The birth of a child is a unique, momentous, and transformational time in any parents’ life. However, the memories of the thoughts, feelings, and experiences can quickly become muted. It is so hard to imagine that this will be the case, but a mother’s memories of her experiences will inevitably start to fade and our once babies begin to grow up.
Whatever it is, keeping a pregnancy journal is the best way to remember all of those small but significant moments as you journey through your 40 weeks. This is only one of the key reasons for keeping a pregnancy journal, but there are many other good reasons to keep one as well.
Notice Patterns
As well as recording your gestational milestones, there can be a serious side to keeping a pregnancy journal. Keeping a note of your symptoms won’t just be something to look back on, but it can really help with visits to the OB-GYN. Keep a record of morning sickness, cravings, and changes to your body. All written down in black and white, it can help the experts check your development. Accurate and timely information is vital in making sure that mother and baby are both doing well.
Help to Manage Your Emotions
Pregnancy is a real rollercoaster of emotions for both parents. It can be hard to process so many big feelings. Writing down your experiences each day is a great way to sift through and understand your experience. Journaling has been shown to improve mental health and to develop brain activity. There could not be a more important life stage to achieve this than during pregnancy.
Keep Track of the Tiny Details
Every pregnancy starts with the smallest imaginable miracle, taking place on a microscopic level. As they grow, you’ll be so glad you kept a record of each tiny, beautiful miracle as it happens. How did you feel just before you saw your baby for the first time at a scan? What was it like to hear their heartbeat? How many weeks pregnant were you when you first felt the baby move? These tiny details make your pregnancy unique and special.
Keep All Your Keepsakes Safe
A pregnancy journal is a perfect place to keep all the lovely little physical memories of your pregnancy journey safe. Your ultrasound images, photos of your growing bump, invitations to a baby shower. Make your journal into a scrapbook as well as a written record and paste all the physical memories of this auspicious time safely into a collage on the pages.
Bump and Beyond
Your journal does not have to stop when the baby is born. Some journals have space to record all the way up to your baby’s first birthday. This allows you to keep a record of every milestone from the joyful news of discovering you are pregnant right up to the first steps and first words! This can be a really beautiful way of recording your child’s early days. This sort of “bump to birthday” journal can also be a lovely object in itself. You will love being able to share them with other family members on special occasions like Christmas or baby’s Christening.
Keep a Digital Journal
An online journal has all the benefits of a paper one, but takes up no space in your house! Use Bytelyfe’s pregnancy journal template to help guide how you create your content, taking all the effort out of the process. You can easily add photos and videos to your journal entries to keep a full and interactive record. The template prompts you to add information like weight gain and waist measurement each week. This will help you to track the progress of that all-important bump!
A Great Way to Engage Dad
Fathers-to-be often report feeling a little left out and helpless during pregnancy and birth. Building a pregnancy journal together is a great way to involve the baby’s father in the entire process. Sharing your feelings and experiences will help to bring you both closer together. Engaging a new father with the ebb and flow of the pregnancy as you hit milestones and experience fresh changes is a great way to help engage him. Dad will be hands-on with the pregnancy, and this will help him get ready for when the baby arrives.
Record Your Babymoon
That last trip away before the baby is born is a fantastic way to reconnect with your partner. It is your last chance to spend a bit of adults-only time together and really enjoy each other’s company. You will be too busy to devote this much time to each other once the baby arrives! Journaling your babymoon will help you remember how important your adult identity and adult relationships are. You will be glad of the reminder when your entire world turns to focus on your new tiny bundle of joy.
As you can see, there are a wide range of practical and emotional benefits to keeping a pregnancy journal. The process can help to support good mental health during those important nine months. After the event, it is great for allowing you to look back on the precious memories that you and your baby built together before they were even born!
