Before Taylor was born I knew I wanted to document as much as I could, as the youngest of three my parents didn’t have any baby books or albums of myself. It’s common for the first born to have these as you have more time to do them. Wanting something nice we can look back on in years to come but knowing I wouldn’t have enough time to create my own I went on the hunt for the perfect baby book, I trawled the internet and book stores for months and eventually I found it, the Orla Kiely Baby Journal!
As a designer I can be very picky when it comes to journals and print related products, Orla Kiely is a very well known print pattern designer and her designs are beautiful!
We were very excited when we received the new Orla Kiely Baby Journal from Octopus publishing, retailing at a RRP of £20 and filled with beautiful unisex colours and patterns, it’s like this book was made for me!
The book starts with a space for a letter to your unborn baby, an introduction to each parent and their family tree.
Before – The first section of the book is for before the special arrival, and themed around this very cute duck print, each section starts with a dividing page that doubles up as full page envelope to store little momento’s from the time.
I really enjoyed looking back at Taylor’s first scan and pregnancy pictures whilst filling out the book, dare I even say it made me want to do it all again already!
Hello – A place to share all the special memories of having your precious bundle, from the birth announcement and birth story to bringing them home, giving them their first bath and who the first visitors were.
I really like this section of the book as it’s so up to date, it even includes a section for you to write about how you made the announcement via social media.
The birth story page is nice and simple with sections to fill out without having to go into too much detail but making note of those important bits 😉
Their is also a space for a picture of mum and baby alongside a space for his hospital bracelet.
Little Things – This section gives you a place to document that first holiday, foot prints, hand prints, drawings and details about your babies daily routine, a cute space for keeping memories that many baby journals seem to overlook.
Milestones – The book also contains section for babies 1st birthday, a picture of their first shoes, drawings and other special milestones such as crawling, walking, weight diary and a record of getting their teeth through.
Their is also a handy page of lullabies, so you won’t be stuck for songs to sing to your little one, although most parents today sing modern pop charts to their little ones. mmmbop anyone?
The book also comes with a sticker page in the back to use when placing your images in it and a page full of the yellow sticky corners for holding your photographs in place, I particularly like this as it means you don’t need to glue your pictures in and can change or remove them easily.
I hadn’t realised until recently that hidden in the last pocket of the book is a fold out height chart, really handy to help you with keeping the height & weight page up to date!
Overall I really adore this baby book and am so glad we finally found the perfect one, their are so many different baby journals but they all seemed overly baby themed or very generic. This book ticked all the boxes for me and I think Taylor will enjoy being able to look back on it in years to come, I know I will!
