Remembering the Precious Times
The days are long but the years go fast
7 ways to remember these precious moments
We’ve all been there. When you’re exhausted and frazzled, it’s easy to just want your baby to reach the next milestone faster. But as any parent will tell you, those milestones seem to come and go all too quickly – suddenly you look up and your baby is a teenager! Your future self will thank you if you can find ways to remember special moments – you’ll cherish them in years to come.
Here are our seven favourite ways to record your parenting journey.
1. From bump to baby journal
Pregnancy can feel like it goes on forever but is usually looked back on as a blip in time. Keeping a journal, like this one of where it all began, will remind you of the emotions and thoughts that crossed your mind over those nine fleeting months. It can also be a wonderful keepsake for your child when she’s grown.
Some fun ideas to include:
- How you felt when you first found out
- How you told your partner
- Any funny stories about keeping it under wraps in the early days
- How you announced your pregnancy to family and friends
- How you felt at your scans
- Your first list of baby names
- Any weird pregnancy cravings you experienced
- When you felt your baby move for the first time
- Any strange pregnancy dreams
- What you thought labour and becoming a parent would be like
2. Create a cast of their ten little fingers and ten little toes
A cast of those teeny hands and feet? They’ll become treasures. There’s a huge range of options available, from DIY plaster-impression kits through to three-dimensional custom castings done by a professional. Think about what suits your budget (keeping in mind you’ll likely want to create something similar for any future siblings).
3. Pen a letter
Writing regular letters to your baby when inspiration strikes is a great way to document milestones and also capture everyday happenings. Creating an email account for your baby is a quick and easy way to send them letters, notes, links to photos and even to events they've attended. Give them access to their email account when they reach an appropriate age and they'll be able to look through all the notes you’ve sent them over the years.
4. Keepsake books
It’s so easy for the early years to pass in a blur of broken sleep and nappy changes. Specifically designed keepsake books, like this one from Marlee + Jo, provide you with prompts to record milestones and special memories right up until your child’s 5th birthday. Having all the memories and accompanying photos neatly stored in one book makes this easy and fun to flick through.
5. Photos beyond your phone
Having a phone with a decent camera on hand usually means mountains of images are captured these days. The downside is that often these thousands of photos don’t have a life outside of your phone. Get into the habit of culling photos every day, and creating photo books regularly. This will keep your phone gallery under control and puts your photos somewhere you can actually enjoy them. Kids love looking back at pictures of themselves, and there’s nothing like a physical album to create a social way of doing this.
6. Toddler tales
You might think you’ll never forget that hilarious turn of phrase coming out of your toddler’s mouth, but trust us, you probably will! Creating a memory jar in an accessible spot (like on top of the fridge) is a quick and easy way to jot something down and post it in. Reading through them will have the whole family in stitches.
7. Dear digital diary
If you’re not comfortable with privacy issues plaguing photo apps like Instagram, there are heaps of alternatives that can be downloaded for iPhone and androids, such as Collect. If you want to get even techier and video is your thing, check out 1 second every day. By filming one second of each day, this clever little app will edit and stitch these together to create a special video of your babe’s first 365 days. The beauty of this app is that it can easily be extended beyond her first year, since a whole year condenses into a mere 6-minute video!
Don’t forget to remember
Birthing and raising a child is a busy, exciting and exhausting time, Your days are filled and they go by before you know it. Take the time to record the best moments before you blink and forget them – keep a diary, write letters to the future, create photo or video journals – whatever works to preserve your experiences. Your future self will be glad you did, and so will your kids!
