Scrapbooking Infertility and/or IVF Journeys

Here's the thing about scrapbooking... most of it is about showcasing happiness and contentment. I've fallen victim to this too in the past - it's easier to put on your rose-tinted glasses and write/create about what makes life great.

But what about the aspects of life that aren't so great? In my personal case, I'm talking about loss, infertility and IVF. Back when we were trying to conceive Rowan, I didn't include our infertility journey in any of my scrapbooking. I kept this blog (private at the time) as a place to get out all of my feelings about the process, and in my eventual pregnancy album made a single page where I chronicled the path we took to where we ended up:

(click image to see more detail)

In reality, the journey to conceive a child could have very much been a separate album. It might not have been the most positive album in parts, and over time I've learnt

My Pregnancy Scrapbook [in Full]

I've made this post public for two reasons: 

1. To share with my family and friends who have listened to me talk about this project for a long time now; and

2. To inspire anyone who happens to find this post through search engines that there are many ways to document a pregnancy, and digital scrapbooking is one of them. :)

Just after Christmas, I finished working on my pregnancy scrapbook which had been over two years in the making. I taught myself digital scrapbooking when I was pregnant with Rowan so that I could undertake this project, and when I look back over my earlier layouts to the more recent ones in the book, I can really tell the difference. I thought about remaking a few of them before printing, but resisted the urge because I have memories associated with these earlier pages. So instead I tweaked the shadows and fixed up any glaring mistakes, and sent it all off for printing.

I printed with an Australian company called 123Cheese, as I had a coupon I'd bought earlier during 2012 with this purpose in mind. Basically, I got a $100+ project printed for $30, including postage/shipping. I was impressed with that, and had printed with the company before (photobooks, not digital scrapbooking projects) so I could vouch for their printing quality. Blurb are another printing company that I recommend, their quality is phenomenal but they are more expensive (you can search out coupons online pretty easily though, there are generally 15% coupons floating around; even up to 25% off before Christmas).

Anyway, back to the book... it was quite literally a labour of love and although I've shared pages here and there from it before, I've never posted it in its entirety before now. So without further ado, here are some pictures of the printed book itself and all week-by-week layouts. Lots of text (mainly for me to look back on, plenty of belly pictures and all the things I deemed important to tell at the time. I've had people ask me if I'd go to this much "effort" for subsequent pregnancies and I've said no, though I'd probably do a more abridged version if time allowed.

Some of the text/pictures might be difficult to make out, but that's due to the compression and resizing. In the printed book, everything looks crystal clear - even the thin journalling fonts. :)

The book itself; hardcover and linen-bound, printed in 12x12".
Hand for size comparision!

An example of layouts in the book (weeks 16-17)

The printing quality is exceptional, though a stitch-bound album would have been lovely,
glue-bound was only available from this company.

Following the week-by-week pages, I have his (lengthy) birth story, and a spread of 10 photographs of Rowan's first week in the world

ONTO THE ALBUM!

To view all pictures at a better size, click on one of them and it will take you to a full-windowed gallery (displaying bigger than in this post)

Inside front cover

This Month in Scrapbooking

I've been digiscrapping like a machine lately, working on Rowan's 1st year book (nearly done!), my pregnancy album (11 pages to go!) and miscellaneous pages in our 2012 family book. I've also recently been asked to be a part of Scrapping With Liz's summer CT (creative team), which I'm thrilled about (I've had a secret crush on Liz's template designs for over a year now, and hers were the first templates I started using when I was getting into digiscrapping more seriously).

Here is a selection of my recent work, clicking the images will take you to a larger one. My main galleries are at ScrapOrchard and Zig Zag Scrap, where you can see these layouts and more!



My Pregnancy Scrapbook

... has been a work in progress. But it's slowly coming together, I've been working on it alongside Rowan's baby book of his first year (which is currently over 100 pages and counting... oh dear!).
I chose to have a single layout to represent each week, and a few double layouts for key events (20 week ultrasound, baby shower etc). So really, we're talking at least 40 layouts and each probably takes a couple of hours because I'm fussy about my work. When I started this project at about 20 weeks pregnant, I was kind of new to digital scrapbooking and I've come a long way since then... so I can see myself redoing some of the earlier layouts (weeks 4-5 in particular) with my current style of scrapping.

Here's what I've done in the book so far:

click image to see bigger

And this is an example of a couple of the pages I've completed in larger form. Most of the journalling comes from the pages of this blog, part of the reason I kept so many notes while pregnant. :)

Note: All products used in the layouts below are available from ScrapOrchard except for 'Oh Happy Day', which was previously from ScrapMatters and doesn't seem to have a release anywhere at the moment.

Kit is 'Oh Happy Day', by Erica Zane & Jenn Barrette Designs
Template is by Scrapping with Liz

Kit is 'Scandinavian Summer', by Designs by Kat
Template is by Fiddle-Dee-Dee Designs

Kit is 'Captivating 2012: JAN', by Captivated Visions
Template is by Fiddle-Dee-Dee Designs

Hopefully this inspires anyone dropping in from the interwebs to create and preserve their own pregnancy memories too. :)



This Week in Scrapbooking

More like a fortnight in scrapbooking! I've been madly digiscrapping lately, and thoroughly enjoying using recently-released products as well as new discoveries and older favourites. Here are some of my layouts, click the captions to see a list of full credits:



Kit: Online - by Captivated Visions & Jenn Barrette [RETIRED]

Kit: Baked with Love - by Faith True Originals

Kits: Silly Nilly - by Secret Stash / Made with Love - by Designs by Kat
(I've been wanting to scrap about our baby-led weaning journey for a while now, I'll be makign a separate post about it soon)

Kit: Animal Attraction - by Faith True Originals & mLE Card

Kits: Free Your Mind & Groovy Kinda Love - both by Designs by Kat

Kits: Colour Me Boyish and Girlish Bundle - by Lyndsay Riches / A Helping Hand - by Designs by Kat

Kit: Captivating 2012: JAN - by Captivated Visions
(yes, I'm still working on my pregnancy album!!)

And that's about it for the time being... there are many other pages in progress, that's just a taste of what I've been working on. My creative mojo is happening at the moment. ;)

Our Christmas Tree

Despite having a mobile baby in the house, we decided to put up our Christmas tree this year. It feels great to have such an outwardly sign of Christmas in the house, and is filling me with relaxation in the evening when the lights are on (mainly after Rowan's gone to bed, as to not be too tempting for him!).

The first day he tried everything in his power to get to the tree, since then he's been looking at it but not too focused (thankfully). That all might change soon when there's a few presents underneath, but we'll see!

Journalling reads: "Rowan has been so very interested in the changes to the loungeroom for Christmas, from helping Daddy with the lights to touching the decorations. Since he is getting so mobile now, we have had to put the coffee table in front of the tree as to form a barrier. Hopefully by another couple of years we’ll be able to move it away again!..."

Credits:
Kit & Alpha: Glad Tidings
Template: Photo Blends Templates - Scrapping with Liz
Font: Segoe Print

I'm loving the idea of celebrating Christmas with a baby for the first time. <3