Baby album books in the internet age are much easier to manage than in my mom’s age. It’s now easier than ever to keep your baby’s memories all in one place, stay Green, and share with loved ones across the globe! It’s so fun to keep a record of your baby’s first year (or two or three) and all their important milestones like first smile, rolling over, and first steps!

My mom recently sent me my baby album book because she moved from a larger house to a smaller apartment with my eldest brother and my niece (12) and nephew (9), and she just didn’t have the room for the extras. It was fun to look through it, even though it was only partially filled in (I am the fourth of five kids you know). The most interesting thing was how heavy I was at 6 months old! I was close to 20 pounds and it is very ironic because now that I’m an adult, I am only 5′ 3″, so fairly short (I won’t share my weight now after 2 kids haha). My youngest son (now almost 16 months), was also big and chunky at 6 months, but has thinned out now that he’s started moving around. I’ll be curious if he ends up like me (on the short side) or my hubby (on the tall side).

The baby album book was soooo old, warped, and stained. It sort of gave it a nostalgic feel, but now this baby book was now in my hands and now it’s in a box in a closet. I have two baby album books for my two sons, partially filled in, but to receive mine in the mail made me think about how baby album books are so different now in the internet age.

Baby Album Books in my mom’s age

Although it’s nice to be able to flip through my baby album, it took up space in my mom’s apartment and now in a box in my closet. I hate to throw it away and love the idea of keeping it, but how long do I expect this book to last before it falls apart? Do I expect my kids and grandkids to keep it, too?

Baby album books in my mom’s age also go against the current Green Movement with all of the trees needed to make the books. Given there are over 12,000 babies born a day in the U.S. alone, I guess we can estimate a baby album book in my mom’s age to be made out of 2% of a tree, so we can estimate if all the babies born in one day in the U.S. had a baby book, it would use up about 240 trees or 2,880 per year. That’s not such a good thing.

Finally, baby albums in my mom’s age can be embarrassing to share. You have to whip it out at the birthday party or heaven forbid at your wedding. Exactly, when is a good time to take the baby album book out, anyway?

Baby Album Books in the Internet Age

In the age of Facebook and MySpace, sharing photos is so easy. You can snap a picture of your baby and show your friends and family (who may not live close to you) the first time she rolled over or her first smile. No longer do you have to feel bad about showing them the 100th picture. You upload it and when it’s convenient your loved ones will look, comment, and smile. The only drawback to that is they are not all in one location just for your baby’s “baby book”.

My husband has also been working on our Family Tree for over 2 years. He is researching way back and it’s become quite a challenge for him. It is way more involved than adding father, mother, grandparents like my boys’ baby book. When he’s done, they’ll have a family forest, not a family tree!

If you are the organized type like me, you appreciate having an online baby album book where you can have all your baby’s milestones plus pictures all in one place and can add captions, e-mail it to loved ones and even include how many diapers he was going through, whether he was sleeping through the night plus how much he was eating at the time without any additional effort. I wonder how much I was eating to be 20 pounds when I was 6 months old! I know my mom breastfed me, but I’m not sure if I was eating solids by then given it was more accepted way back then. We now know it’s recommended not to start solids until sometime between 4 and 6 months. With my son, I know for sure he was only getting breast milk and yet grew much faster than his older brother.

Whether you have a baby album book from your mom’s age or the internet age, it’s fun to keep track of all your baby’s milestones with pictures. Since I now download all of my pictures to my computer, it definitely makes more sense for me to have a baby album in the internet age. I have printed some pictures, but mostly they just sit around. I love e-mailing my family and friends pictures and it’s a lot easier, doesn’t use up any trees, keeps my embarrassment low, and doesn’t clutter people’s homes (just their inboxes if they don’t hit delete).

What kind of baby album book do you have?