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You might’ve picked up from casual mentions on the blog that I have a tiny future
genealogist on the way in the next week or two. So over the next few months, our other Family
Tree Magazine editors and some awesome contributors will keep you up-to-date on
genealogy news and resources (though I may pop back in to show a baby picture or two).

Being a family historian, I of course plan to record all the baby excitement for posterity.
But I couldn’t find any baby books I really liked—ones where I could include all the
information I want, add pages and pictures, and save keepsakes. So I’ve been putting
together my own, and I wanted to share it in case it inspires ideas for your own babies
or grandbabies:

First, I flipped through baby books at the store and googled baby book pages to
get ideas for what type of things I’d want to write down (baby shower info, the baby’s
“firsts,” etc.). I ended up relying mostly on these
printable pages, customizing them to my needs. I’ll add a family
tree chart, too.

I and went to the store for a cute binder (not vinyl, which isn’t photo-safe), some
acid-free cardstock and polypropylene envelopes. Here’s the binder:

The polypropylene envelopes (red was all I could find) got hole-punched and hold cards
and other mementos:

I set up the pages in Word with fonts and borders I like (leaving a wider margin on
one side for hole-punching), and printed them on the cardstock to fill in by hand.
(You could type everything, if you want.):

An envelope on this page keeps baby shower memorabilia:

I also can print photos to include. A couple of tips for expectant families: Scan
ultrasound images because the
originals tend to fade quickly. Also, a friend advised me to take some cardstock
to the hospital because the staff might make extra footprints for me.