Pregnancy Letters

Children love to hear true stories about their family members- especially when the story involves themselves! They revel in all the little details, want to hear them over and over and remember them better than one might expect that they would.

With this in mind, I began writing a letter to M when I was pregnant with her, telling her the story of her time in the womb and her delivery. I wrote it envisioning that I would read it to her as a story when she was about six or seven years old. Now that I'm pregnant with baby #2 I'm beginning to piece together some of the elements of a second letter. (For me, pregnancy is perfectly suited to such a task because I become ridiculously sentimental during those months)

If you decide to write a similar letter here are some ideas for things to include:

- The circumstances surrounding the discovery that you were pregnant
- How you announced the pregnancy to different people
- Your feelings the first time you heard the heartbeat
- A description of where you were living at the time
- Your husband's and my prayers for the baby
- The different foods you craved or felt aversion for while you were pregnant
- Reactions of older siblings to the news (as long as they are not terribly negative! :-)
- A description of the seeing the baby for the first time in the ultrasound
- An explanation of how your baby got its name and your thoughts about the name
- A description of the unique ways in which the baby moved in the womb (did he have hiccups, etc)
- The weather, time of day, circumstances when you first went into labor
- Some of the less graphic details of the delivery
-Description of holding the baby for the first time

The more funny, interesting, and unique details the better! Above all though, I'm hoping that when my children hear their stories they get a profound sense of the excitement surrounding their birth and the fact that they were loved and wanted.

Have you done something like this? I would love to hear the details!