How to Start a Journal for Your Baby

One of the exciting things you will most likely be doing as you plan for a new baby will be to buy a baby record book. These books have space for a lot of basic information about the new addition to your family, but it is always a good idea to start a journal as well.

A journal can be started at any point in your child's life. If you didn't start one when he or she was a newborn, then start it at whatever stage they are currently in. It will be a treasure no matter when you begin the journal.

How Do I Start?

One of the most important things to put into a journal for a baby is the child's lineage. Most of the time, the traditional baby record books have space for a generation or two back, but it's just names and dates in most of the books. Resign yourself to adding stories and pictures to your journal for the baby, too.

The first step is to buy a good journal. There are many kinds of blank journal books available now, but some of them are constructed much better than others. Be sure the blank book you choose for a baby journal is made well. Check the binding and how solid the pages seem to be.

My own favorite is a large blank book with perforated pages and held together with wire rings instead of just bound in the traditional manner. This type of book works very well for a baby journal. A few pictures can be added (with photo corners) but you may want to use your blank book as the journal and then start a separate scrapbook type of book for the family pictures.

Smile... and Say Cheese!

Don't forget to take pictures of your baby (or older child) with relatives for the baby journal or scrapbook. If you don't already know birth dates for grandparents, great grandparents, aunts, uncles, as so on, be sure to ask and take note of those dates. Ask for family stories. This project will most likely be as beneficial to you as it will be to the baby when he or she is 18 or 21 and you give them the journal you started for them when they were a baby.

Take note of things that happen at family gatherings. Having a written account in the baby journal will "save" many things that would have otherwise been forgotten. Note how baby interacts with the relatives. Does she stop crying every time Uncle Joe picks her up? Does baby have a certain fascination with Aunt Kay's earrings?

Why's It So Important?

The interest in genealogy has grown greatly over the last decade or more. Many teachers are choosing to teach history by including a project on family trees and the students need to go digging for all kinds of family information. If you did this baby journal and included the lineage information, it would be a great start for a homework project on family trees.

That's not the most important reason to do a baby journal, though. We all need to have a sense of who we are and where our roots are. I started my own search about 15 years ago, and now my daughter is very much into genealogy as well. I would have loved if someone had done a baby journal for me so that some of the information I can't find now may have been included.

As one example, maybe my great grandparents, when they were living, would have remembered the stories about their parents coming to America. As the years go by, though, it's looking more and more as if I will never find out some of that information.

Other Things to Add

Be creative with your baby journal. You will be writing about the milestones that every baby goes through and about family vacations and outings, of course. There will be a lot to write about holidays and interaction with siblings.

In a few years there will be stories about school and possibly illnesses. You will be writing all the things customarily written into a journal, but you will be adding family stories, too. Some things you may not have thought of to add to the baby journal that will be great to preserve include items such as family recipes and the stories that go with them; poetry that the baby (and as the baby grows into a school aged child) memorized; and gifts that were given for holidays and birthdays.

Still more ideas on what to add to your baby journal include birthday party menus, meals, guests, etc., some words about family traditions, and last but certainly not least, firsts. This would include first food, first words, first friend, first tooth lost... first *everything!*