Remembering Baby's Firsts

I heard my friends say before I had a baby that they couldn't remember when their baby sat up, walked, crawled, or any of the milestones. I remember thinking how crazy that was--how could any mother forget when her child reached these pivotal accomplishments. How did they not have time to keep up with their baby books and write every detail down? Guess what--now that I'm a mother I'm having the same problems.

My husband and I started off with good intentions, we got a great start on the baby book when our daughter was first born. We wrote down every detail including how much she ate, who came to visit, and of course had pictures and video of every little move she made. The pictures are still happening as I make sure that we stay on top of them so as not to miss anything, but everything else has come to a screeching halt. How does this happen and how can you prevent it?

When you first bring the baby home from the hospital, you can't imagine there being anything else in the world. For me I felt like I was in this little bubble and was totally isolated from everything else going on. I was all about this baby and totally fine with it. As time went on, we started getting out more and adjusting to reality with a new baby and how she would work in various situations. The baby book got a little dusty, the videos were taken a bit less often, and here we are almost eight months later wondering where the time has gone and scratching our heads to remember exactly when she ate her first solid food.

If I'm in a pinch, I've found that writing key milestones on the calendar helps a bit. It's not the baby book, but it's something that can easily transfer and helps me to keep everything straight. As the baby gets bigger and more active, along with life getting crazier it's important to write these things down somewhere that you can quickly get to them. Only four months later now, I am struggling to remember exactly when she had her first bites of baby food. Writing it on the calendar until I have time to properly record it in the baby book helps me a lot.

The videos are something that we really want to keep up with, even if it's just of her playing. Some of the best video footage has been of the everyday things, it really helps to capture her growing and evolving into a little person. To help with that, we keep the camcorder and camera on the table in our main room. That way it's close by and easy to grab if one of those wonderful baby moments presents itself. Inevitably if you have to run for the camera, the moment is over by the time you return. Leaving baby alone in a room doesn't work that well these days either.

Dedicating some free time (whatever that is these days) to updating the baby book or a scrapbook is key too. There's never time for this sort of thing unless you force yourself to sit down, take it easy, and write down your precious memories. Trust me when I tell you that if you don't write down the baby's firsts now, it will definitely not get easier later. It's fun to do as a couple too, my husband and I can then share our own memories at each phase and it tells a story.

Take the time to be a part of the baby's firsts too. This sounds silly, but when days get crazy as they inevitably do, just spending some time crawling around on the floor with your baby can make all the difference in the world. Reading to them, talking to them, feeding them, and playing with them are moments that will be gone before you know it, so live and record them now before they are all too soon past these stages.

Above all, enjoy every day with your baby--they won't be a baby for too long and you'll want it all back. If you can remember and record the moments as soon as they happen, it will make the memory of each that much easier.