Website Review: Babysites.com
So, I'm officially obsessed with my child. I'm not ashamed to admit it. BUT, I'm a rather private and modest person and I truly do not like to interfere with others' lives. I do not like to flaunt my baby's pictures and shove them into everyone's e-mail boxes every month, week, day...well, you know the type! Once we discovered we were going to be blessed with this bundle o' joy, I also knew that with my fibromyalgia, I would not be doing much (ahem, any) traveling and distant relatives would probably want to know what was going on with our lives. So, I had to find some way to allow access into our happy little home!
Therefore, when I was pregnant, I hunted for a way that could capture what was going on in our world, but would allow for those who cared enough to follow along, without my constant showering of updates filtering into their
lives, whether they wanted it or not. I know, I know, there are nice websites like blogspot.com and such, but I wanted something quick and easy, as well as geared towards my baby at the same time. Even though I love
writing, what the family wants are pictures! And a place to update the goings-on of our child's development in journal form would be a nice asset, too. :-) Knowing that my fibromyalgia would limit how much "functioning" I
could do besides the actual care-taking and adoration of my child, ease of use was a gigantic factor! Thus, when I discovered babysites.com, I knew I had found what I was searching for.
It is designed to include all of the important aspects of the baby. Growth charts, tickers (countdowns to big events like the baby's arrival or birthday), journals, audio, videos, photo albums, guest book, update notifications are all included. You can choose a personalized theme to go along with your baby's decor, interest, gender, or even update along with the season. As well, when your family grows, you can make links off of each of the sites to connect the different children's pages or you can create family albums.
This website has "grown" along with our family. When I first started using the site, I was five months pregnant. I used it for posting nursery and doctor updates. I included ultrasound photos. All I needed was the basics. The initial website is free (comes with ads on the side of the page, but I'm sure your adorable baby is enough of a distraction that that isn't a huge deal!). Once the baby arrived, I realized I needed more space than the website allows for photos because I am a photoaholic! I TRY to update photos every day or so. (Remember, I did say I was obsessed with my child!) It works out okay, because babysites.com allows you to upgrade, for a price of about $35/year, to purchase more storage space (which means more pictures and videos of your lovable ones!). Initially, when I used the site, users loaded pictures in groups of 10. Even that was worthwhile, because you could provide a caption with the photo simultaneously. Now, they've evolved to allow mass uploading, captions still included, but with more pictures uploading at once and at a speedier pace! Ahh, just what I had been craving. They are always working to make the website more user-friendly, which I truly appreciate.
I realize the website, the way I use it, is not free like many common journal/blog sites are, but I was more than grateful to pay a price to utilize a user-friendly and very detailed website that follows along with our daily lives. The hits keep coming, so I guess the visitors of my son's site agree! That makes a mama proud.
Article written by Carrie Burns, © 2008 butyoudontlooksick.com
