Baby Steps: Documenting Growth

I've been half loving, half hating my week-by-week pregnancy documentation idea. I know I definitely won't be able to keep it up in the same fashion for future pregnancies and that bothers me. The OCD side of me wants everything to be the same! I will have to either:

- Keep doing the weekly thing, but just wear whatever I've got on that day. And get a tripod so Adam doesn't have to be around to snap the picture.

- Change it up from weekly to every other week or every four weeks or something.

With this experience in mind, I've been thinking about how I want to document Baby's growth from birth to turning one. I'm sure you've seen various ideas all over Pinterest and the blog world. Of course, my favorite is from Young House Love. But I know I could never keep up the weekly photo shoots with different fabric backdrops and such past our first child.

So, we'll just be taking pictures on a monthly basis. The backdrop will probably be a blanket or fabric of some sort, rather than having Baby sit in a chair {the other idea I've seen pop up all over the place}. Because we'll be moving when Baby's about three months old and, yet again, it would bother the OCD side of me to have the background change significantly. And I think I could handle picking out new fabric on a monthly basis!

Around Baby's first birthday, I'd like to make a photo book with the monthly pictures and some stats {height, weight, firsts, likes, dislikes} for each month. That's the only kind of baby book our kids will ever get. I'd also love to make a shadow box with little mementos like ultrasound pics, the hospital bracelet, and a tiny pair of shoes. If I end up going the changing-fabric-backdrops route, it'd be fun to make a simple quilt or something with the twelve yards of fabric.

And that's the end of my sentimental rambling. They grow up so fast!

P.S. The birth announcements above are from Tiny Prints, designed by Rifle Paper Co, my favorite stationary place. They are definitely a splurge but I'm pretty much in love with them.