Weekly Baby Photo Project: a house log

A lot of you have been asking if we are taking weekly baby photos of Teddy, like we did with Clara for the first year of her life (you can read more about that project here, here, and here). The answer is yes! Although we had some lively putting a slightly distinct spin on our weekly project this time around. Here are his first two shots:

Note: the number font is called Sullivan and the “weeks” font is called Big Mouth.

While we were tempted to do something entirely distinct for Teddy, we did not want to fully reinvent the wheel (when it came down to it, we truly liked how Clara’s project turned out). So simply like Clara’s project, Teddy’s has the same core elements: baby + fabric + photoshopped age.

But the two tweaks we made for his project were:

• Clothing: I, lover of all baby clothes, sometimes wish we had branched out beyond the white onesie during the 1st year of Clara’s project (we brought in skirts and pants in years 2 & 3, which brought a lot of personality) – so I thought putting Teddy in real clothes from the start would be lively.
• Scale: Without any other objects in the pictures for Clara’s project, it is not as straightforward to see her getting bigger since she fills simply about as much of the frame in Week 1 as she does in Week 52. So we introduced a wooden plaque for Teddy’s photos (picked up at JoAnn Fabrics) to act as a visual reference. Plus, it makes for the ideal spot to photoshop his age since we will not have the blank-canvas-onesie every week.

Teddy already has a more diverse wardrobe than John does (true story) thanks to hand-me-downs, gifts from relatives, and some serious sale rack stalking by yours truly, so coming up with a distinct outfit each week should not be too rough. Those suspenders above were brought back from London by my mom (is he not the most dapper two week old you’ve ever seen?). And in the background department, we chose that instead of using 52 fabrics throughout the year, we will cycle through around eight fairly plain ones – so we do not distract from (or clash with) the clothing too much. These are all from JoAnn, except for the quilt I sewed him.

We have taken his first two photos in the same spot that we took most of Clara’s first pictures: on the daybed that used to be in our first home’s sunroom, which now acts as Clara’s big girl bed. Photography guides can offer you some more interesting options. Her room gets fairly excellent afternoon light, so it is a strong spot for them. Especially because Clara likes to assist/coach/jump into a few random shots. And John’s Christmas reflector/diffuser has already come in handy for evening out any shadows.

And while we are on the topic of documenting a baby’s growth, this seems like a good moment to share the pictures that we took throughout my pregnancy, which has been another frequently requested topic from you folks. We did not truly share a lot of bump pictures as my first pregnancy progressed (they simply showed up on the journal later in a grid like this), so we chose to do the same thing this time around – collecting them all and then making one grid of them at the end.

In fact John made the grid (you know he loves a good infographic) and it was also his idea to take my picture in front of the same bush in our backyard during each season to capture the ever-changing background as my belly grew. The bush exploded with fairly blooms on simply about the exact day that Teddy was born, so that last photo was taken when he was simply six days old.

But perhaps my go-to photo taken during this pregnancy is this one (blue trim and all!) – simply because it was a Christmas miracle that Clara stood still sufficient for this long of an exposure.

How do you folks document your pregnancy? Do you get portraits taken by a pro? Cast your belly with plaster? Snap a series of photos in the same spot? And do you take weekly or monthly photos of your babies? When we began the project with Clara we were not sure if we could keep up with weekly pictures for her whole first year, but it turned into something that we truly looked forward to, so I am hoping we have as much lively with Teddy’s. So far, it has been a fairly strong time. You should hear Clara coaching him from the sidelines. Might have to get that on tape…