1st Year Baby Book/Album

Here are two that I like. You can find them at Amazon.com: My Family, My Journey: A Baby Book for Adoptive Families (Diary)

by [URL="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/search-handle-url?%5Fencoding=UTF8&search-type=ss&index=books&field-author=Zoe%20Francesca"]Zoe Francesca[/URL] Our Chosen Child: How You Came To Us And The Growing Up Years (Hardcover)

I've created one and it is beautiful, but it was created with me adding pictures, titles, stories etc. What is neat you can add your own backgrounds etc. It was fun making and it looks so wonderful. We had a blast getting it done. Our information is somewhat limited so it helps to make it about the 1st year. The lifebook I am creating is just being done in Word with a scrapbook - lifebook format. The web site for the book we created i: [url=http://www.shutterfly.com]Shutterfly | Develop, Print & Share Digital Photos: Create Photo Gifts Online[/url] It's a neat site if you haven't seen it yet... I hope this helps...

My niece's baby book is the Chosen Child book someone mentioned, and it has beautiful illustrations. Only reason I didn't use that one is because there really is no place for writing about birthfamily. I have already decided that next baby, I will go with the pages from the Creative Memories company. I saw them after I got a book for our daughter, and the pages are easily for adopted babies.

My sister just got us this book to use for Ty. I love the layout and the inside of the book...I'm not crazy about the title...I don't know, it rubs me the wrong way. If we had a bio child would they not be chosen somehow? I get why it's said, I just don't love the wording. I'm kinda cranky tonight. Anyway, there is a 1 or 2 page spread (it's all the way across the room, I *can't* get up) that is called "Other Special People" or something like that. In my mind, they made the wording vague like that so it could be used for birth family, or if you choose not to, it could be used for Aunts, Uncles, grandparents etc. They make it your choice, but we'll include Ty's birth family, and pictures of them there...so this book can be adapted pretty easy to include the birth family. So I have that book, I have a traditional baby book (which I neatly cut out the pages that don't apply, or cover with an 8X11 solid sheet with other stuff, but I also would like to send the pages about the pregnancy etc to Ty's birth mom when we get to a place where she might want to do those for him. My favorite because it's so easy is the fill in calendars. I make notes on the top where it shows the month and little remarks on a day where something happened. But I love using the stickers. I set mine all up so I can just fill in weights and heights and important stuff, or make notes about the big days...

I loved The Story of Me -- you can find vendors if you Google this name. These fabric bound binders for which you can buy inserts for many different family stories, including a great one for adoption. I wasn't interestedin creating the whole book but WAS interested in having a baby-relevent book for OUR child. I loved this one. (I actually took the cover off and used it as a pattern for a more personalized one, which I loved doing. It came out amazingly!) susan

I also used this one..you can purchase it at most Hallmark stores.It comes with the adoption inserts. It has small envelopes for first took and first hair cut. As well as notes from mom and dad. A friend of mine copied the "mom and dad" pages and in her creative way made one set the bio parents section and allowed them to write notes they would want her to read when she got older. Its VERY cute and can be used for boys or girls! Good Luck!

I actually just saw a few baby books at Hallmark the other day that had optional pages in the back to swap out to get rid of the pregnancy pages. They were cute.

I'm another one that has "The Story of Me". I like it a lot, I just never get a chance to work on it. :)

dlmartin67: I looked at Amazon at those two books and they look great. Thanks for the suggestions. mama again: Thanks so much for responding. I looked at the Shutterfly website but I'm still wondering how you made your 1st year album. Did you do it as the months progressed and you updated it regularly in Shutterfly? Does that mean that you have to go into Shuttertly each time you update it and add pics and wording? And your lifebook is not done through Shutterfly? By the way, how does the lifebook work...is it an ongoing book until the child is 18? redbonec: I looked at Creative Memories website but didn't see anything that mentioned a first year album. Do they have have something preprinted for you to fill in or do you devise it yourself?aclee: I like your idea of using a traditional baby book and just cutting out the pages that don't apply or covering them with the paper. I'd not even thought of that. I saw a really cute 1st year in Costco but it had pregnancy pages so I didn't buy it...never thought to just tear that page out or let birthmom fill it out later. Great idea. Thanks!mommy3: Thanks so much for responding. I saw the Story of Me on a website and I was thinking that may be a good one. It sounds like it's a binder that you can open and remove the pages. I like that. How did you personalize your book? Lovin Life: I called Hallmark a few days ago and asked if they had a baby book specifically for adoption but they said no...perhaps the pages for adoption are enclosed and the sales person wasn't aware. Someone else had told me about Hallmark and I have plans to go so I can see what they have in person. I like the idea of duplicating the pages for the birthparents to fill out. Thanks.mommarci: You're the third person whose mentioned Hallmark...I have to get there this week. I really wanted to get my baby book started. devildogwife: I'm hoping to get a fairly simple book so it won't take up too much time. I just realized that you're Cameron's mom. I've been keeping up with his story. I'm sorry he's going through so much right now. I remember several months ago when we were in the waiting stage I was going through my own emotional stuff and I read about Cameron and how amazing and strong you were--I realized my emotional stuff was nothing in comparison. Thank you for being an amazing wonderful mother to your son and example of what a mother is all about.

Glad that my idea of The Story of Me sounded like a possibility. My main personalization was to remake the cover, although the one that came with it was really cute and great quality. You have dozens of covers to choose between several different insert pages to add. I bought the adoption pages and then went through, adding and substracting pages that fit us the best. The pages in the binder are beautifully bright colors and excellent quality paper. I keep lots of stuff for each of our children, so need strong paper and room to grow! I liked the many inserts about birthparents, early days, what we were doing while waiting to adopt and more. Have fun. . . tell us which one you end up with, okay? susan

Hi wisdom, I have kept a daily log of events, kept up with a calendar by month and have a book that is in a scrapbook (lifebook) style that will include everything from stories, cards, poems etc. I have added pages of all families included with visits and events together along poetry written. This expands and we'll continue to collect things to add with pictures of days that are all about life, and those in her life. It's sort of like blogging in a book. We will be working on a web site as well to keep up with events for family far away. On shutterfly the book is mostly a book all about her life, and the DVD being created now will be events of all involved in her life, families, friends etc. This we will do annually. It is neat to work on these projects and order them that way, this was easier for us... I am sure whatever book you choose will be a great blessing for your precious one to have, as the time flies and the memories logged will be treasured forever by all to see....