When you are living the moment it feels like forever. For me, it felt like the first few weeks of breastfeeding and late-night feedings would never end. But then time passes and, before you know it, you can’t even remember that much about your baby. Unless you were great at recording all the special moments, I assure you that your mommy brain will take over and leave only vague recollections of your child’s first year.
© Oksana Kuzmina / Dollar Photo Club
I love remembering sweet things about my girls when they were babies. But there are a lot of things I can’t remember, because…guess what? I didn’t record them! Whether you write down the date, snap a picture, or write a lengthy journal entry surrounding the event, you should try to record your baby’s firsts and milestones.
I took a lot of pictures of my daughters and used the video recorder to capture the first time they rolled over and ate solids, but I don’t have an actual paper documenting many of these dates or giving more detail about the events. There are a few times I wrote down stuff, but I’m not sure where!
Baby Firsts and Milestones to Remember
I wish I would have had a list of all the milestones and firsts my babies would experience and then it would have been so much easier for me to record. I’ll make it easier on you and give you a great list to refer to. Before you have your baby, be sure to print it out so you can easily remember some of the most important things you should track.
Baby Firsts
First feeding
First diaper change
First bath
First time in carseat
First checkup
First outing
First time in stroller
First tummy time
First time in crib
First time babywearing
First toy held
First laugh
First tooth
First foods
First time in the pool
First word
First cold
First haircut
First babysitter
First vacation
First holidays
First time saying Mama or Dada
First birthday
Baby Milestones
Smile (8 weeks)
Sleep through the night
Roll over (2 or 3 months)
Grab (3 or 4 months)
Hug (5 months)
Sit up (8 months)
Crawl (6 to 10 months)
Peek-a-boo (6 months)
Reach, grasp, and hold
Clap
Pull up to stand (8 months)
Cruise and Walk (10 to 18 months)
Keep a list of these on your fridge or somewhere that you can see them all the time so you don’t forget to record them! If you can remember to track your baby’s firsts and important milestones, they will be such a treasure to you and your child in the future.
What’s your favorite way to capture memories of your child?
Sources:
“Baby Milestones” from Parenting (link no longer available)
“Baby Milestones: What Baby Will Do When” from The Bump
“Shutterbug: 12 Pictures to Take During Baby’s First Week” by Rebecca Gruber on PopSugar
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Awwww! I have definitely failed to record many of the milestones of the last two babies. I always write down smiling/rolling/crawling/walking, but the rest get forgotten. For a while there I was committing myself to creating a family phonebook each year so that we could see what everyone looked like at that stage, but that too went by the wayside. I use moleskine notebooks (one per child) to write their milestones, and also add a letter from me to them a couple of times a year. It’s no scrapbooked baby book, but I know that it’ll be valuable to them in their adult years!
I really need to get each of my girls a journal that I can write things in! Great idea, Janeen. I always have the best intentions of writing a letter on their birthdays, but then I forget. I guess it’s time for me to start really “scheduling” my life!
Charlee I am the worst at this lol! I even wrote a blog post about this and how I still haven’t finished my five-year-old’s baby book (and didn’t bother to start any for the twins). I do remember these milestones though and they were always so awesome to see. It’s like you were cheering your little guy on for each little step.
Thanks, Nina, for making me feel better about not writing things down. It’s good that you remember their most important milestones! I am losing my mind on the daily, so I just need some way to get it out of there. Haha.