Pregnancy is a beautiful journey, especially if you’re expecting your first child. The feeling of having your first child, no doubt, cannot be explained in words, and you might want to keep all the memories from your pregnancy. Keeping a pregnancy journal would be a good idea to jot down all the little details from when you first found out that you were pregnant till the birth of your little one.
The use of paper or pen shouldn’t necessarily make a pregnancy journal, and in fact, if you’re more of an online person, you can just make one on your tablet or laptop.
We will give you some tips on how you can write a pregnancy journal starting from the beginning, through your 40 weeks, and until your delivery.
What is a Pregnancy Journal?
Let us briefly explain what a pregnancy journal actually is. Throughout your pregnancy, there would be moments where you cried, either out of joy or just mood swings, the cravings, the little noticeable kicks. To remember all of these with their exact dates, you note them in a pregnancy journal. You can reflect back on all the crazy things you did during your pregnancy. It’s just like a diary that you write during high school, recording all the events in words, only that this is about the journey through your pregnancy.
Why keep a Pregnancy Journal?
You must be thinking, why even keep a pregnancy journal? Well, pregnancy is one of the most life-changing events in a woman’s life as they grow and give birth to another human, another life. You can even keep a pregnancy journal for every one of your children and look through the differences between each of your pregnancies. Some benefits of keeping a pregnancy journal are as follows:
Bonding with Your Child:
As your pregnancy progresses, you have different thoughts about your baby, what they would look like, and what you wish for them. All of these thoughts help in building a relationship with your baby even before the little one is born, and the relationship is cherished for long.
Stress Relieving:
Even is called easy, pregnancy is hard as hormonal, as well as physical changes occur in the body. You don’t get to have your personal space. Discomfort, mood swings, weight gain, and all of these changes can be annoying and frustrating. This can lead you to feel stressed out, which is not considered healthy for your baby. Keeping a pregnancy journal is a good way to cope with all the stress that you’re getting. How? Well, as you write into your pregnancy journal, adding all the positive points and stuff about your baby would have a calming effect helping lower the stress levels.
Increases Efficiency:
When you start noting down your daily activities, you might want to just note down anything that would make you happy and calm. The little kicks, the cravings, they’re all something you want to write about.
Staying ahead of your Pregnancy:
Now that you’re pregnant and writing a pregnancy journal, all the things that happen around you or with you get you excited. This also means that you want to know just everything about your baby ahead of time. It might sound like you’re stalking your baby but it positive impact that it has is that you stay alert. You stay alert and organized with everything regarding your little one, which will create memories worth sharing.
Creativity:
Writing a pregnancy journal will only help your creativity. It is not just about words. You add in your emotions to it and your feelings. Apart from that you don’t have to make your pregnancy journal boring with all the writing only. Add pictures of ultrasounds and some moments, and you can even decorate your little diary with some cute stickers.
Tips on Writing a Pregnancy Journal:
Let’s move on to how you can write a pregnancy journal, there might already be many points that you would’ve thought of that you can add to your journal. We’ll brief you on some tips on how to start one and write it down.
Do not Impose yourself on starting one:
Remember that keeping a pregnancy journal is not homework that you got to do and is supposed to be fun and calming. You don’t necessarily have to note down something the moment it happened and can just write down at the end of the day. That would be more peaceful and calming rather than stressing yourself out at the very moment.
Noting down the Impromptu Moments:
If you’re the kind of person who always carries their journal around with them in their bag or in their car, you can note down the little events like your first visit to the doctor after your test came out positive, followed by the little details. You can write about how you felt at a certain time, when you felt the first kick, when and what you craved the most, how often you needed to wee, or just make it fun.
Write Everything in Raw Form:
You don’t have to think through how you should write something in fancy words or a filtered manner. Just write about your true feelings that are raw, unfiltered, and unrefined. Don’t worry about what you’re writing. Just write. It doesn’t have to be all rosy and cute. Make it into an all-time best-selling novel. There would be drama, suspense, thriller, romance, love, and even some shocks may be that you can look back to and laugh about.
Add the Little Details:
Remember that there are going to be good and there are going to be bad days, and you should add all the little details of it. All the nausea you felt and how often you felt it, the start of the weight gain, and how you started hating foods that you loved eating, include all of them. Add what food you liked, how much you loved it, and how often you ate them. Adding the little details will only make them fun.
A Diary or an Online Journal:
It’s not necessary that you should make a journal by using paper and a pen, it is feasible for some people, but some might not want to carry around a journal everywhere with them, or it could just be uncomfortable. You carry your phone everywhere with you, right? You can just create an online or a digital pregnancy journal and update it every now and then without feeling stressed or burdened.
Use Different Techniques:
It is possible that writing can become boring at a certain point, or maybe you’re just too exhausted to write anymore. Make some time for it in your day and add in the details. Use your creativity and make it fun. As mentioned before, you can add pictures of your ultrasounds from time to time, pictures of the time you first went baby shopping, the baby shower, etc. apart from all of that, you can make your diary into a cute notebook by adding little stickers which make it more fun and even better if according to the mood of the event.
The Bottomline:
Pregnancy is one of the major changes that occur in a woman’s life, and is a feeling out of this world that can’t be explained in words. To keep track of everything you experienced, keep a pregnancy journal with yourself, adding in all the little details. Having a pregnancy journal has a positive impact on you and can help in bonding, has a calming effect, and increases efficiency. We have explained some tips and tricks on starting a pregnancy journal and writing in it with all your creativity.
