Documenting Your Pregnancy

If you’re on Pinterest then there’s no doubt you’ve seen the many common ways that people have been documenting their pregnancy these days: holding the fruit that represents how big your little bean is, standing next to a chalkboard sign that says how many weeks you are, wearing a countdown t-shirt, or my personal favorite, wearing the same outfit in a weekly shot. Long before I became pregnant I came across this post from Merrick’s Art. She made a collage of weekly photos where she wore the same dress each time, but was flexible enough to arrange her stance, props or hairstyle differently.

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I loved this look and immediately thought of my grey and yellow Cole Haan dress I bought in Chicago on Allie’s bachelorette trip! Each week, I’d put on my dress, a skinny belt and rock my bump for a side shot taken mostly by Derek. I then cropped the photo and added a little weekly tag at the top and began my collection of my growing pregnancy belly.

At the same time, I also wanted to make sure to remember the stories, milestones and challenges I had throughout, to use as a reference for any future pregnancy experiences or to help relate to friends who would be going through the same thing. The day we found out we were pregnant, I started writing a pregnancy journal saved in my Google Docs. This allowed me to add and edit my comments and thoughts whether I was in bed nauseous in those first few weeks, or happily sitting with a round belly on my babymoon.

After receiving a formula sample kit from Similac, with a coupon inside for a free pregnancy journal photobook from Shutterfly, I put these two documentation styles together to create a book! While their pregnancy journal didn’t turn out to be free (I found out after chatting with their AWESOME customer service department that it was their storybook style format which is $4.99), I opted to still use it as a free code and made my own custom book to add and edit pages as I wished. Early pages included the ways in which we found out and how we shared with family and friends: Or documenting dueling pregnant bellies with family and the story on how we found out the gender: Later pages showed our family portraits and how I felt on a hot summer beach vacation or showcased some pictures of her nursery: The final pages included her birth story that I wrote out by the date/hour with the help of my documenting partner, Derek: And the last pages included those super cute photos of our little one in the hospital. Sure there are some TMI type messages for myself (yep, I went up a bra size at week 7) but it’s all part of our pregnancy experience and something that was important to state. I wanted to remember when I stopped feeling nauseous, when I felt her first kicks, and the actual story of her birth while it was fresh in my mind! I hope it comes in handy for any future pregnancy references for myself or my besties.

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