Book Review: Love Leaf Baby Books for LGBT Families

Kendra and I have yet to put together a baby book for Addison. We keep meaning to… we have great intentions… we just haven’t made the time. But I suppose we really should get to it so she doesn’t have to look up all her milestones on our Facebook status updates and tweets…

Part of the reason we’ve been dragging our feet is because we know that we have to make it from scratch. Buying a commercial baby book would mean crossing out “Father/Daddy” throughout the book and replacing it with, “Mama.” It’s lame enough we regularly do that on school paperwork, medical forms, and a variety of other documents.

Needless to say, I was thrilled when I heard about Love Leaf Books, a lesbian-run business that makes personalized baby books made for all families. Love Leaf Books was founded by Sarah and Amanda Berry-Williams, who started making their books for the same reason we have yet to buy a baby book…

When my partner and I had our sons, we were unable to find baby books for LGBT families like ours, and instead, settled for baby books in which we consistently cross out “Daddy” to write in “Mommy.”

Amanda and Sarah Berry-Williams with their children Violet, Silas, and Jude.

Working out of their home office, Sarah and Amanda hand craft each hard cover baby book, including the beautiful illustrations on the cover and inside pages.

Before making our book, they sent us a brief questionnaire that included questions about our family’s structure and what we wanted included in the book. We chose to have a pregnancy page and donor page included in Addison’ book. (There are other options as well – a page for surrogate information, adoption information, etc.)

Addie with her Love Leaf baby book

Addison’s Love Leaf Baby Book

The Donor Page included in Addison’s Love Leaf Baby Book

The Love Leaf Baby Book is divided into years, and each year includes :

• A birthday page
• An area for your child to draw a picture
• A page on which your child can answer short interview questions
• An area for you to write down the funny things they did and said at each age
• A “How You Write Your Name” page for ages 3 -5
• A “Thoughts on your First/Second/etc Year” journal page for each parent.
• A page for baby’s hand and foot prints at birth, and another page for handprints at age 5.
• A special page about kindergarten.

There are also many blank pages for attaching photos or writing memories, and each book also comes with a small envelope to hold a lock of baby’s hair. The best part? The book is customized to your family – LGBT, adoptive, heterosexual, single-parent – whatever your family may be.

We are thrilled with our Love Leaf book! It’s beautifully crafted, and instead of struggling with designing our own book, our memories will be captured in a book made just for us!

Though Love Leaf Books provided us with a baby book for Addison, our review of the product is based on our own opinions. We love Addison’s book so much, we are buying two more for the twins! If you’d like to purchase a Love Leaf baby book, visit their Etsy shop!