each photo so that looking back years and years from now, we'd know how old Bentley is and what year it was.
You'll also be writing all throughout the baby book, so I grabbed new acid-free markers from a craft store to use in my book. The pages are thick, so they won't bleed through the other side, but I wanted to be sure I was using high-quality markers/pens for this book.
Four // Use your local pharmacy to print photos & use promo codes!
I've used our local Walgreens photo center each time I've printed photos, and I have always been happy with the quality of the prints. They also have tons of sales and promo codes to bring down the cost, which makes it worthwhile! They're usually printed that same day within a few hours, so I can decide spur of the moment that I want to print photos and work on his baby book!
Grab a baby book and start documenting your little one's first year and milestones. It's a fun way to keep those memories and keepsakes for you and your family to cherish both now and in the future.
Did you make a baby book for your little one?
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