Xander Week 10 - Is it possible to over-document?
November 29, 2006
I have been pondering this question for a while now. Zach and I have always planned to have more than one child. Of course with the first, everything is new and exciting, and perhaps we go a little bit overboard when it comes to recording the first months/years of Xander’s life. My concern is that I don’t want the second child to feel like we didn’t document as much, but will I have the time/energy/interest in maintaining everything for baby #2? First and foremost, I’ve got this blog, which I think is an excellent way to store thoughts and feelings about the entire process, from conception through graduation. I’ve also got a baby book, a scrapbook, a hallmark calendar to mark all of Xander’s “firsts” (first smile, first trip, first tooth, etc.), a plaster mold of Xander’s hands and feet, and over 100 digital pictures of him in our Flickr account.
Lately I’ve been so busy with holiday preparation, family time, housework, etc., that I haven’t picked up the scrapbook or baby book in over a month. Not to mention that the calendar has been sorely neglected. And do we have too many pictures of the little guy? Will he grow up and be irritated that there are dozens of pictures from almost every week of his life? Will he wish that we hadn’t let all of our friends and family see all of the silly things we did, from the baby mowhawk to sitting him in a pumpkin… In this digital era, I don’t think we have any printed photographs of our son, aside from the professional ones taken at the hospital. How many pictures are too many? How many scrapbooks or baby books are too many? Will I have the energy to maintain an equal amount of documentation for future children? With everything there is to worry about with my current child, why am I wasting worry energy on potential children? Wow, it’s pretty easy to spend a lot of a day worrying!
In typical Sara fashion, I have been doing as much research as possible on parenting. Now I’m not sure if the information was helpful or just stressed me out. You see, when I read through the books I find that I’m not doing half of what they suggest. Then I worry that I’m not stimulating my baby’s development enough, or that I’m fostering bad habits in my kid.
I’m feeling pretty good this week. My morning sickness is pretty much gone, except sometimes when I brush my teeth (I know, it’s kind of weird - sensitive gag reflex…). My stomach continues to grow, which I’m still not ready for. Many of my clothes are too tight for me now. I’m going shopping for maternity clothes this weekend. I’ve picked up a few things here and there, but this is my first shopping excursion. It should be fun (I hope). I’ve been using two pregnancy websites, 