TL;DR
- Start with the month you are in, not with the birth. No page in a memory book has a deadline.
- Fill one page at a time. A short prompt takes about five minutes, and every page is optional.
- Print photos once a month in 4x6, and catch up backwards from your camera roll whenever you lose a stretch.
Where do I start if my baby is already six months old?
Start with today. Write the month you are living in right now, before you write anything about the birth.
The pages about the first days will still be there next week, and the hospital details are written down somewhere already. What disappears first is the ordinary stuff: the noise the baby makes before falling asleep, the afternoon walk, the name only your partner uses. That is this month, and it is the one page you cannot reconstruct later.
How long does one page take?
About five minutes, if you answer the question the page asks and nothing more. The prompts in the CheriBOO book are short on purpose, and every page is optional, so there is no version of the book you are failing to complete.
Two habits do most of the work: keep the book where you already sit, and keep a pen with it. Ink is not included in the box, and a page you have to hunt a pen for is a page you skip.
What should I write in the first month?
Write the facts you will forget and the ones nobody else can supply. In the CheriBOO book they sit in a few places:
- Page 29, hello little one: date of birth, birth time, weight and length.
- Pages 30 and 31: about my birth, and the longer story of the day.
- Pages 32 and 33: handprints and footprints. Any inkless baby stamp pad works, and ink is not included.
- Pages 34 and 35: home sweet home, then first days at home and first visitors.
- Page 36: messages and memories from loved ones. Pass the book around while people are still visiting.
- Page 41: the first few weeks of parenthood, written by you rather than about the baby.
- Pages 88 to 91, in the Milestones chapter: first time being held by my parents, first feeding, first night at home, first bath.
Nobody fills all of those in week one. Page 36 is the one worth opening early: the people who would write in it are in your house right now.
My baby is four months old and the book is still empty. Is it too late?
No. Start with the month you are in, then go back and fill the birth pages from the notes and photos you already have. Nothing in the book has to be written in order.
What goes in months two to six?
One two-page spread per month, plus any first that happens to land. Pages 42 to 63 give months one to eleven two pages each: a photo page with weight, length and size, then things I love and things I am not so into, favorite moments, challenges we overcame, new skills, places we explored, and one of the many reasons you love me.
Firsts do not respect the calendar, so they live in their own chapter and get filled out of order. Page 93 holds first smile, first laugh and first word; page 94 holds rolled over, sat up, crawled and walked, with page 95 for the same firsts in photos. Page 96 is first solid food and page 97 the table of first foods. The growth chart is page 87, the teeth chart page 99.
Do I need an exact weight and length every month?
No. The monthly pages have a place for weight, length and size, but an approximate number written today is worth more than a precise one you never write down. Copy the figures from a check-up when you happen to have them.
What about months seven to eleven and the first birthday?
The same monthly rhythm carries through month eleven, and then the birthday pages take over. Pages 42 to 63 end at month eleven for that reason: birthdays get four pages each, from page 64 to page 83, with birthday, my year in review, how we celebrated and year memories.
Two other runs fill themselves in this stretch. Pages 100 to 103 are first winter, spring, summer and fall; pages 105 to 108 are first Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's Day. If you write nothing else between months seven and twelve, write those eight pages as they happen.
What happens if I skip a page or a whole month?
Nothing. Every page is optional and the book still reads as a whole with gaps in it. Leave the space blank, or use it for a photo instead of words.
What changes in years two to five?
The book slows down to four pages a year, which is a relief. Each birthday from one to five has its own set of four pages in that run from 64 to 83, and the rest of the year gets summed up rather than logged.
Know the later pages in advance so you do not miss the day they belong to: my artwork on page 104, first kindergarten day on page 109, my first day at school on page 110, a letter to my future self on page 111. Chapter 6, Our Unique Moments, runs from page 113 to page 121: nine free pages, lined or with a caption line, for everything the prompts did not predict.
Pick a fixed date for the yearly writing, like the weekend after the birthday.
How do I handle the photos?
Print once a month, in one batch, and glue them in when you write the spread. The book has 61 photo spaces with no fixed frames and no plastic sleeves, so the layout is yours: 4x4 and 4x6 prints fit everywhere, and some spots take up to 6x6.
Attach them with tape, glue dots or any paper glue. Adhesive is not included, so buy it once and keep it in the box. The 160 gsm acid-free paper keeps ink from showing through, and the hidden gold coil binding lets the book open fully flat while you work on a spread.
Order the prints on the same day you write. Photos that stay on a phone stay on a phone.
What size photos should I print?
4x6 is the easiest size to order and it fits every photo space in the book, as does 4x4. Some spots take up to 6x6. There are no plastic sleeves, so you can also trim a print to whatever shape you like.
How do I catch up on six months at once?
Work backwards, newest month first, and stop before you get tired. Filling forwards from a birth you half remember is how books get abandoned on page 30.
- Open your camera roll and filter by month.
- Choose three or four photos per month and order every print in one batch.
- Fill the most recent month first, then move back one month at a time.
- Write only what you remember without checking anything. If a line stays empty, leave it empty.
- Stop after two or three months in one sitting.
A gap that stays visible is not a failure of the book. In ten years the blank line under month seven will read as an honest record of a hard month, which is more useful than a paragraph invented in September.
Can both parents write in the same book?
Yes. The prompts are worded for any parent, and a page like messages and memories from loved ones on page 36 is meant to collect more than one handwriting. The only rule is one book per child: twins and siblings each get their own.
The rhythm matters more than the object, but the object helps. The CheriBOO Baby Memory Book is built for this pace: 122 pages in six chapters from pregnancy to age five, short prompts and 61 photo spaces with no fixed frames. It is $32.95 on cheriboo.com, in four cover colors, with free US shipping and 30-day returns.
