The first journal I'm using is one I made based on a journal Ali Edwards created while expecting her daughter. You can see Ali's journal here. This journal is the most private of the three; something just for me, a place to record stories and my thoughts and feelings over her first few months of life.
Ali used digital templates and printed them on cardstock for her journal pages. I made my own using Sakura Souffle and Glaze pens. I followed a design layout similar to Ali's for the patterned paper pages and kept things simple. On my pages I added a single flower, a sticker + stamped word, or a flower + ribbon + metal accent. I repeated that order throughout the book. The stickers are from Crate Paper's Lemon Grass Collection. For metal accents I used both Making Memories Love Notes Collection metal charms and Tim Holtz trinket pins (LOVE these!). I haven't decorated the cover yet, but plan to in the near future. I did use some pink and floral papers in the journal since this book was for me, but kept it to mostly neutral colors so that it would work for a boy or girl since we didn't know what we were having.
The second book I'm recording information in is The Essential Baby Organizer: Birth to One Year. This is my day-to-day book where I can record feeding times, naps, diaper changes, etc. It also has a Journal page for each week where you can record info on what your baby learned that week, who they visited, funny things they did, etc. I've really appreciated these pages as they allow me to quickly jot down important details from the week that I don't want to forget, and I love having a record of how she's changing week to week. There are also pages to record information from well-baby visits, a page to write your baby a letter every three months, some pages to record information on gifts given to your baby, a tooth chart, pages for baby's firsts, and a handy resource section at the back of the journal with information on soothing your baby, developmental milestones, nutritional needs, first aid, and even a sample babysitter interview form. The authors of this organizer also wrote a pregnancy organizer that I used throughout my pregnancy to record information from all of my doctor and midwife visits. My favorite part of that book was the list of items for baby - they gave you lists of essentials vs. extras - this came in very handy when registering for baby items and trying to keep track of everything we needed.
The last book is somewhere between the other two. It's more of a traditional baby book; something more structured than the journal I made, but with room to record a lot more detail than the organizer. It's called Baby of Mine; I used the companion pregnancy journal, Waiting for Baby, as well. Each month's section in the baby journal has space for a picture as well as prompts for journaling about baby's physical development, favorite moments, good / bad days, etc. There's also a page to record what your daily routine is like that month - what / how your baby is eating, how they're sleeping, and what their schedule is like. In addition, there are sections to add pictures and journal about things like outings, holidays, baby's firsts and baby's favorites, as well as some blank journal pages. The book wraps up with several pages on baby's first birthday and has some room for writing your reflections on the past year.
I love that I'm getting so much written down and capturing so many memories on paper. The time is going by so fast and I know I've already forgotten a lot! Some of this journaling will be used in my scrapbook layouts as well...as I find time to actually scrapbook. For now I'm just glad to be writing things down and getting pictures taken. As I have (or MAKE) time I'll put them together into layouts.
