"Your Pregnancy Scrapbook" excerpt excerpt from Full Of Life

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There will be so many happy moments during your pregnancy and [I highly recommend making a pregnancy scrapbook to preserve those memories.] I am a huge scrap booker. I keep pretty much everything that has to do with anything in our lives.

A pregnancy scrapbook includes everything from the moment you found out you were pregnant to the day you bring the baby home; you will treasure it for years to come. You can even save it and give it to your son or daughter as a present when they are expecting!

To start, buy an empty scrapbook and pages. I always use acid free paper inside-it is easy to find at a craft store or via the Internet and it will not deteriorate over time the way regular paper will. Then, simply start collecting items you want to add to the pregnancy scrapbook. Here are a few suggestions:

Photos to include:

• Your positive EPT. This can be the first photo in your scrapbook!
• You and your mate the day you saw your positive pregnancy test
• Ultrasound photos. Ultrasounds are printed on a very thin paper, which deteriorates over time. Therefore, I made copies of mine on good quality, thick photo paper and then laminated them. I recommend you do the same to make them last throughout the years
• Baby shower shots-photos of the hostesses, guests, gifts, games, decorations, and even food (I have the cutest pictures of the donut cake from my baby shower, and what fun memories that photo brings back of my cravings!)
• Nursery: before and after
• Close-ups of nursery furniture and bedding
• Siblings and grandparents with your expanding belly
• Belly shots at regular intervals (from the side, of course!)
• Meaningful occasions to document what you were doing as the weeks progressed. I took a picture with every celebrity I interviewed during my pregnancy. I thought Ashby might get a kick out of knowing she had been introduced to the likes of Madonna, Leonardo DiCaprio, Richard Gere, Will Smith, Halle Berry, George Clooney, Celine Dion, Robin Williams, and other well-known people while she was in my tummy.
• Labor and delivery shots
• Coming home from hospital photos
• Baby's first house

Things to Write About:

• How you felt when you found out you were pregnant
• How you told others
• Reactions of siblings, your parents, friends
• Feelings when you found out the baby's gender
• Cravings
• Baby dreams
• Songs, which you listened to when pregnant
• Baby names considered

Things to Record:

• Your weight at regular intervals
• The measurement of your belly at various intervals
• Costs of nursery items (for your child to compare costs when he or she has a baby)

Memorabilia:

You can purchase clear plastic envelopes that are made for displaying memorabilia in scrapbooks. I recommend including:

• Shower invitations
• Advice written from your girlfriends (ask them to record their tips at the shower as I did)
• Swatches of fabric from nursery bedding or drapery
• Nursery paint color cards

Pages from Your Calendar:

I chart everything in my DayTimer and it is so interesting to pull out the pages from when I was pregnant now and see what I was doing when Ashby was developing. I think she will enjoy reading it when she is pregnant.

A Family Tree:

Show your baby from whom he or she descended!