Ten Creative Ways to Document Your Pregnancy Journey

Documenting your pregnancy journey is a powerful way to preserve memories, capture milestones, and reflect on the transformative experience of becoming a parent. By documenting your pregnancy, you create a tangible record of the joys, challenges, and emotions that accompany this transformative (and sometimes strange!) time in your life. You can keep this private and look back on it as your child grows, or you can create something you plan to share with your child one day.

Here are ten creative ways to document your pregnancy journey.

#1 Create a Time-Lapse Video

Take a weekly photo (or even a short video clip) of yourself in pregnancy and combine each into a video to show how you change over the nine months. Find a way to display which week of pregnancy is represented in each photo or video. Some people use printable signs that show each week. You could also hold or stand next to a white board or chalk board with the week written on it. There are also apps that allow you to edit photos and add stickers or text to them.

#2 Start a Journal

Journal about your experiences throughout pregnancy. Start by finding a blank book or digital option to fill with entries. You can even find pregnancy journals with prompts created just for this purpose. Decide how frequently you want to write and get started!

If journaling feels overwhelming, consider creating a micro-journal. One or two sentences per entry can feel much more doable and can be enough to remember the big and little moments during your pregnancy.

#3 Create a Scrapbook

You can create a scrapbook throughout pregnancy. Fill it with:

• Periodic baby bump photos

• Ultrasound photos

• Baby shower invitation

• Other baby shower items

• Handwritten notes

#4 Make a Belly Cast

Near the end of pregnancy, consider making a belly cast to remember how your body has changed. Create a 3D mold of your pregnant belly using casting materials, then decorate it with paint or embellishments to display as a unique reminder and keepsake of your pregnancy. To make this easier, you can purchase a belly casting kit. There are also birth workers that offer this as a service.

#5 Put Together a Pregnancy Time Capsule

Fill a container with items that represent your pregnancy journey, such as:

• Letters to your baby
• Ultrasound images
• Baby bump photos
• Other photos taken throughout pregnancy
• Predictions for the future
• Items saved from your baby shower
• Magazines
• Family history info
• Newspaper from the day your baby is born

You could even incorporate this into your baby shower and include notes from friends and family that attended. Or have grandparents write notes to your baby while you are in labor.

Bury or store the capsule somewhere safe and decide when it should be opened, like on a milestone birthday or other event.

#6 Create a Memory Box

Create a special box where you can collect items like ultrasound images, photos, notes, letters, baby shower invitations, pregnancy photo shoot images, and other mementos to look back on whenever you’re feeling nostalgic. You can also choose a time to share the items in the box with your child. Consider adding a little gift inside for your child, like a locket or other keepsake.

#7 Curate a Pregnancy Playlist

Create a curated playlist of songs that hold special meaning for you during your pregnancy, documenting your emotions and experiences through music. Streaming apps usually allow you to create playlists, and you can do this for free on Spotify.

#8 Start a Pregnancy Memory Jar

Fill a decorative jar with slips of paper documenting special moments, milestones, and funny anecdotes throughout your pregnancy. You can keep the jar for yourself to remember your pregnancy, or consider gifting it to your child at some point in the future. You could also find a time to read the memories as a family.

#9 Make Art

Art is a wonderful way to capture transformative life events. Consider doing art projects during pregnancy. You could display them in your baby’s nursery or save them in a decorative box. Here are some ideas of what to create:

• Use clay to create a pregnancy sculpture
• Paint your vision of an ideal birth experience
• Knit or crochet a baby blanket
• Color pregnancy-themed coloring pages as a mindfulness activity
• Add doodles or sketches to a pregnancy journal
• Do a cross stitch project
• Create wall art for your baby’s nursery
• Make a shadow bow with photos and other mementos
• Create a sketchbook and add to it throughout pregnancy
• Make an ornament for your baby’s first Christmas, if you celebrate

What you ultimately choose to create will depend on skills you already have. Or use this as an opportunity to take a class or learn something new before your baby arrives!

#10 Document Pregnancy Nature Walks

Take regular walks in nature throughout your pregnancy, documenting the changing seasons and landscapes with photos or sketches in a nature notebook to connect with the natural world and your growing baby. You can also add pressed leaves and flowers that you find along the way, tree bark rubbings, and trail maps.

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Choose a method for documenting your pregnancy that feels doable and exciting. Use this as a creative outlet and way to focus on yourself and your pregnancy before your baby arrives. Maybe even use this as a way to learn a new skill or try something new. If you have a partner, you could also consider making this an activity you do together. 

📌 And, if you need ideas and inspiration, check out my Pinterest board!