I was born just over 12 months after my sister. My mom was pregnant for most of my sister’s infancy and was wrangling a 1-year-old most of mine. Having twins must have been easier than have two a year apart. With that said, nether one of us had a book of any sort documenting our babyhood. Survival mode was in its height with my parents, but it would be special to be able to look back on the progression of my dramatically changing and developing first year of life especially now that I have a daughter of my own.
The first 9 months of my daughter’s life was recorded in journal entries and Google Photos. I wanted a way to mesh the two into one organized, simple, classic book for my daughter to turn the pages of the story of her first year of life. I also wanted to complete it before her first birthday, which was the second week of May.
After a doing a deep dive into baby books, I found the one that summarized exactly what I was looking for: The Story of You by Artifact Uprising.
I personally wasn’t looking for anything that required a ton of tedious work with lots of specific facts to recall (I had 9 months worth of baby brain!). This book prompts you what to write and even what picture to add, but the prompts are loose enough to interpret in so many ways. It could not get any easier. I also didn’t want anything too “cutesy” or have girly bows or rattle clipart on it. I’m high-maintenance, I know. Artifact Uprising’s The Story of You Baby Book has four classic colors to choose from and a simple, classic design. I, obviously, had to go with olive since that’s the name of my baby girl ;).
Disclosure: I received this product as a gift from Artifact Uprising. All views and opinions expressed in the post are my own.
As I mentioned above, I was a little late to the game getting started on Olive’s book. If I had this from day one, it would have been a breeze to keep up with as the months went by. I had to do some serious catch-up and reminiscing to fill in the blanks. Luckily, I have been keep a journal where I write Olive letters every couple weeks from when she was born. Also, Google Photos definitely helps organize my life’s events so that I could print out photos and know exactly how old my baby was.
You can certainly use other printing companies to print regular photos, but Artifact Uprising has excellent quality square cardstock prints that go seamlessly with the simple, modern design of the book. It’s also nice that your book comes with 15 free 3.25×3.25 prints and a sleek pen to get you started.
I didn’t quite meet my goal of completely finishing the book before Olive’s birthday (I came so close), but completing well over half of it allowed me to truly remember how special this last year has been leading up to her big day.
It’s been a year of joy, tears, growth, successes, failures, and so much love. The Story of You has summed it up in such a beautiful way. My family has gotten so much joy from turning the pages through Olive’s first year and remembering the times they’ve spent with her and seeing how much she’s grown.
It’s never too late to start capsuling the memories of your babes. Now would be a great time to start with 10% off your book, 15 free prints, and a sleek, gold stainless pen included.
Artifact Uprising is offering 10% anything on their site now through May 31 if you use code: DAHLIAS10.
What are ways you’ve documented your baby’s life?
