Snap, Scribble, Keep: Capturing Your Pregnancy Before It Flies By

Confession time. I have roughly four thousand photos of my son's first year. Of my pregnancy? Three. And in two of them I'm doing that awkward half-turn where you try to hide behind a friend.

At the time it felt like pregnancy would last forever. Forty weeks! Practically a decade! Then suddenly I was holding a baby and couldn't remember when I first felt him kick, or what I craved in the second trimester. 🤷‍♀️

So here's the gentle nudge I wish someone had given me. You don't need a professional shoot or a beautifully curated scrapbook. You just need a few tiny habits that take minutes, not hours.

The Weekly Bump Photo

This is the easiest win of all. Same spot, same angle, roughly the same day each week. That's it.

Pick a plain wall or a doorway, stand side-on, and get your partner (or a propped-up phone on timer) to snap away. When you flick through them later, the slow growth looks like a little time-lapse, and it's genuinely magical.

• Keep it consistent: wearing the same top each time makes the change really pop.
• Set a phone reminder: "Bump Sunday" works wonders when your memory has gone walkabout.
• Missed a week? Don't panic. Nobody is checking, and a gap at 23 weeks won't ruin anything.

And if you hate how you look in photos right now? Take them anyway. Future you will see a person growing a whole human, not a double chin. Promise.

The Five-Minute Journal

Forget the idea of pouring your heart out every evening. Most of us are asleep on the sofa by half eight.

Instead, try a "three lines" rule. Once a week, jot down three things: how you're feeling, one funny or odd moment, and anything baby-related that happened. Cravings, appointments, the first flutter, the day your shoes stopped fitting.

A notes app works perfectly well. But there's something lovely about paper you can hold, especially when your little one is old enough to ask, "What was I like in your tummy?"

Not sure what to write? A few prompts to steal:

• What made you laugh this week?
• What are you most looking forward to?
• What's the strangest thing someone said about your bump?
• What did you eat way too much of?

Scan Pictures and Paper Bits

Those grainy black-and-white scan photos are precious, but here's a sneaky fact: many are printed on thermal paper, the same stuff as till receipts. Leave them in sunlight or a warm drawer and they can fade surprisingly quickly.

Pop a phone photo or scan of each one somewhere safe the day you get it. Then give the originals a proper home, out of direct light, along with your appointment notes and any cards people send.

A plain scrapbook with blank pages is ideal for this. Stick in the scans, add a line or two about how you felt on the day, and tuck in the little extras like the sticky note where you first wrote down a name idea.

Letters to Your Baby

This one might make you a bit teary, so keep the tissues close. 💛

Write a short letter to your baby once a trimester, or even just once in the whole pregnancy. Tell them what's going on in the world, what you're nervous about, and what you hope for them. It doesn't need to be poetic. "We painted your room yellow and your dad got paint in his hair" is perfect.

Partners can join in too. It's a lovely way for them to feel connected while the bump is doing all the obvious work, and those letters often become the most treasured thing in the whole collection.

Seal them in envelopes with a date on the front and decide later when to share them. A first birthday? Their eighteenth? Totally up to you.

The Little Things You'll Swear You'll Remember

You won't. None of us do. So capture the tiny details while they're fresh:

• How you found out, and who you told first
• The names on your shortlist (and the ones that got vetoed!)
• Your strangest craving and your biggest food aversion
• The song you kept playing to the bump
• What the weather was like the day you went on maternity leave

Physical keepsakes deserve a home too. The positive test (wrapped up, obviously), the first tiny outfit you bought, the hospital wristband once baby arrives. A small keepsake box with drawers keeps it all together instead of scattered across three kitchen drawers and a coat pocket.

Thinking One Step Ahead

Once baby arrives, the days blur together even faster. If you've loved capturing the bump, you'll probably want to carry it on.

A set of milestone cards is a nice thing to buy now and pop in your bag or nursery drawer, so they're ready for "Hello world" and those first monthly photos. Doing the prep while you still have spare hands (and a functioning brain) is a gift to your sleep-deprived self.

If friends and family keep asking what you'd like, keepsake bits like these are perfect to add to your BubsNest wishlist. They're thoughtful, affordable, and grandparents in particular love buying them.

Keeping It Low Pressure

Here's the most important bit. None of this is homework.

If you take bump photos for six weeks then forget, that's still six weeks more than you'd have had. If your journal has two entries, those two entries are gold. Pregnancy is tiring enough without guilt about your scrapbook game.

Pick one thing that feels fun, do it when you can, and let the rest go. Your baby won't care whether the album is perfect. They'll just love that you thought about them before they even arrived. 🥰