Why You Should Be Keeping a Baby Journal

Keeping a baby journal is one of the best ways to track this precious time in your lives, while creating a priceless memento to refer back to over and over again.

Benefits of keep a baby journal

A baby journal can be anything you choose to make it. It can be a practical way to track health and medical information, or it can provide insights into your thoughts.

Track health and medical information

Your baby journal can be used to track basic health and medical information, such as your baby’s weight when you welcome them home, or how much they’ve grown over a period of time. You can use your baby journal to track physical changes you notice in your baby over the weeks and months.

Capture precious moments and baby’s ‘firsts’

One of the key reasons to keep a baby journal might be to capture your thoughts about special moments. As a busy father or mother, the days can go by quickly and you can easily forget the profound yet fleeting moments you share with your baby.

While you might have your phone ready to capture your baby’s first bath or be lucky enough to capture their first steps, sometimes the most special moments happen in the quiet hours, such as when they grab your finger with their hand, or when they first smile at you. With a written journal, you can track these moments and note down your feelings and thoughts before you forget.  

Give context to your photos and videos

A written journal is a record of your thoughts and gives you a way to reflect back on special memories and events that photos and videos can’t provide. This internal monologue captures thoughts, ideas, and feelings, and gives you richer memories, as well as a detailed account of everything you want to remember.

Help your children remember their childhoods

Childhood memories are some of the most precious memories we have. As your baby grows, your journals can become precious family histories to be passed down the generations, while giving your children insights into your relationship with them when they were babies.

Bring your thoughts together

Journaling is a quiet, solitary activity that helps you clarify your thoughts and feelings and develop new insights. It can help you bring your thoughts together, reflect on what’s happening, and take some time out to gain perspective so you fully experience everything that’s happening.

Emotional and physical benefits

Being a new father or mother can be an emotional rollercoaster given how busy you become and the new challenges and rewards of welcoming a new member into your family. By expressing your feelings in a baby journal, you can ease stress and even boost your physical resilience and immunity, suggest experts.

Enforce the bond between baby and parent

Keeping a baby journal could strengthen the bond you have with your baby. By reflecting on your thoughts and feelings, you can be more aware of your emotions and experiences, and end up developing a stronger attachment with your baby.

Tips for making the most of your baby journal

The first thing to keep in mind is there are no fixed rules, and you can (and should) keep any type of baby journal you prefer. If you don’t enjoy writing, a video journal or a photo journal with verbal or written annotations might be all that you need to track your thoughts and feelings. Write in your journal as often as you like, and in any format you like. For example, your journal can take the form of personal letters to your baby.

What equipment do you need?

You don’t need any special equipment to keep a baby journal. You can get started by starting a new file on your computer or buying a new notebook.

What to write about

You can write about anything, and that’s probably a challenge for some parents – just what should you write about? Some ideas for getting started include the following.

• Events and experiences – Write about special milestones, events, and experiences you have with your baby or you’ve observed in your baby. Their first steps, first time sleeping right through the night, and first words are all things you might want to write about.
• Traits and interests – Track evidence of any traits or interests you see in your baby. For example, they might prefer certain foods, show interest in a household object, or laugh at the sound of you singing.  
• Language and development – You can take note of your baby’s language development and other development milestones in your journal.
• Your own emotions and thoughts – You can use your baby journal to write about your emotions and about the love you feel for your baby. You can write about how you’re dealing with any challenges or how your life has changed after having your baby. Write about your hopes, dreams, and expectations for your baby.
• A day in the life – You can take a temporal approach by noting down what you and your baby did on a specific day.

A beautiful way to record special moments

Ultimately, your baby journal should serve your thoughts, feelings, and memories. Go with the flow, remember that it can be for capturing both special moments and everyday thoughts, and use your own motivations for journalling to guide format and content.

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