7 Tips for Filling Out Our Modern Baby Book
I clearly remember moments with my 3rd child as an infant that would have made it impossible for me to do anything other than try to keep him alive.
Like the day after his afternoon nap where I walked in to find him covered in poop, face to toes. Or the day he rolled over unexpectedly while laying on my bed and I dove to catch him before he hit the ground...
Being that he was my 3rd, I knew what to expect. I knew it would be long days and long nights. And I’m glad I had the wherewithal to recognize that my baby memory book needed to be as simple as possible because of this!
Keeping up with filling in a baby book is never easy, whether it’s your first child or your 15th. Which is why we’ve designed our modern baby books to have simple prompts and minimal pages that cover just the highlights. If you pair that formula with some of our tips below for filling in your baby book, I promise you’ll have some success in completing it!
7 Tips For Filling In Your Baby Book With Ease
Tip #1: Gather Your Scrapbooking Supplies
First and foremost, gather your supplies! Having the right supplies ready to go will make doing updates so much easier. We suggest essentials like adhesive photo corners or glue runners for photos, some scissors, and a good pen. If you're the creative type, you might opt for some stamps or colorful washi tape. To make it easy, we’ve created a one-sheet download with all of our suggested supplies to have on hand. Print it out and keep it handy, or click on each supply on our PDF to order what you need. If you gather these before baby even arrives, you’ll be ready to go when they get here!
Tip #2: Keep mementos in a designated spot
As you collect mementos like handwritten cards from friends and family, hospital bracelets, etc, it’s a good idea to have a designated “drop spot” for them so that you can easily find them when you are ready to add them to your book. Pick a spot in your house (like a shelf or drawer) where you can keep things. You can slip mementos into the keepsake folder in the back of your baby book, the cotton muslin bag that comes with your baby book (we sell these on their own as well in case you want extra!), or even our Wooden Keepsake Box (perfect for too-big mementos like their hospital hat and blanket or newborn clothes).
Tip #3: Organize your photos regularly
Take a few minutes each month to scroll through the 9 million photos you took of baby (we know, we did it too) and move your favorites into a folder on your phone. That way, when you’re ready to fill in your book, you can quickly print the photos you want. If you want more tips on how to organize your digital photos for memorykeeping, we have a whole blog post on it.
Tip #4: Keep a digital journal
Let’s be honest, moms lose brain cells. It’s because we’re awesome, but it sucks nonetheless. We can’t (and shouldn't be) expected to remember everything. And while looking back at photos will jog your memory about the details of the event, some things will slip through the cracks. So start a digital journal on your phone for cute things that baby does or milestones they hit. Then you can refer back when it's time to update your book.
Another tip? Use our Baby Milestone Cards to snap photos and jot down memories and firsts from birth to month 12. It makes adding these moments to your baby memory book later a breeze because you’ve already got the photo, date, and details!
Tip #5: Choose a monthly update day
Choose one day every month that you can spend 15 minutes copying over memories from your phone into your baby book, printing your photos and/or pasting them in your book. Sure, it won’t happen on the scheduled day every time, but having a plan is a start!
Speaking of printing photos, if you want to print on demand, we suggest investing in an at-home photo printer. We love the Kodak Retro Mini for 3x3” photos and HP Sprocket printer for 4x6” photos. If you want to order prints, Social Print Studio is a great option with tons of photo sizes, or you might try a photo subscription company like Mootsh, where the photos just show up in your mailbox (what's better than that?).
Tip #6: Leave your book out so it’s visible
It’s hard to remember to do something that isn’t right in front of your face. It’s the same reason I can’t ever remember to clean those spots on the ceiling by our back door (where did they even come from??). Find a spot on a shelf where you can display your modern baby book so that it’s visible (bonus: our books are cute enough to display as décor). This way, you’ll be reminded that it needs some updating from time to time.
Tip #7: It’s OK If It Isn’t Perfect
You inevitably won’t fill in every page. That’s ok. You probably will also make a mistake and have to cross it out. That’s ok too! It’s all part of writing your baby’s story – mess, mistakes and all. While they may be perfect, you don’t have to be.
“Perfection only exists in babies and pastries.” —Gayle Wray
With these tips and one of our modern baby books, you’ll have no problem filling out your baby book with plenty of special moments that you might have otherwise forgotten. Don’t let baby’s first year slip by without jotting down those bits of their story!
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