A Very Special Pregnancy Journal

Submitted by Kellie on August 30, 2011

Topic: Random Ramblings

Tags: Shower Print Online Personalized Parent Projects Kids Journal Gifts Finishing Services FedEx Office Print Online Children Baby Babies

Average:

Kellie's blog

As many of our regular readers know, my husband and I are expecting a baby later this year. It’s a special time, and I don’t want to forget any of it later – the excitement, anticipation, and even the not-so-pleasant things like cravings for cheeseburgers. I decided to make a pregnancy journal to record all the details.

The concept isn’t new, but I put my own spin on it by making a template of the things I wanted to record and share. I found some of the pre-made templates to be a bit too personal and sometimes even, er, a bit cheesy. Today I’m sharing my journal and how I made it.

As I was creating my journal, I thought of the things I wanted to share:

· How I was feeling from month to month

· What I was looking forward to in each month

· Funny cravings

· Things I missed from pre-pregnancy life (like being able to get up off the couch)

· Silly stories (like re-arranging the nursery no less than 8 times)

· Notes from dad

· Photos from showers, ultrasounds, week-by-week pics, mom and dad before baby, mom and dad’s baby pics, etc.

· Details from doctor’s appointments (like hearing that strong heartbeat for the first time)

With that in mind, I got to work designing my journal in Microsoft Word®. Then I printed the pages – I don’t have a home printer so I used FedEx Office Print Online ® and picked a heavier-weight paper.

Once I picked up the pages, I used a cutting board at my local FedEx Office (find yours here) to cut them to size (mine were 8” x 8”).

Next, I had them bound with a custom cover I made. This was a multi-step process.

1. I wanted a hardback cover, so I bought chipboard at a local craft store and cut it to size.

2. I used scraps of fabric from the nursery to make a cloth cover. This is great because it can be displayed on a bookshelf in the nursery and will fit the theme. What’s more, when the nursery is one day disassembled for a growing toddler (sniff, sniff), I’ll have a memory of what it used to look like.

3. Once I stitched together the fabric for the cover, I used batting to give the chipboard a bit of a softer feel. I only put the batting on the front side of the front cover (the inside still needs to be hard so you can write!). Important: be certain to leave an uncovered edge for the holes and the coil binding – you can’t bind over thick layers of batting and fabric. You need at least one inch of space for binding and you may even find that it’s easier to bind the chipboard first, then attach the fabric cover.

NOTE: If making a fabric cover doesn’t suit your taste or is more time intensive than you can handle, you can also use scrapbooking paper or wrapping paper to cover the chipboard.

4. Finally, now that I have my cover prepared and my pages ready, I took them back to FedEx Office and had them drill holes in the book so that I could bind it together with ribbon.

This process took several hours across a few days and cost around $20 for the various materials (drilling holes, chip board, fabric, etc.)

Ta-da! Here’s my finished product.

You could also create a calendar and have stickers made to note the dates of ultrasounds, classes, doctor appointments, showers, milestones and other highlights (See a previous post on stickers here http://www.outofoffice.fedex.mediacdt.com/blog/fun-funnels-fancy-parties).

If you are also pregnant, I hope you’ll consider recording the process along the way – it makes for a great keepsake! Great gift, too!

Related FedEx Office Solutions: FedEx Office Print Online, Finishing Services

Comments

Post new comment

Your name: *

E-mail: *

The content of this field is kept private and will not be shown publicly.

Homepage:

Subject:

Comment: *

Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.
Lines and paragraphs break automatically.

All comments are moderated. Comments will appear as soon as they are approved by the moderator. Anonymous comments will not be posted. In addition, we will not post comments if they are defamatory, spam, or off-topic. If you do submit a comment, you warrant that it is your own original work, that it is not defamatory or offensive and does not infringe any law.