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There is so much happening and changing in your life after you have a baby. Whether it’s your first baby or third, remember The 7 Photos You Must Take During Your Baby’s 1st Year. Thank you to Dreft for sponsoring this post so that I can share all about my baby memories.
We had just about a month warning before Emmy was born.
This wasn’t a crazy headline story about me not knowing I was pregnant… it’s just another twist in the usual adoption story people tell. It normally takes years to adopt, and we got our new bundle of joy in 30 days! It’s unheard of and it was so exciting, but we also were left with much less time than the usual 9 months to prepare for a baby. I have no regrets about anything, except I wish I had taken more pictures. I felt like we were playing catch up the whole first year and I missed taking some pictures of special moments.
Since that time I now encourage new parents to take as many pictures of their new baby as they possibly can. Especially these seven photos you must take during your baby’s first year.
1. Newborn picture. One of the pictures I treasure the most is the picture of each of my girls when they were first born. Emmy has been an awesome sleeper since day 1. Since the recent time change I’ve even had to tell her she can’t go to sleep till later. She’s also a morning person and would be thrilled to start her day at 4am. Hence why I don’t allow her to go to sleep at 6pm like she wants. I love looking at this picture, it’s moments after she was born and she just couldn’t stay awake! I was burrowed into a corner at the hospital just cuddling with her. I was in heaven!
2. The month by month pictures. I totally missed doing this. I think I took a week one picture and a month one picture… and then life just got too busy. I know that this was taken on her 2nd month birthday but that’s it. If I had more time I would have bought those sweet little stickers you can have made and then you just stick them on their shirt and take the pictures that way. Totally do it! Those are some of the coolest pictures to look back on.
3. Pumpkin Patch Pictures. I could stare at this picture for days and days. My absolute favorite pictures are of my kids sitting with pumpkins. I even make them sit on the big ones each year for pictures. My fifteen year old loves me for it… although I think she secretly does enjoy it!
4. Random Pictures. This is another one of my favorite pictures. Emmy and I were hanging out playing patty cake and she picked up my phone and said “pic, pic”! She wanted a picture of us. My heart melts when I think of that moment. I love it so much that I’m even sharing a picture of me with no makeup! Don’t shy away from the random, non-milestone, non-special-event pictures. Those are some of the best!
5. Crawling picture, first steps etc. Just like how the random pictures are some of the best, so are the milestone ones. Keep your camera or cell phone handy and snap those special moments. Now that Emmy is 5, she loves to look back on those times too. PS. She tells me all the time how she was the cutest baby on the planet!
6. Family Picture. I can’t thank my sister enough for taking this picture. This picture is only missing one thing… Pete! But still I love it. It’s our first “girls” family picture and I think you can tell just by looking at this how much we were already in love with our little one!
7. First birthday cake smash picture. So ours didn’t turn out so well. She wouldn’t touch the cake and she wouldn’t let us take a picture of her and the cake alone, we all had to be in it. Can you see the way she is looking at the cake. It still makes me crack up! You must capture your baby’s first birthday cake experience. I love when it’s all smashed on their faces and they are loving the sugar! So much fun!
One thing I learned from years of being a mom to babies is that the older they get, the messier they get… which can make taking pictures harder.
So… to keep your baby’s clothes clean for all these pictures be sure to use Dreft Stage 2: Active Baby Liquid Detergent. It is specially designed with your developing baby in mind. That’s why it helps remove 99% of baby food stains and all the messes baby finds while crawling in grass and dirt. Emmy was a very messy eater (another memory that makes me smile) and having a detergent on hand to handle messes is a really good thing. It’s one less thing to worry about, and more time to spend with your baby!
Click here to learn more about Dreft.
I always like the photo with the Christmas tree too. And family at Thanksgiving too. First years are so important to remember.
Pumpkin patch pictures are one of my favorites. I think the best though is the random candid photos.
I love all of your pictures. I think my favorite first year picture is my sons first beach trip. He was 9 months old and he loved the sand and water.
I think our favorite first year picture was when my daughter was born. She arrived at Christmas time so the hospital staff stuck her in a Christmas stocking and made a picture!
I love these! Everyone always remembers to take pictures of first steps, but what about all the other great moments?
We tried to take a lot of pictures that first year. What we forgot to do is write down all his first. I can’t remember his first word or when he first slept through the night.
Yes, sometimes it takes a trial and error for all parents. So for their next child, they will improve.
I love that pumpkin patch picture! Cake smash pictures are always fun too. I managed to videotape ours!
Parents now are fond of taking photos of their kids. It’s great that every special moment is captured. When the child grows up, she will be able to see how she has been through her first year.
I love these tips. I wish I had taken more pictures as well. She sure didn’t look like she was interested in that cake very much.
Photos are so important. I try and take one of my son every day (he’s three months old) so I can do my best to always remember our first year together.
It has been awhile since I experienced a first year with my children but I certainly still cherish every photograph from those times. My sister is due in just five weeks, so I will be sure to share these suggestions with her.
I love the first birthday pic. It’s hard to pick just one.
These photos are so special and will be looked at for years to come. I love looking through all of my photos I took of the kids and the ones I now take of the grand kids. I wish I had done month by month photos.
I have pictures of both my kids with our pet dog Bailey. THey’re such cute photos – the dog it giving them kisses and you can just hear the laughter in the photo from the kids – that laugh only babies make!
These are all precious moments captured in camera. It’s so nice when you document the growth of your kids as you can look back into it .
These are great photo tips for baby’s first year! Love the pumpkin patch photos – fall is the best light!
My little guy is an October baby. I have an adorable picture of him inside a hallowed out pumpkin!
Such wonderful tips Heather! Sometimes I think I haven’t taken enough pictures of my now 4 yr old. Time truly flies
We adopted our older girls when they were 9 and 12 and our twins when they were 7. Unfortunately, that means we don’t have any first year of life pictures…although we do have plenty of first year in our family pictures!
It’s nice to hear that you had your adoption process done within a month! Thanks for sharing this.
I took a picture of my Baby too. From new Born and every month and up to now 🙂 I really like taking picture of my Precious one and compile it on the album.
For me that’s not an issue. I serious make my kids sick from all my picture taking. lol I think one of the reason I love taking their picture is because I don’t have any pictures of myself when I was a baby or growing up. Being able to look back at their picture from different time/moments in their life is wonderful and I know one day they will totally appreciate that lol
I couldnt’ agree more – that is where my love of my camera came from, taking photos of my babies. I would take photos every day. Now is the time when I totally do not, boo on me
wonderful reminder to keep the memories for the years to come lovely pictures too =)
What lovely photos. I love taking photos of my kids, too.
Aww babies are so cute – but you are right they do get messier. We always loved to use Dreft.
I think I took a picture a day for every day of her first year of life or almost as much. I was obsessed with taking photos. 🙂
These are all perfect pictures and moments to capture. I wish I had gotten more family photos over the years.
Oh that girl’s picture is cute. I love it too!! Def. a framer and I like the one just below it too with dad. 🙂
These are sweet photos. I agree these are the photos you must take during your baby’s first year.
This is so great for new parents. Sometimes when you are so tired you can’t see three minutes past the minute you are in and this will prevent them from missing those moments!
I love all of the pictures. The pumpkin patch one looks like she is posing as a professional baby model. So cute!!
OMG your daughter is adorable. I wish I would have taken more photos when my girls were younger. I have tons of my first, a few less of my second…. my 5th daughter is lucky to have photos of her in the hospital, lol (mostly kidding).
What a cutie!! I love seeing all the smiles.
these are some really cute pictures. Love the pumpkin patch
When my eldest was born I read a book about photographing your child. One piece of advice (and this was just before dSLRs became super popular so I was still using film) was take way more pictures than you think you need to. For film of course this made sure you ended up with a good one. I do the same thing now with digital. You can’t ever have too many.
I love taking photos of my boys! I take as many photos as I can because I know it’ll be really fun looking back at those when they’re all grown ups. I do admit though that I missed taking photos of them when they were babies.
I love seeing month by month pictures of babies. It’s amazing how quickly they grow in the first year.
I just shared this with my friend who just had a new born. this is perfect, I wish I had done it.
What an important post. Everyone needs to know this. Thank you for sharing!
I see myself as someone who would take excessive pictures. Haha, this list is a great start though!
Lucky for us modern moms we can take all the pictures we like. But there are those important ones that have to be done, and we have done them all from kid 1.
My goodness these are some fabulous pictures & I am just loving all those cute expressions. I have so many such pictures of wonderful moments of my babies which I admire every day.
I love looking back at all the milestone photos Ive taken, You list was great. Thank you.
These are really sweet ideas to remember the moments. I need a tip to organize all those photos I took while my son grew up!
I love how everyone’s first year is different for every kid! What amazing memories to cherish!