Fun, Easy and Creative Ideas to Document and Capture Your Baby’s First Year!

What is the one thing you can’t ever have too much of with a newborn baby? Okay, besides diapers and wipes…pictures of course!  Whether you use your digital camera or cell phone, there will surely be no shortage of snap shots of the little one as they grow, especially in the first year of life. In the beginning, it will be lots of shots of a sleeping baby, first bath…soon followed by the first smile, first tooth, first haircut…well, you get the idea.

With my son, Cooper, now 2 years old, I decided to make him a photo book on line. In this book, we included pictures of what our family looked like before he was born. It included pictures of me and my hubby, our dogs (babies before our babies), and our parents (his grandparents). I told Greg I was pregnant by surprising him with a “WELCOME HOME DADDY” sign when I picked him up from the airport a few days after I found out the big news! We wrote about how we felt when we found out we were pregnant and even included pictures of the ultrasound and a bare belly picture of me the day before he was born. I included monthly pictures of him until he was a year old and all of the important FIRST things I wanted to capture! Now, we read it to him before bedtime. It is special and near and dear to my heart, plus he gets really excited when we read it to him and show him all the pictures of himself as a baby!

When Cooper was just 3 months old, I found out I was pregnant again. While playing around on the internet one day, I came across monthly onesie stickers that help you document the first year of life. What a great idea – practical, easy and cheap (about $15). I quickly ordered a set! They had girl/boy sets, themes, and even cute little ties/bow ties for the boys! I looked forward to taking Camille’s picture each month to show how she was growing and changing. In the beginning, those pictures were so easy to take. I would dress her up and put big bows in her hair…however, as she got older, those pictures became more of a challenge to capture. A baby on the move with a mind of her own means you better be on your toes to capture the perfect shot! When the holidays came, I incorporated a holiday theme in the background of the pictures. Here is a collage of Camille’s monthly pictures from 1 month to 12 months! It is sweet to look back at them and see how quickly she grew over the months!

My sister-in-law Kelly, who is a Kindergarten teacher, documented her little girl Kate’s first year in quite a unique way! No doubt, there is creativity flowing through her veins. She decided to make monthly cupcakes and take pictures next to them. Kelly made a batch of cupcakes, used half and froze the rest for the next month. She decorated and frosted them to match her daughter’s outfit! Once again, I am sure what started as an easy process became more difficult as little Kate started to investigate those scrumptious cupcakes to see how they felt and of course tasted! Look how cute and creative Kelly’s idea was and what a fun way to capture Kate’s growth!

There are so many ways you can document the first year of life through monthly pictures. You could simply write out the month on a piece of paper, use ABC blocks to spell it out, wear it proud with monthly stickers, frost up some delicious cupcakes, or even use a stuffed animal to place near baby to document your baby’s growth over the months. Ashley uses photo editing software to document Thatcher’s monthly milestones with a picture from that month (16 months was a BIG month!) Whatever you decide, you are sure to cherish the memories as you look back and see the progression of their growth and development.

What creative way did you document your baby’s first year? If you have a little one on the way, have you thought about how you’ll capture those monthly milestones?