Gmail account stands in for baby book

Parenthackers agree that babies and email definitely mix. Here's Amy's take on the subject:

Instead of trying to keep a baby book for my daughter, I set up a free Gmail account for her. When I was pregnant, "Peanut" sent e-mails to the large, distant family with updates about her growth ("I'm developing my hearing this week!" or "Mom's blood pressure is high again this week..."). Right before we left for the hospital, Peanut e-mailed, "Ready or not, here I come!" to the family. I also sent e-mails to her about my feelings during the pregnancy, and how excited I was to become her mom. After her birth, I stopped speaking for her, but I continue to send e-mails to her. I send her one each month on the 10th (her birthday was 8/10), plus one whenever something interesting happens.

I also keep track of medical information (medicine dosages, trips to the doctor, diagnoses, etc.) in her Gmail account. Since it is fully searchable, I can just type in "tylenol" to find the most current dose (it sorts by date). I've also sent pictures to her. I think it'll be interesting for her to read when she's older. And (I know this is morbid) if something happens to me, she'll know that I loved her long before she was ever born.

Tags: Baby, Family tech, Parenting

Comments

[Lewis]

Just a reminder that despite all our love of things Google, it may not be around forever. So you might want to take advantage of Gmail's POP access and archive that content to your local machine.

[Lewis]

Oh, and if anyone needs a gmail invite I have plenty! Email me at spamlewis@gmail.com

[Jessica]

Hi,

My name is Jessica and I am an intern at CBSnews.com. We are currently involved in a project about youth and the internet, and we feel your blog appeals to a similar audience. We were hoping you would post a link to our this article. http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/05/31/tech/main1671962.shtml

Thank you for your time.

Best,

Jessica V.
CBSnews.com intern

[cupcake]

I set up a yahoo account for my daughter when she was a few weeks old and send her emails as a "diary" as well. I forwarded all of the emails from friends rec'd during my pregnancy as well. I figure it's better to do that when I can (usually at work) than to rarely write in her baby book. This is the way we live now...

[Jill]

I save copies of any emails about the kids into folders. All the "congrats" notes are there from the pregnancy announcement to the learned to read announcement. Backing up the data is a good reminder however. I'd been really sorry if I lost it all.

[ringsabre]

But is this a security risk? We make great efforts to try to protect our own medical privacy. Should we then put all of our baby's personal info, including medical, in a handy--and hackable-- digital form?

I agree it's convenient. But is it wise?

[Serena]

I haven't made an email account like the ones suggested above, but instead I have made a blog for my son (using Google's free blogspot) - I post new pictures with cute taglines every week or so - this way family and friends near and far can keep track of Noah's progress. I also keep an archive copy of each month on my home computer. Since I have posted about most significant milestones (his first tooth, crawling, walking, etc) as well as just funny moments, this is a pretty good baby book substitute - and is easy for others to browse too! I also use a sitetracker and it's really fun to see our friends in England and Alaska, plus family in California and New York, checking in on us in Boston!

[Raj]

My son was born a couple of weeks ago and before reading this post we thought that it would be nice to send out an email to friends and family from the little one. People were soon replying to his announcement email and before we knew it everyone was asking to see pictures of him. We decided that instead of emailing out pictures we would write up a blog (http://veershah.wordpress.com/) (using wordpress) and link to pictures in Flickr. This has worked really well with so many people subscribing to his blog. Wordpress is great - it's very simple to use even for a newbie like me.

[Dave]

I agree with ringsagre... it's not necessarily safe to store all that info online, especially on google's or yahoo's servers.