Baby Books for Non-Traditional Families

[Anonymous]

My wife and I are a same-sex couple, and had a very difficult time finding a baby book for our soon-to-be-born child. As other posters have mentioned, it's hard to find a baby book that doesn't talk about "mom and dad". We'd be happy with one that talks about the "parents" or "mom and mom", but were surprised by the lack of options.

I spent a long time researching our options, so thought I'd post what I've found in case other people are looking for the same thing, or have better/different ideas. I included the prices I've found, but those obviously may change.

And Then There Was Me: $30 on Amazon. Some people say the construction is flimsy, others think it's nice. http://www.amazon.com/And-Then-There-Was-Me/dp/1930218036

Welcome to the World Baby Memory Book: $30 on Amazon. Produced by National Geographic, seems to be mostly pictures of animals, but seems inclusive ("parents" rather than "mom/dad").
http://www.amazon.com/Welcome-World-Keepsake-Baby-Book/dp/142621314X/

Hallmark: $40 plus shipping. Add-ons for same-sex parents included (you just switch out the pages you don't want and add what you do want). http://shop.hallmark.com/baby/baby-gifts/retro-alphabet-5-year-memory-book-1BBA7019.html#q=baby+memory+book&start=1

Our World Our Families: $40 and free shipping. http://www.ourworldourfamily.com/samplepages.htm

Love Leaf Books: About $46 plus shipping. https://www.etsy.com/shop/LoveLeafBooks

Baby Steps: About $50 http://www.babystepsbook.com/same-sex-baby-book/

Tessera Memory Book: About $80, with add-ons for same sex parents. http://www.tesserapublishing.com/uploads/Baby%20Book_SAMPLE%202012.pdf

Rag and Bone Bindery: About $80 plus shipping. If you go to their Etsy site you can usually find a coupon to reduce this to about $60 plus shipping. http://www.ragandbonebindery.com/babybook.aspx

Babysakes: They're a keepsake store rather than an individual printing company, but have a good selection of baby books for non-traditional families. http://www.babysakes.com/Gay-and-Alternative-Baby-Books-s/46.htm

The Story of Me: Seems like it's no longer available; company seems defunct.

[Anonymous]

Why not make your own scrapbook? Use different books for ideas and just change it for the two of you.


You might do this solo or it could be something you work on together.

Alternatively, you could buy the premade baby scrapbook and just edit out a few pages buy gluing on top of it.

[Anonymous]

bump

[Anonymous]

Lesbian mom here: we used "On the Day You Were Born" photo journals. It's short and is all about the day of birth (versus the first year milestones). I've given them as gifts to many friends. My kids are now in elementary school and still love reading their book. We always read it first thing on their birthday.

I'm not sure if they're still easy to get. But here's a link for Barnes & Noble.

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/on-the-day-you-were-born-debra-frasier/1100469971?ean=9780152021726

[Anonymous]

12:23 here: I'd also add that Nikki McClure's book is just lovely. She is an artist who uses cut paper to make her designs. Everything you see was cut out of black paper and then glued on a background. The baby journal is called "The First 1000 Days."

http://www.amazon.com/The-First-1000-Days-Journal/dp/157061508X

[Anonymous]

Lesbian mom here. We couldn't find one. We made our own photo album using one with blank pages and hand-wrote in notes. You could also use a photo site like Snapfish or Shutterfly to make a photo-centric baby book.

We had picked out a baby book based on flipping through its pages, but we didn't look carefully enough and it had a lot of pages with references to dad, so we returned it.

I'm sure other couples will find your links really helpful!

Congratulations on your soon-to-be-here baby!

[Anonymous]

We used Tessera for our first child and just got our baby book from Love Leaf Books for our second. Both are nice - no complaints at all. The Love Leaf people were great and very eager to customize (including names of pets for example!). I am bitter towards Rag & Bone because I emailed them three years ago asking if they could accommodate a same-sex couple for their baby book and they gave me major attitude about how they couldn't customize given how large their business is.

[Anonymous]

Single mom here - thank you, OP. There are some beautiful options in here!

Congratulations!

[Anonymous]

I made my own on shutterfly.

[Anonymous]

Try "Welcome to the World Baby Memory Book" by K Violet sold on Amazon for only $29.99.

The name is similar to the National Geographic, but the book is totally different. It is great for gay parents, single parents, and adoptive parent. Read the reviews. It's a great memory book for all non-traditional families.

www.amazon.com/Welcome-World-Memory.../061532491...

[Anonymous]

Several of my lesbian mom friends have had good things to say about the LoveLeaf baby books mentioned in the OP's post.

[MKDGoodman]

I was thrown a surprise baby shower at work and was given a Rag & Bone Bindery gift certificate as one of the presents.
It does seem a bit expensive... I don't think I would have ordered it without the gift certificate.