Documenting baby’s first year is such a “millennial mom” thing to do, and I’m not ashamed to say I absolutely LOVE it! Little ones change so much within those first twelve months. You bring baby home, eyes barely open just eating, sleeping {sometimes}, needing those diapers changed to sitting, crawling, maybe even walking and talking. Rarely do you see someone evolve daily right before your eyes…so why not document it?
I know when I was pregnant I loved looking through pictures other parents did on Facebook, Pinterest, and Instagram – subconsciously planning in my head how I was going to snap away at my little one’s first year. There are SO many fun {and insanely creative} ideas that it was hard to decide on just one. Since we weren’t sure on gender, the only thing I had in advance that I knew I would be using were some super cool wood blocks I found on Etsy. I am not sure why but I ended up throwing a few in my hospital bag, which on a whim in that hospital room on Day 1 turned into my first-year project.
Somehow we {yes, it took a team} managed to snap a picture of every day of the first year of my son’s life, minus one or two make up days here or there, with blocks. When he finally hit 365, I uploaded all the pictures into a beautiful hard cover photo album from Artifact Uprising. To say I love this book is an understatement. There are happy days, crabby days, days I have him pinned between my feet to get the shot, pictures from Florida, up north, in cute shirts, and in clothes with food and spit-up all over them. Days when I thought he was super cute, but definitely was not {haha funny how that works out}. Days that were hard, days when I didn’t realize how I would wish he was still that little again!
While that may be considered a little overkill for some, there are lots of other fun and inexpensive ideas you can do to document year one of baby:
- Stuffed Animal Comparison – This one is a personal fave, as you actually can see them grow in the pictures. Just make sure to keep track of which month is which for the end product!
- Belly Stickers – There are a ton of options – available at your local baby store or if you want something different checkout Etsy as they have lots of small businesses who offer specialized or different themes of stickers. Just stick one on each month and snap away!
- Monthly Milestone Card – Buy some poster board and create your own, or if you are tech savvy create something up on the computer, or you can again search Etsy for a variety of cute + customizable, fillable ones to re-use each month. I love this idea, you get all the stats along with the picture to gauge their size. It’s like a baby book all-in-one!
- Milestone Blanket – One of the easiest and cutest ways to share how your baby has changed. There are endless shops on Instagram you can find with one quick search of #milestoneblanket, as well as vendors at local craft shows, and of course the all-mighty Etsy.
Regardless of which option you chose – or when it comes time to document your baby you don’t add any special props and just snap a picture once a month – we “millennial moms” should be thankful we have the means of technology to easily scroll back and be able to see our little baby grow.
Did you do something special to capture your baby’s first year? Or have an awesome idea?
Be sure to share them here!
