Your story is yours to hold

The First year of parenting passes by in a blur. The days are full of learning, bonding, quietness, and a profound sense of change.

Between the feeding, settling, the adjustment and everything inbetween, so much is happening.

Between the milestones being met and delighted in, there are moments that feel messier, moments that don't make the highlights, the little moments that can slip by without realising just how special they are, until they pass.

Record the ups, the downs and the inbetween

Not perfectly.

Just honestly.

A simple, everyday way of holding onto what matters in their story.

For you, and for them.

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It all began with one little purchase

I can still remember browsing the store filled with baby stationary.

"Welcome baby" messages everywhere, milestone journals lining the shelves.

Hidden amongst these items was a simple book; a highlight a day.

I made my purchase, and didn't think too much about how huge this simple decision would be for me.

Fast forward to my first postpartum experience

My first matrescence, though I didn't have a word for it at the time.

I found myself replaying our birth story. Questioning small moments. Feeling like I was retreating. Until I began writing.

At first, our birth story, written to our baby. And then slowly, the little moments each day.

Not everything. Just something.

I wrote a highlight a day

And in full disclosure, I did not do it every day.

We have to be honest with ourselves and know that it is not always possible.

Life with a newborn is full. Busy. A blur of time where night and day feel like one big loop.

So I used what I had. Photos, videos; small pieces of the day already captured without me realising.

When I look back, even in the hardest moments, through the sleep deprived eyes and milk stained clothes, there was something there.

A reminder that in that moment we wanted to capture something special.

Over time, I found myself softening. Holding more compassion for that version of me in the photos.

Writing to both her, and my baby all at once.

Recording our story.

This is what became 'Our First Year of You'

It was more than recording the milestones

It became a way to pause.

To reflect.

To soften into this season, rather than rush through it.

To show kindness to the version of me that thought she was getting it 'wrong'.

And to see that I really did 'take in each moment', it just looked different to what I expected.

Our First Year of You is a way to record the moments that matter to you

Inside the journal

  • Journey to meeting you

    A place to write the story of meeting your baby. A way to tell it with compassion, for you, for baby, and for the path it took.

  • Highlight a day

    A space for one small moment each day. The details you notice, the things you don't want to forget. Big or small.

  • Monthly reflections

    Gentle prompts for you to reflect. What felt hard, what did you learn, how did you grow in yourself, what can you celebrate.

  • Memory records

    Space for your baby's footprints, and photos of the moments that you want to hold onto alongside your words.

  • Activity prompts

    Simple practices grounded in mindfulness, gratitude and self-compassion, woven throughout the monthly records.

  • Letters to reflect

    A space to pause and write letters. One to your baby, one to yourself, one to your village, and one from your baby to you.
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Move through at your own pace

There is no right way to fill these pages. Welcome any pauses in recording the moments, knowing that it is there for you at any moment you feel you can pick it up again. The is about storytelling, not about perfection.

Mother's Day

A Day we celebrate being a mum, or those in our lives that are doing such an amazing job in caring for the little ones in their life.

I wanted to provide an option to nourish many parts of the mother.

So I included two items to create a bundle you can add to your journal purchase to hold the woman in your life that is in their first year of motherhood, or those who are awaiting the arrival of their little ones.

What's included:

  • Our First Year of You | Baby journal
  • Tea and strainer by Nurtur Tea
  • "Who is a Mother" print by Remind Her


A gentle offering for motherhood; for yourself, or someone you care for.

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  • The practice of

    mindfulness
    gratitude
    compassion

  • Can improve psychological and physical wellbeing

    Reduces parental and interpersonal stress

    Increases self-confidence in parenting

    Improves parent-child attachment

This began as something for me

A way to make sense of the days, to see the little moments of beauty amongst the hard.

Over time it became so much more. Something that I never really realised in the moment.

It became a way to soften.

To meet myself with more compassion in a season that didn’t always feel how I expected.

it's something I still come back to

I sit with my eldest, and we read it together. Looking at the photos, the little moments I wrote down, remembering things I had forgotten.

It’s become part of our story. A way of staying connected to that time, and to each other, long after those early days have passed.

Baby journal by Dear Dahlia

This journal is here, at any time. Ready to guide you through recording your first year. Celebrating your growth alongside baby.

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