One Small Change Helped a First-Time Mom Document Her Baby's Milestones

A new mom has revealed the simple and time-saving way she has been able to keep a record of her baby's milestones.

It's often said that parenting is the hardest job in the world, but it would appear that most people don't quite realize how hard it is until they have kids of their own.

In a 2022 Pew Research Center poll, 62 percent of 3,757 U.S. adults with children younger than 18 said being a parent was at least somewhat harder than they expected. A further 26 percent said it had been a lot harder than they had envisioned.

Moms undoubtedly take the brunt of things when it comes to parenting. In the poll, 30 percent of mothers admitting being a parent had been a lot harder than they expected, compared with 20 percent of fathers.

Lauren Cadillac, a registered dietitian and first-time mom to her 5-month-old son Gio, told Newsweek she loves being a parent but that it has also been a huge adjustment.

"My journey as a new mom has been so beautiful, but of course, challenging," Cadillac said. "As I would imagine most new moms feel, adjusting to such a drastic life change while your body physically recovers from childbirth and pregnancy was difficult but also the most fulfilling thing I've ever done. I never knew it was possible to love something so much it hurts."

As a new mom, Cadillac wanted to create a record marking Gio's milestones as a baby. "I wanted to be able to look back at the things we did together," she said. "I always like journaling for this reason, so years later, I can look back and see what I did, how I was thinking and feeling at that time. I think it's a great way to remember the past, appreciate where you've been, and be able to see the growth that's occurred."

Cadillac said how her own mom "wrote everything down in a baby book for me" and she envisioned a day when she would be able to compare notes between how similar or dissimilar they were as babies. "I also thought it would be a nice thing to give to him when he was older," Cadillac added. "A way to show him how much we wanted him and how much we love him."

However, when it came time to turn those ideas into a reality, Cadillac said keeping track of it all felt daunting.

"Adjusting to new mom life is hard," she added. "You are sleep-deprived, you usually don't feel great physically, and time moves so quickly. Because time moves quickly, I really wanted to journal every day about postpartum, my son, what we did together and document every moment, but I honestly didn't have it in me."

Cadillac said a combination of sleep deprivation, the physical recovery from childbirth, and mood changes like postpartum anxiety left her struggling to contemplate journaling on top of it all.

"I just didn't have the time or energy to be able to sit down and journal for 10 minutes each day," Cadillac added. "I already had so much I had to do that adding something like that felt daunting. Plus, I think there has to be a biological component to why we tend to forget the challenging parts of the first few months."

So Cadillac came up with an alternative: a calendar in Gio's room that she marked off any time a particular milestone was reached. "I chose to document the good in a way that felt easier and more realistic," Cadillac said.

Eager to share her more manageable, "less daunting" way of documenting all those little moments, Cadillac posted a clip of her using the calendar on TikTok. It quickly went viral, with fellow new parents eager to do similar.

"I think we as parents know that time moves fast and we want to be able to cherish and soak up every second of their lives, especially while they're so young, and remember as many details as possible," Cadillac said. "I think the calendar is an easy way for parents to document various details for when we do eventually forget certain things."

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