Before We Meet: A Week-by-Week Pregnancy Journal & Keepsake

A pregnancy journal you will want to keep: two pages for every week, one with a painting of something the size of your baby, one for you to write on.

Week 4 is a poppy seed. Week 17 is a pomegranate. Week 40 is a pumpkin. Each week's page shows a hand-painted fruit or vegetable about the size of your baby, a short note on how your baby is growing, and a quick check-in for you. The page facing it is yours: a prompt for a letter to your baby, room for a photo, and three small boxes for the best moment, the hardest moment and the question to ask at your next appointment.

Behind the weeks are the pages you actually need in a pregnancy: appointment and test records, a birth plan to talk through with your care team, a bag checklist, and a 14-day log for feeds, sleep and nappies or diapers once your baby is here.

What is inside (153 pages)

• The forty weeks: a two-page spread for every week from 4 to 40, one more for weeks 41 and 42, and an opening spread for each trimester. 37 paintings in all.
• Before you begin: how to use the book, a filled-in example week, a page to work out which week you are in, and the appointments most people are offered, with room for your own dates.
• Getting ready: appointments, tests and scans, questions to ask, scan pictures and bump photos, your baby's movements, when to call, names, phone numbers, things to get, gifts and thank-yous.
• The birth: three pages of birth preferences, the bag by the door, when labour starts and a contraction timer, the day you met, your baby's name, and a page for hand and foot prints.
• The first weeks: what is usual for feeds, nappies and safe sleep, a 14-day daily log with a filled-in example and a spare to reprint, check-ups and growth, a page about how you are doing, firsts, visitors, and three letters to your baby.

Two editions, both included

• US edition: Letter paper, American English, inches and pounds first. Appointments, kick counts, warning signs and newborn guidance follow ACOG, the CDC, the American Academy of Pediatrics and the US Office on Women's Health.
• UK and international edition: A4 paper, British English, metric first. Appointments and guidance follow the NHS in England.

The two are not the same book with the spellings changed. Where care differs, the pages differ: the appointment schedule, what you are told about your baby's movements, who to call, the checks after the birth.

Where the facts come from

Every size, and the fruit or vegetable beside it, is the one the NHS gives for that week. Each week's note keeps to what the NHS says for that week and what Mayo Clinic or the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists also say; where they disagree by more than a week or so about timing, it was left out. The sources are listed at the back of the book, all read in October 2026.

Good to know

• Written for whoever is expecting: a first baby or a fifth, with a partner or without, by IVF, surrogacy or surprise, and however you plan to give birth and feed.
• Undated. Start at any week, and print it again for another pregnancy.
• White pages, so colour ink goes only on the paintings and headings. Print the whole book or one part at a time, at 100% or "actual size".
• Works on a tablet with a stylus. Open it in GoodNotes, Notability or any app that lets you write on a PDF. The contents, the page numbers in the text and the row of dots on each week page are links.
• A fillable edition of each is included, for typing on a computer: over 5,000 fields, on every writing page, record, list, the birth plan and the daily log. It is made for the free Adobe Acrobat Reader; many phone and tablet apps do not keep typed entries. Photos cannot be typed in.
• The printables (9 pages, in each paper size) hold the pages you will want to print more than once or hand to someone: birth preferences, bag checklist, when labour starts, when to call, names and numbers, the movements record and a blank daily log.

What you download

• before-we-meet-us-letter.pdf, the US edition, 153 pages.
• before-we-meet-uk-a4.pdf, the UK and international edition, 153 pages.
• before-we-meet-fillable-us-letter.pdf and before-we-meet-fillable-uk-a4.pdf, the same two editions with form fields for typing.
• before-we-meet-printables.zip, the 9 printable pages for each edition.

This is a journal and record book. It is not medical advice, and guidance changes: for anything about your health or your baby's, ask your midwife or doctor.