Pregnancy Journal

Pregnancy is an all-encompassing, though surprisingly fleeting, experience. Though it may not feel like it at the time, once your baby is born, the details of pregnancy will be less center-of-mind. A pregnancy journal can help preserve your experiences for self reflection or to reference in a future pregnancy.

Pregnancy

Being pregnant brings a range of physical symptoms and emotional journeys. Sometimes, it can feel as though as soon as one symptom or emotion dissipates, another presents itself to be processed. This can be a lot to manage — it’s like being on an ever-evolving expedition that’s both very personal and very out of your control.

Many pregnant people find it helpful to be active in processing their feelings and thoughts about both the physical and emotional aspects of pregnancy. One of the best ways to do this is to keep a pregnancy journal. A pregnancy journal can also be a record of what can be either in the present or in the future a period of your life you look back on with fondness.

Journaling

Journaling is a practice of regularly writing about your thoughts, experiences, and reflections. These writings are collected in one place where they become a record of a particular period in your life. Some people keep journals all the time, whereas others dedicate journals to specific experiences, such as pregnancy or travel. For some, keeping a journal that is specific to one topic can make the practice of journaling easier, because it alleviates the pressure some people feel to capture their whole life experience in a journal. Instead, by focusing on one aspect of their life, they find it easier to get into the practice of regular journaling.

Journaling your pregnancy

As with any form of journaling, the shape your pregnancy journal takes will be unique to you. Some people find it helpful to write an entry each day detailing how they’re feeling that day, while others use some sort of schedule. Some ideas might include:

• Writing an entry each time you have a doctor’s appointment, detailing how you felt going in, what you and your doctor talked about, and what you learned about your pregnancy
• Writing in your pregnancy journal each day, or every other day, or every week at the same time, and reflecting on how you’re feeling, what has been on your mind, and what you’ve been experiencing physically. Many pregnancy apps update pregnant people weekly about the size of their baby and any new symptoms they may expect to experience. Timing your pregnancy journaling with when you are processing new information through a pregnancy tracking app can be helpful.
• Writing in your pregnancy journal anytime you experience what you consider to be a pregnancy milestone. This could include feeling your baby move for the first time, seeing your baby on ultrasound, hearing your baby’s heartbeat, picking out a name, learning your baby’s sex if that is something you intend to do, having a baby shower, or reaching a new trimester.

Ideas for your pregnancy journal

It may be helpful to focus on specific questions or prompts when starting your pregnancy journal. These questions can help you get into the habit of reflecting on the experience of pregnancy.

• When did you find out you were pregnant? How did you know to take a test? How did you feel when you found out the test was positive?
• What were the first physical symptoms you felt in your pregnancy?
• What do you find yourself thinking about when you imagine your baby growing?
• What do you find yourself thinking about when you envision birth?
• Do you have fears or apprehensions about giving birth? What are they?
• What did it feel like to hear your baby’s heartbeat?
• What did it feel like to see your baby on an ultrasound?
• What are your food cravings today?
• Go through your day minute by minute. When did you wake up? How did you feel? What happened next?

Keeping a pregnancy journal digitally

Keeping a pregnancy journal on your computer, iPad, phone, or all three can have big benefits. Diarly syncs across your devices, which means that for the most part, you will always be near a device where you can update your journal. For a pregnancy journal specifically, which is all about capturing very specific thoughts about fleeting moments that comprise one big period of time, having the ability to update your journal from your phone can be especially beneficial. For example, you may be overwhelmed with emotion when you come out of your ultrasound appointment, having just seen an image of your baby for the first time. With Diarly, you can quickly jot down some thoughts on your phone while those emotions are still raw.

Start as soon as you can

If you are pregnant or are thinking about becoming pregnant, there’s no better time than right now to begin your pregnancy journal. Although it may not feel like it at the time, pregnancy is actually a very temporary and fleeting phase. Before you know it, you’ll be onto parenthood and will have new things to reflect on and think about. Collecting your thoughts and experiences about pregnancy as they happen is the best way to make sure you have them to reflect back upon in the future.