Your favourite way to remember becoming a parent

touch*my*food*feel*myfork

I had birth plates made for mine
http://www.heronfinechina.co.uk/shop/142/139/index.htm

I also have my birth plate from when i was born
we all have the 2nd one down

luckily my hall has a plate runner all round the top and they are displayed on this

lilmissreading

mgdavid wrote: »

I reckon he won't be in the least bit interested; I think it more likely that you are doing this for now, for yourself, not for him, later on. Nothing wrong with that, entirely natural for the first one ( and congrats, BTW).
Many of us have looked back after 20 years and said 'what were we thinking of?'

:rotfl:very likely!

Interestingly my family do the shared talking of memories as another poster (Caroline?) suggested and therefore there are lots of birth/childhood stories floating around. Who was there, how much babies weighed, how long it took, where the birth happened. These stories have been even more talked about in my pg but a large amount was known to me already.

DH on the other hand was unable to say how much he weighed, who was there, what time or other facts that in my family would be taken for granted the person being born would know about. He feels a bit left out and in fact when we went to ask MIL and FIL the other weekend they couldn't quite remember some of the details either. He decided he'd like our son to have access to these details even if he's never interested and I certainly like the idea for us.

lilmissreading

lostinrates wrote: »

What is REALLY lacking is really useful stuff. Information about what jabs and childhood illnesses they had ( not all the childhood was in one country so its not all on medical records). Things about how his mother felt about things.

When we moved house this year I found a genealogy book I guess i would call it, given to me as a child by my paternal grandmother. I went this year with it to my maternal grandmother to complete that side and have included things like cause of death where known so they have a reasonably useful and comprehensive medical history should they ever need it. DH needs to do his half. Was planning on keeping any medical stuff with that, including our blood types too. Really a reference book than something sentimental but if anyone gets interested in that stuff in the future it will hopefully help.

lilmissreading

I have been thanking people but just to say thanks again for all these ideas. Will see what DH reckons too! Some good and lovely ideas which I had hoped for from the good and lovely people of MSE

Person_one

lilmissreading wrote: »

DH on the other hand was unable to say how much he weighed, who was there, what time or other facts that in my family would be taken for granted the person being born would know about. He feels a bit left out and in fact when we went to ask MIL and FIL the other weekend they couldn't quite remember some of the details either. He decided he'd like our son to have access to these details even if he's never interested and I certainly like the idea for us.

When the baby's born, you will almost certainly get at least 2 or 3 'baby books' as presents. You can just use whichever one you like most to record all that kind of stuff. Its not very 'original' but its also nice and easy to store and not too much of a burden or too much fuss.

I should warn you though, it seems to be incredibly common that parents go to loads of effort recording every detail of their first child's existence, then any subsequent ones get maybe their date of birth filled in but the rest stays blank because they're just too busy and exhausted to bother with all that stuff! :rotfl:

lilmissreading

Person_one wrote: »

When the baby's born, you will almost certainly get at least 2 or 3 'baby books' as presents. You can just use whichever one you like most to record all that kind of stuff. Its not very 'original' but its also nice and easy to store and not too much of a burden or too much fuss.

I should warn you though, it seems to be incredibly common that parents go to loads of effort recording every detail of their first child's existence, then any subsequent ones get maybe their date of birth filled in but the rest stays blank because they're just too busy and exhausted to bother with all that stuff! :rotfl:

Secret confession - for 6 years I occupied the golden spot as only child/grandchild/niece etc so have things like a curl of hair, picture from nursery, first words and so on. Therefore i feel that I would like the same for ours even if it is for me more than him.

On the other hand my siblings have more stories in the sense that there are more people around to remember. i can talk about the time my brother drew stick people all over the walls but he of course missed most of my young childhood being 6 years younger.

theoretica

If it is for the baby I think the most likely to be of interest (eventually) would be family history from the oldest relatives before it is forgotten. Newspapers are in the library and on the web, coins can be bought later, but what great gran remembers of her gran is irrecoverable.

lilmissreading

theoretica wrote: »

If it is for the baby I think the most likely to be of interest (eventually) would be family history from the oldest relatives before it is forgotten. Newspapers are in the library and on the web, coins can be bought later, but what great gran remembers of her gran is irrecoverable.

Agreed. We are hoping my grandmother and both our parents will give a chat on the camcorder. We find all their stories fascinating and do sometimes worry what we might forget

lostinrates

lilmissreading wrote: »

:
DH on the other hand was unable to say how much he weighed, who was there, what time or other facts that in my family would be taken for granted the person being born would know about. He feels a bit left out and in fact when we went to ask MIL and FIL the other weekend they couldn't quite remember some of the details either. He decided he'd like our son to have access to these details even if he's never interested and I certainly like the idea for us.

This too is true. Simple baby book memories, first word, age he walked, talked etc. I agree with person one, those baby books are good guides for things people might want to know later.

theoretica

lilmissreading wrote: »

Agreed. We are hoping my grandmother and both our parents will give a chat on the camcorder. We find all their stories fascinating and do sometimes worry what we might forget

Be sure you have a plan for keeping the file formats up to date and backed up onto fresh media.