You know what they say about babies: they’re young only once, so you’d better get your time in with them now.
This is often why parents make such a big deal about their newborn and everything that the baby does. It’s all happening for the first and only time, and then the child grows up, and these times are lost forever.
Well, maybe that’s a bit dramatic. It’s true that these times do go away fast, but luckily for all new parents out there who want to keep the memories alive, there are plenty of things you can do to remember the first year of your baby’s life.
Plenty of parents hire a newborn photographer to document their baby in all kinds of poses or settings. Other parents keep certain special items from their baby’s earliest days.
That’s never a bad idea, and it’s what we’re focusing on in this post.
What are the must-have mementos from your baby’s first year? Let’s look into the question here.
The Ultrasound Photo
The ultrasound photo is a classic memento that many parents save forever. If we’re talking about keepsakes from the earliest part of your child’s life, then this is certainly one of those moments: a photo of your baby growing inside its mother!
This is the time of life when your baby is the size of your fist, which is pretty crazy to think about. Once you have your ultrasound photo of your baby, it will be good to keep it somewhere safe. A scrapbook is a great idea here. It’s already a place to store photographic and paper mementos of certain times in one’s life.
Why not dedicate a whole scrapbook to your baby, or at least a section?
The Wristband from the Hospital
When your baby is born, the hospital, as per usual, will place a wristband on the baby that will state the standard information such as the child’s name, date of birth, and height and weight. It will also include the name of the mother.
Now, from a practical perspective, this makes sense, as it’s the best way we know to keep track of babies that are born and placed near other babies that all sort of look the same.
From a sentimental perspective, however, the hospital wristband is an adorable keepsake that will be fun to look at many years later, after you’ve forgotten about it. It will be quite something to see a grown-up child and recall that this tiny wristband once graced his or her wrist.
Your Baby’s Birthday Newspaper
Here’s an interesting one. Save a copy of a local or national newspaper from the day your baby was born. Tuck it away in a safe place and make it into a kind of time capsule.
One day, ideally years later, when you’re going through all the other keepsakes from your baby, you can break out the newspaper and take a look at it. See the stories of the day and note how different the times are. This can be a fun exercise.
There are many other keepsakes you could save from your baby’s first year, but we hope this list has jogged your brain a bit! Go off of these ideas when you’re collecting items from your own baby’s early days.