Friends, family and complete strangers gave my husband and me a lot of advice before we had our little bundle of joy. “Sleep as much as you can now because you’ll never sleep again.” My favorite was the generic and frightening “You just wait. Your life is over as you know it.”

What no one shared with us was the record keeping that was involved. I remember a nurse coming in only minutes after we were settled in our room with a “pee, poo, feed” chart. We were instructed to record every in and out of our little bundle. The revolving cast of nurses and doctors that visited us all took great interest in this chart, so much so that I began to view it as something on which we were being graded. I wanted an A. Plus.

Once we got home, I had charts everywhere. I couldn’t remember where I left the last one and whether or not I recorded that feeding the hour before, let alone the day before. Running on only hours of sleep, I needed to simplify. I wanted a single place where I could record the basic ins and outs of our bundle, the running list of questions I had for the pediatrician and the little things our baby did that day to make me smile. I didn’t have the energy to really journal, but I did realize that some days I wanted to write down how I was feeling or my goal for the day (which was oftentimes something as simple as getting dressed). Some days I wrote about the overwhelming love I had for our baby. Other days I did nothing but complain.

I soon realized that this journal had turned into something I treasured. Not only did it conveniently hold the basic information of what was going into and out of our bundle, but it also held those tender memories I fear I would have eventually forgotten had I not written them down. Capturing the details in my own script has made the record so much more personal and meaningful than electronic options like a weblog or baby software, and I hope years from now our bundle will feel the same way.

In the words of Robert Brault, “Enjoy the little things, for one day you may look back and realize they were big things.” Hopefully the little bundle of journal will help you remember those precious, fleeting moments that make the journey of parenthood all worthwhile (and maybe make up for a few of those sleepless nights!).