Update (Feb 2024): This article has resurfaced and I'm making updates to the Drive, which I've been updating for the past 2.5 years! It's crazy that I first wrote this when I was only 14 weeks along with my first, but I now have 2 beautiful daughters who are a year and a half apart. Thanks for being here and I hope this is helpful to you and your growing family. Xx
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I found out that I was pregnant in February 2021 and have been compiling a "journal" in a Google Drive to track my decisions and stats throughout pregnancy. As I write this, I'm just over 14 weeks along (for normal people, that's about three and a half months).
Over this time, I've been diligently tracking things like symptoms, weight, exercise, milestones reached, summaries of appointments, decisions made (and why), test results, and more. Think of it like an SOP, but for all things related to pregnancy.
I've been digging through research papers, blogs, baby books, etc. trying to find the best birthing centers in Austin, the best doula, the "optimal" birthing plan. What's the difference between and doula and a midwife? When's the earliest I can know the sex? What's an NIPT screening? What's an NT screening? And once I have results, what's "good"? What are the implications of your doctor moving your due date forward? When should I throw a baby shower? Should I even throw a baby shower? The questions are endless (and this is also a look into my brain when I wake up at 3AM and can't go back to sleep)!
On a more frivolous note, I've also been ferociously searching blogs, YouTube, and Instagram influencers' pages trying to pinpoint staple baby needs (I mean, do I really need 27 onesies?!) as well as some treat yourself items (if I'm being honest, I want a baller stroller). Forming a shopping list for such a big life event is seriously no joke.
On both ends, there's a TON of noise and lots of folks in the Mommy Blogging sphere with affiliate links galore that it makes my head spin.
So I started compiling my own “guide” of sorts that tracks the research-y and scientific-y aspects of pregnancy, but also the more fun parts like baby gear.
I’m tracking all this because I think it’s fun, I think it will be useful for my future pregnancies, and I think it will be helpful for my friends who will have children in the future! And I'm sharing this publicly now because I so badly wish someone with my kind of brain (i.e analytical, borderline obsessive, extremely detailed, but also has a splash of bougie) shared something like this!
I’ll continue to update this throughout pregnancy and after baby’s here so I can shed some light on things like baby items we could have skipped or absolutely needed from the get-go. Not surprisingly, most registries don’t have a followup, probably because the blogger is BUSY, so the guides don't render to be super helpful.
Here's a sneak peek of what's in the Drive, in case you're curious. Like I mentioned, I'll be adding much more to this as my pregnancy progresses!
So I'm just gonna put it out into the universe in a public Google Drive folder that you can make a copy of. I hope you find this helpful or somewhat interesting!
