Letters To My Little One, The Collection

When I first found out I was pregnant, I knew I wanted to create some sort of record of my pregnancy to show my child later in life. I decided to create a special scrapbook that would show not only pictures from my pregnancy, but would also include letters that were written especially for our little one by both me and my husband. As time has passed, I am so thankful I chose to create letters. As I read the letters from the beginning, I am pleasantly surprised at how some of the memories had faded and now come rushing back to me at once!

I chose to share these letters with you because when I first made my decision to write letters to my unborn child, I did some searching on the internet for inspiration. I did not find exactly what I was looking for. Therefore, I created my own vision and am hoping that someone will find my ideas inspiring for their own project. 

Here is a quick guide to the 11 letters I wrote my little one:

1. Finding Out We Are Pregnant

2. Meet Your Father

3. Telling Our Immediate Family the News

4. Hearing Your Heartbeat For the First Time

5. Ending the First Trimester

6. A Song To Our Little One From Us

7. Daddy's Birthday

8. Gender Vote- Are You A He OR She?!?!

9. Ultrasound/ Gender Reveal?!?!

10. What I Want To Teach My Child
11. Birth Story

What creative ways have you used to create your pregnancy scrapbook/journal?

Tenth Letter to My Little One

Okay, I have to be brutally honest about pregnancy! I have been sooo tired! I have, unfortunately, not written a letter for my pregnancy journal in months! Almost 3 months to be exact! My last letter was written in December. Nonetheless, I have finally written another letter for her (YES, it is a SHE, we found out at our second ultrasound in the last trimester)! See below:

3/21/13

My Little One,

You are a baby Girl! Our second ultrasound will forever be one of Mommy’s favorite moments in life. We got to see you move all over and were very pleased with how active you are! We didn’t care what your gender was, but finding out made everything seem so real for us. My plans for the future already started to solidify as I painted in a beautiful little girl! 

Mommy and Daddy plan to teach you so much about the world and I wanted to tell you a few lessons that I especially hope that you will learn from me.

1. Jesus loves you for you. He also has a plan for you. Trust him.
2. You can make the world a better place.
3. One can never go wrong with kindness, integrity, and being very clear about your expectations.
4. Never trust a man who is unkind to his mother.
5. You can be anything you want to be.
6. Dance like nobody's watching.
7. Love with passion.
8. Don’t be afraid of a broken heart.
9. Find an appropriate way to vent frustration, rather than speaking mean words.
10. A good book can change your life.
11. The world needs your point of view.
12. Nothing you tell me will ever make me want to stop hearing from you.
13. The world is full of mean girls, choose not to be one.
14. I’m on your side; especially on the days when it doesn’t feel like it.
15. Your body is not just yours. It’s a gift for your husband. I promise it’s worth waiting to unwrap together.
16. Marriage is an act of courage, commitment, and sacrifice. It’s also the most fun you’ll ever have with your best friend.
17. Be the friend you wish you had.
18. I will be your best friend. But I will be your mother more.
19. If it makes you feel uncomfortable, don’t do it, wear it or say it.

20. You will have to find a way to get along with people you don’t like.
21. Make mistakes. Learn from your mistakes.
22. Travel.
23. "It isn't what we say or think that defines us, but what we do."
24. Stand up for what you believe is right.
25. Your daddy has loved you better and longer than any boy ever will.
26. Be the kind of friend you want to have.
27. Dare to be different.
28. Life is fast, live slow.
29. Don't be afraid to get your hands dirty.
30. Do unto others as you'd have done to you.
31. You are not entitled to anything, it has to be earned.
32. Nothing will make me love you less.
33. Nothing will make me love you more.
34. You’re the most brave when you’re the most scared and keep going anyway.
35. Learn all that you can.
36. Dream big.
37. Apologizing takes strength. Be strong.
38. Find friends who become family.
39. If it looks too good to be true, then it probably is.
40. I will love whoever you choose to love.
41. You will always be my baby.
42. Life can change in an instant, never take what you have for granted.
43.  Trust your gut feeling.
44. Guardian angels and heaven are real.
45. You can always come home.
                                                      Love You Always,                                                             Mommy

What are the things you want to teach your child?

Please, no one tell me I am the only one that didn’t keep up with my pregnancy scrapbook as well as I had intended?!?! Life got ahead of me and now I am sooo close to having my little one. I am beginning to wonder if I will ever get my brain back?

Ninth Letter to My Little One

As you can easily see from the picture above... I am definitely SHOWING! We were lucky enough to snap a picture this time with both parents-to-be!

Below is another letter I have put in our baby’s pregnancy scrapbook. We had built up anticipation on finding out our gender’s (read more about that here). Read below to find out the results (you WILL be surprised)! 

12/17/12

My Little One,

Today we had a follow-up appointment with your doctor to discuss the ultrasound on 12/14. We felt so blessed to have seen you and to have gotten 3 very good pictures of you. At the beginning of our ultrasound, you had the hiccups and you had just eaten (your little belly was quite full)! You then became very active and danced around Mommy’s belly for the next half of the appointment. After all that dancing, you decided to take a nap. We got to see you yawn! You curled up into fetal position and stayed that way for the rest of the appointment. 

Unfortunately, we still do not know your gender! You moved around too much at the beginning of the appointment to see and then when you slowed down, the umbilical cord covered you up perfectly! Our lab tech. originally said you were a boy but then half-way through she guessed you were a girl. We were bummed out not to find out if we are having a girl or boy but are so happy to know that you are active and very healthy! We decided that God is reminding us that we do not always have control of everything and we must be patient! Our next ultrasound is in February (we plan to schedule it during our wedding anniversary) and we may find out your gender then! 

To update you on how the pregnancy is going: Morning sickness stopped around week 14. That is probably the biggest hurdle I have faced thus far with being pregnant. I feel you move regularly now and many of our family members have also felt you move! I try to regularly talk to you and play you music (mostly classical but you also listen to Mommy’s music on her frequent car trips to see clients)!  We love these moments with you!

I am still not in maternity clothes, even though we are just at half-way through the pregnancy. Your doctor was quite surprised when I showed up in my regular jeans but reminded me this will not last much longer as you will be doubling in size in the next few weeks!  I am hungry all the time but not craving anything in particular. Most of our friends say that Mommy is still hardly showing. I am trying to eat very healthy (lots and lots of fruits and veggies) and still workout regularly (some days are harder than others depending on my energy levels). One of the many joys of being pregnant though is that Uncle Josh and Daddy generally give Mommy first dibs on seconds (sometimes even thirds)! 

                                                     Love You Always,
                                                             

                                                    Mommy and Daddy

How real did your ultrasound make things for you?!?!

Eighth Letter to My Little One

In our next letter, we share the news of a poll we conducted in anticipation of possibly finding out the gender at our first ultrasound. We spoke with family and friends to get their guess and tallied their results. We also created a picture with the results to share via Facebook (keep scrolling after the letter to see). 

12/12/12

My Little One,

Your father and I are so excited to see you on the ultrasound on 12/14/12. We may even be lucky enough to find out your gender at this appointment! Mommy can already feel you moving around and sometimes Daddy can, too. Mommy plays classical music to you most nights! Maggie and Wes (our puppies) will lay on Mommy’s belly and we believe that they can hear you. Sometimes, they like this and sometimes it seems to catch them by surprise!

This week, we took a vote from our family as to whether they think you are a boy or girl. Although none of us knows for sure, it is fun to take a stab at who you may become! Here are the results: 

Girl		Boy
Aunt Brittany		Great Grandpa Butch
Grandma Claudia		Shauna
Cousin Madison		Great Aunt Toni
Great Grandma Carol		Great Uncle Wade
Great Grandpa Greg		Cousin McKenzie
Grandpa Daryll		Cousin Samantha
Aunt Angela		Uncle Glenn
Uncle Kevin		Tanelle
Cousin Miles		Stephanie
Uncle Jason		Grandma Lori
Justin		Sister Mags
Grandpa Neil		Uncle Josh
Aunt Josie
Heather
Mommy
Daddy
Brother Wes
17	to	12

As of now, the votes are in, predicting you to be a girl!

Love You Always,

Mommy and Daddy

We took this poll and posted to following picture to Facebook and asked everyone for their vote:

Posting on Facebook gave us many additional votes on the gender and made it fun for us as we anticipated our ultrasound!

What fun ways have you come up with as you anticipate finding out the gender of your little one?