Pictures Birth Order (teenagers, newborn, pregnant, son)

[reese7]

I never thought this was true until my older kids got ready to graduate and at the Open house you want to put up pictures and all that. I have 7 kids three are adopted which doesn't matter except that are still young. My oldest is 27. She has lots of pictures of when she was a baby. Next daughter less and less as we go on. I went through my pictures awhile ago and got those big envolopes and divided the pictures up for my oldest 4. My oldest daughter had a big pack then by the 4th child his pack was smaller. Anyone else find that happened to them. It like Baby books my opldesd was all filled out and I just looked at my 6 th child and I think she had until 6 months done.

[cmacf1]

I only have 2 and I think having fewer means I (and others) were able to take just as many photos of the second as the first. The adoption of our second was much more difficult (adjustment issues for her, for me, for my hubby and especially for our first daughter.) I just didn't feel like taking photos for several weeks, but thank goodness others took photos during that time.

I am a scrapbooker and for about 6 months, I just couldn't find the time or energy do any scrapbook pages for my second daughter. Then, we all adjusted and I got her all caught up. She's got several books (one for each year,) the same number our first daughter had at that age.

I think my insistence that 2nd child had as many photos as the first is that I am a third child (out of 3.) There are almost NO photos of me as a young child, some of my next older brother and a TON of my oldest brother. Since I am a scrapbooker, I'd LOVE to have photos of me to incorporate into scrapbooks, but they just don't exist . I understand my mom was exremely busy that first summer (and for about 18 years after that!) with a newborn, a one year old and a 2 year old () but it still makes me sad. And when I say almost none, I really mean almost none. There are about 10 photos of me under the age of 4.

[121804]

My first had 2 full photo albums & 2 scrapbooks by the time he was 6 months.

#2 is a little over 6 mnths & I've just completed 1 album & no scrapbook.

I think it's a time issue. A little easier with one child as compared to two, etc etc.

One thing I have done for both of them, though, is to keep a very simple individual journal of their birth day & major milestones.

I also take less pics with #2 than I did with #1. Again, just think it's not as "easy" though I am sure there are some super moms out there that can do it all, I am just not one of them!

[findinghope]

by the time my sons first christmas came and he was 8 months old, we had 600 pics of him and a video that we would take for a few minutes each month to show how he was growing and progressing. now we take MUCH fewer pics of him, maybe just a couple every month.

[colleeng47]

I have lots of videos of both of my teenagers when they were babies. However, not the same with the baby book. My son's (older) book was somewhat filled out, but when I noticed my daughter's (younger) book was mostly empty, I just made stuff up and filled it up too.

Oh well, but I love them very much.

[fierce_flawless]

My kids are five years apart.

I have tons of pics and videos of my firstborn. I have video of my second son's birth and one or two videos within his first 3 months of life... none after. Poor baby. The video camera died when he was 3 months old and I couldn't replace it.

I DO have a ton of digital pics of him on CD's scattered around but it's not the same (my first digital camera was bought when he was a baby but way before they came with a video function) and he gets sad about it too (he's 10)... and yes, his baby book is only half complete whereas my firstborn's has all these mementos in it (hospital ID, lock of hair from his first haircut, etc).

What's really weird to me, and saddens me as a mom, is that I have a MUCH harder time remembering the cute things my second born son said and did when he was little. It's really weird but the memories just aren't as strong, most likely because I wasn't sitting around watching him all the time with another child to care for... whereas with my first it was all about him.

My poor youngest boy. At least he knows I love him just as fiercely but still, yeah, it makes me sad.

[sskkc]

As a second child of 4, I knew firsthand how much it sucked not to be the one the photos were taken of and the baby book kept up. Add on top of that a fire at age 7 that destroyed the few things mom did have of me, and you get someone who is FANATICAL about photos of both her children and updating their baby books and scrapbooking. I have less than a dozen photos of me from before age 7. Probably only twice that after.

That said, my first child got a lot more gifts than my second (from others). Nothing I can do about that. A good portion of photos of my daughter have my son in them as well, but I made a concerted effort to take singles too.

My older sister and my younger sister (mom's baby), have elaborate baby books and hundreds of photos of themselves. My older sister's first child is 5 months older than mine. During a visit when they were 8months and 13 months, I brought along my ds's scrapbook and sis pulled out her photo album for her dd. I was the one traveling and had more photos in his scrapbook than she had in the ONE photo album of her daughter. My neice's baby book was empty. My sis was FULL of excuses, and kept saying "it's not a big deal" and told me I went overboard. I pointed out to her that HER baby book was on the shelf next to her daughter's and that she referred to it all the time, excitedly comparing her daughter to my mother's writing about her.

As in so much in life, these things mean less to those who have/had than those of us who don't.

Edited to add:

When pregnant with my oldest, my MIL showed me a frame she had of my dh and one of his sister. You know those photo mats with openings for K-12 school pictures? She took one photo each month for each of their first years on the same day. It's amazing how much they change in the first year. It wasn't easy, especially with #2 being born 6 weeks before my dh left on a 6 month deployment, but I did it for both my kids. Every woman who's seen it has one of two reactions... either regret that they don't have that of their children, or determination to do it with their future children.

You just can't get that time back. My kids LOVE looking at this stuff. I have a first year scrapbook for each, but because of time constraints, I haven't kept up on them. I did keep their baby books updated (after they went to bed) and jotted down notes when they said something cute, then dated it and threw it in a box. I also threw in random mementos and pictures they drew, again dating it and writing a little something about it. I have a HUGE plastic bin to go through... my youngest will start full time school this year and I will finally be able to tackle it. I can't wait!

[5FLgirls]

It's one of my biggest regrets -- giving up on the record keeping. I try my hardest to take pictures of my kids but after my third was born, I gave up on the scrapbooks and baby books. There just isn't time. By the time all four finally go to bed, I just want to be comatose after spending 14 straight hours with them (especially during the summer!). I try to create a photo book for them on their birthday with pictures from the last year but I'm not consistent with it.

[golfgal]

We probably have an equal number of pictures or close to it of our kids BUT, our 2/3rd kids are twins so that prompted more picture taking I think. It is kind of running family joke that one cousin as ONE baby picture alone. She is the youngest of 3 and there are some pictures with all of them when she was a baby but she could only find ONE picture of her alone. She is 40 now so taking pictures then was a lot different then now too.